http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=n0IqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EE8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=2304%2C2427096

 

 

Pittsburgh Press, August 9, 1963, page 4 (digital) page 6 (print)       

 

PRC Hits Authority On Talks Collapse

 

   The Pittsburgh Railways Co. (PRC) and the Port Authority of Allegheny County are having trouble on agreeing on anything these days.  

 

   Wednesday they couldn’t agree on the price the authority should pay to acquire the passenger-losing trolley line for its unified mass transit system.

 

   Today, they can’t agree on who broke off negotiations which puts the transit line on the track toward condemnation with the authority getting the trolleys and buses and the court setting the price.

 

   In a letter to PRC stockholders, C. D. Palmer, president, blamed the authority for the talks collapse.

 

   “At a meeting held yesterday (Wednesday) with the authority, it was made clear at the outset that the authority had decided to proceed with condemnation rather than negotiation,” he said.

 

   Judge Loran Lewis, chairman of the authority, said that wasn’t so.

 

   But he and Harley Swift, executive director of the authority, agreed with Mr. Palmer’s statement that the authority had offered a lower price Wednesday than they had last February.

 

   Those talks six months ago ended with the two negotiating teams $5500,000 apart, Mr. Palmer said.

 

   Recent surveys, according to Judge Lewis, show the company has been losing riders steadily, so it is not worth as much now as it was in February.

 

   The authority has options on 30 other transit firms in the County.   PRC was the only holdout.

 

   When all are acquired, a mass transit system for the entire County will be set up.

 

   The price for buying the lines and setting up the system has been set at $39,700,000 which will come from bonds sold by the authority.

 

   Condemnation proceedings will follow agreement of the County Commissioners to back the bonds.

 

   That should come in about two months, Judge Lewis said.