Route 44A Shadycrest came into PAT's
route structure from the Pittsburgh
Railways Company (PRCo) route 33 Shadycrest. Prior to this the route was the 219
Shadycrest Feeder and was established on 11/24/47. The route became the 33 around 1960
during a mass renumbering of the bus routes by PRCo. The route was created to serve a
small community that had developed in the Beechview area that was far enough away from the
trolley line to make the location inconvenient for riders.
Garages assigned to the 44A:
- Manchester Garage - 03/01/64 - 06/28/69
- Collier Garage - 06/29/69 - 08/24/85
-
- Collier Garage - 10/07/85 - 01/05/86
Destination Signs:
Route ran with window cards and destination signs.
Above are representative of what you would have seen for the route on
Old Looks, New Looks and electronic sign equipped buses.
Routing:
From Shadycrest Circle - Shadycrest Drive traffic circle via Shadycrest
Drive, Tropical, Crane Avenue, Beechview to Broadway.
From Beechview - Broadway to Fallowfield, Sebring, Beechview, Crane
Avenue, Tropical, Shadycrest Drive to Shadycrest Drive traffic circle.
09/05/76 - A deviation for Brashear High School service on certain
trips was established and was as follows:
From Shadycrest - Regular route to Crane Avenue and then via Crane Ave
to Brashear High School Drive, Crane Avenue to Beechview and then via regular route.
From Beechview - Regular route to Crane Avenue and then via Crane Ave
to Brashear High School Drive, Crane Avenue to Tropical and then via regular route.
There was also school trips to St. Catherine's School which was further
up Broadway. These trips were in place from PRCo days and remained through until the 44A
was discontinued. This deviation was never shown on the route maps but was listed on the
time table.
A one way trip on the regular routing took approximately 10 minutes and
with the Brashear deviation, 15 minutes.
Route Highlights:
Started: 03/01/64 (PAT's acquisition of PRCo).
Ended: 08/24/85 due to low ridership.
It should be noted that the 44A was re-established on a trial basis
for 90 days starting 10/07/85 at the request of various community activist groups. It is
not currently known if the 44A lasted beyond those 90 days as ridership on the 44A, prior
to it being discontinued the first time, was well below accepted standards.
The 44A ran only Monday through Friday with no weekend or holiday
service.
The 44A typically used 30 foot coaches on the route due to the narrow
streets and tight turns but 35 footers did frequent the route.
The route had two different time tables for several years. A summer
time table and a fall-winter-spring time table. This practice lasted through 1967.
Effective 09/05/76, certain trips were extended to Brashear High
School.
Besides the Brashear High School extension added in 1976, the 44A
routing remained completely unchanged since the creation of the route by PRCo in 1947.
In what was perhaps one of the more confusing rider alerts issued by
PAT in their history, PAT issued a rider alert stating that the 01/20/77 schedule (no such
schedule existed by the way, it was 01/30/77) was incorrect in stating the Brashear School
trips were to be discontinued and that the 11/28/77 schedule (that's was in the future
mind you) was still to be used. They then stated that there would be a new schedule issued
on 02/21/77 (there wasn't) where the school service would be discontinued. The school
service wasn't discontinued in February as stated and the next schedule issued after the
01/30/77 schedule on 4/3/77 re-listed the trips along with the announcement of the service
being extended to Brashear.
On 08/28/83 there was a massive cutback in service to Brashear High
School from 22 trips a day down to 2 trips a day. It doesn't appear that the regular
service was effected by this change.
Schedules (Known PAT issued schedules are listed):
The 44A had 4 distinct schedule styles issued.
The schedules issued from the South Hills Junction Division and carried
the folder number PT-4 and later simply T-4. The route was included with the 42/38 rail
route so it ended up with having a very long list of issued schedules. The schedules were
a multi-panel fold out red colored schedule in both the 60's era design and the MOD era
design.
- PT-4A - 02/14/65
- PT-4B - 06/27/65
- PT-4C - 09/05/65
- PT-4D - 11/28/65
- PT-4E - 02/27/66
- PT-4F - 06/26/66
- PT-4G - 09/04/66
- PT-4H - ?
- PT-4J - 07/02/67
- PT-4K - 09/03/67
- PT-4L - 11/05/67
- PT-4M - 06/30/68
- PT-4N - 09/01/68 - Reissued without correction *
- PT-4P - 12/01/68
- PT-4Q - 06/29/69 - Corrected to 06/30/69
- PT-4R - 08/31/69
- PT-4S - 02/08/70
- PT-4T - 06/21/70
- PT-4U - 09/06/70 - Reissued without correction *
- PT-4V - 02/21/71
- PT-4W - 06/27/71
- PT-4X - ?
- PT-4Y - 11/14/71
- PT-4Z - 01/02/72
- PT-4A - 04/16/72
- T-4B - 10/15/72 - Corrected to 11/12/72
- T-4C - 04/01/73
- T-4D - 11/73 (upon notification so carried no day)
- T-4E - 01/06/74 - Reissued without correction * - Start of MOD schedules
- T-4F - 06/30/74
- T-4G - 09/01/74
- T-4H - 11/24/74
- T-4J - 02/23/75
- T-4K - 07/04/75
- T-4L - 10/26/75
- T-4M - 04/18/76
- T-4N - 07/06/76
- T-4P - 09/05/76
- T-4Q - 11/28/76
- T-4R - 01/30/77
- T-4S - 04/03/77
- T-4T - 06/19/77
- T-4U - ?
- T-4V - 02/12/78
- T-4W - ?
- T-4X - ?
- T-4Y - 06/17/79
- T-4Z - ?
- T-4A - ?
- T-4B - 01/04/81
- T-4C - 04/19/81
- T-4D - 11/22/81
- T-4E - 11/23/81 (only a one day difference)
- T-4F - 02/07/82
- T-4G - 06/13/82
- T-4H - 08/29/82
- T-4J - 11/21/82
- T-4K - 08/28/83 - Reissued without correction *
- T-4L -T-4? - ?
Schedules issued from Collier Division were folder C-30 and were a multi-panel fold out
schedule in black and the 44A shared a schedule with the 38 Mt. Lebanon bus and the 42
Potomac Only bus as well as the Beechview Construction Shuttle.
- C-30A - 04/15/84
- C-30B - ?
- C-30C - ?
- C-30D - 06/09/85
A temporary schedule card was issued for the 90 day trial re-establishment service with
no folder number on 10/07/85.
There may have been schedules issued prior to PT-4A and were typically reprinted former
operator schedules.
Folder numbers did repeat. Letters I and O were not used
Route Disposition:
The 44A was discontinued completely after the 90 trial service ended.
Construction on the Beechview LRT line was creating too many problems with traffic and
delays. Service to a portion of Tropical Avenue was provided by limited trips on the
Beechview Construction Shuttle (temporary van service during LRT construction) while the
Shadycrest Circle area had to walk to St. Pamphilus Church on Tropical Avenue to catch the
shuttle. Service to the Shadycrest Circle area resumed with the creation of the 44H
Beechview on 08/03/87.
Click on images for larger view
Route map for the 44A. |
