Route 4A came into PAT's route
structure from the acquisition of the Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo). The route can be traced back to
the 221 40th Street Bridge feeder route that connected Bloomfield and Lawrenceville with
Millvale that was created on 02/02/48. The route was renumbered in 1958 to route 80. Prior
to the PRCo 221 route, there was a short lived 40th Street Bridge bus route that was
started on 06/14/26 and was discontinued on 6/1/27 and was PRCo's bus route number 3. The
1926 route is believed to have followed a similar routing to the later 221 feeder route as
it is mentioned as a shuttle route.
Garages assigned to the 4A:
- Homewood Garage - 03/01/64 - 03/30/68
- Ross Division - 03/31/68 - ??/??/81
Destination Signs:
Route ran with both window cards and destination signs.
Above is a representation of what you may have seen on some of the buses on the route.
The 4A was included on the original electronic signs for the 1982
Neoplan order but not used.
Routing:
Original Routing to Millvale - Liberty at 39th Street via 39th Street,
Mintwood (Hawley Street), 40th Street, 40th Street Bridge, East Ohio Street, Grant Avenue,
North Avenue to Lincoln Avenue (Borough Building).
Original Routing from Millvale - North Avenue at Lincoln Avenue
(Borough Building) via Lincoln Avenue, Sheridan Street, Grant Avenue, East Ohio Street,
40th Street Bridge, 40th Street, Liberty Avenue to 39th Street.
Extended Routing to Millvale- Liberty at 39th Street via 39th Street,
Mintwood, 40th Street, 40th Street Bridge, East Ohio Street, Grant Avenue, North Avenue,
Evergreen Road to Millvale Loop.
Extended Routing from Millvale - Millvale Loop to Evergreen Road via
Evergreen Road, North Avenue, Lincoln Avenue, Sheridan Street, Grant Avenue, East Ohio
Street, 40th Street Bridge, 40th Street, Liberty Avenue to 39th Street.
A one way trip on the original routing took approximately 10 minutes
and on the extended routing it took approximately 16 minutes.
Route Highlights:
The 4A ran only Monday through Friday with no Saturday, Sunday or
holiday service.
The 4A was somewhat unique in the sense of a feeder route having a
Red Flyer (ML Millvale - Lawrenceville) directly associated with it.
The extended 4A routing was the Millvale end of the ML flyer. Most 4A
trips still maintained the original routing that started and terminated from the Millvale
Borough Building.
One change on the Lawrenceville side may have been strictly a street
name change as early information indicates part of the Lawrenceville looping was on Hawley
Street and later it was on Mintwood. Maps look identical as far as the looping besides the
difference in names.
Service appeared to remain stable throughout the history of the 4A
besides an occasional elimination of a trip and the reassignment of some trips to the ML
Flyer. Routing appeared to be unchanged throughout the years.
Additional service was also provided on portions of the 40th Street
Bridge route through limited scheduled trips on the 1D Mt. Royal and back in the days of
Homewood Garage, some 1F Millvale trips to and from the garage carried an auxiliary window
card "1F Millvale via 40th St. Bridge.
Schedules (Known PAT issued schedules are listed):
The 4A had 3 distinct schedule types.
Homewood schedules were a schedule card carrying folder number PH-19.
Notes indicate that only one issue was produced with new schedules simply being identical
reprints of the PH-19A schedule card.
- PH-19A - 11/22/64 - Reprinted without correction *
Ross schedules were a fold out schedule, combined with the 1F Millvale
(and later the ML Red Flyer) and carried the folder number of R-2.
- R-2A - 03/31/68
- R-2B - ?
- R-2C - ?
- R-2D - 06/21/70
- R-2E - ?
- R-2F - ?
- R-2G - ?
- R-2H - ?
- R-2J - 09/03/72
- R-2K - ?
- R-2L - 01/07/73
- R-2M - ?
- R-2N - ?
- R-2P - 05/12/74
- R-2Q - 04/06/75
- R-2R - ?
- R-2S - ?
- R-2T - 09/05/76
- R-2U - 11/07/76
- R-2V - ?
- R-2W - 02/06/77
- R-2X - 09/04/77
- R-2Y - ?
- R-2Z - ?
- R-2A - ?
- R-2B - ?
- R-2C - 06/10/79
- R-2D - ?
- R-2E - 06/15/80
- R-2F - 02/15/81
- R-2G - 04/19/81
- R-2H - ?
- R-2J - ?
Folder numbers did repeat themselves after 24 issues and letters I and
O were not used.
We are trying to determine if the 4A schedule appeared elsewhere
between folder PH-19A in 1964 and R-2A in 1968.
Route Disposition:
The 4A was discontinued. AM and PM trips in the 4A service area were
handled by the ML Red Flyer and certain 1D Mt. Royal trips.
Click on images for larger view
The route map for the 4A highlighted in yellow. |
