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New Kensington City Lines
(NKCL) was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Penn Transit Company (PTC) of McKeesport. It
was the only company PAT acquired in 1964 which had no routes into Allegheny County but
it's inclusion in the PAT acquisitions was due to the Penn Transit ownership of the
company.
The NKCL operation of PTC
could be traced back to the early 1920's with the Westmoreland Transportation Company
(WTC). The WTC operated a route between New Kensington and Greensburg which can be
documented as far back as 1921. This operation remained rather constant until 1941 when
the WTC merged with the New Kensington Taxi Cab Company which added 5 more routes to the
WTC operation. These new lines were all local New Kensington routes that served Valley
Camp, Valley Heights and Aluminum City Terrace.
By
1946, PTC entered the area with 2 new interurban routes from Braeburn and Leechburg to the
Alcoa mill. These 2 lines originated from PTC's Kittaning Division. Poor profitability for
the WTC forced the company's closure in 1948 and the PAPUC took the unusual step of
requesting that the PTC assume the WTC operation.
When
the PTC assumed the operations, it sold off the rights to the WTC New Kensington -
Greensburg route in 1949 to James M. Kepple who operated the Kepple Coach Lines. Records
are unclear as to if this route was even in operation at the time of the PTC takeover but
the rights to it remained.
One
other company played into the NKCL history and that was the Penman Coach Lines which
started sometime in the early 1960's after acquiring Ted's Bus Service. This operation ran
some service into the New Kensington area as well but was strictly a Westmoreland County
operation and therefore not eligible for the 1964 PAT takeover. The PAPUC cancelled the
Penman certifications in August of 1967 and PAT extended service on a few of it's routes
to cover the abandonment in 1968.
None
of the WTC equipment, which numbered approximately 15 at the time closure in 1948, was
taken into the PTC fleet but the PTC recently purchased 17 buses which allowed a
sufficient surplus of equipment to handle the former WTC routes. Due to the common
ownership, buses were frequently shifted between New Kensington and McKeesport for work as
heavy maintenance was done at the PTC's main operation in McKeesport.
The
former WTC operation was renamed as the New Kensington City Lines in 1956 and operated as
a wholly owned subsidiary of the PTC. When this occurred, the frequent shifting of buses
stopped and the NKCL would only receive buses when the PTC replaced it's buses and sent
it's older equipment up to the NKCL who would then retire it's oldest equipment.
On
PAT's takeover, no equipment from the NKCL made it into PAT's fleet however it's routes
did.
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