Coping with gas price increases

[daveklepper]

If I owned a big SUV:

My photo trips would not be solo anymore.   I would coordinate with other railfans and plan photo excursions so four or five or six could travel together and share expenses.

If I was also retired and living in a rural or suburban community without good transit service.

I would paint my SUV silver, including shading for fluting below the windows, a tuscan red letterboard stripe lengthwise above the windows and doors, and gold letters PENNSYLVANIA, and of course a red Keystone appropriately place, and then.

Check with my good neighbors and friends and find what their personal auto trips for work and shopping were in terms of time and locations, and then.

plan a schedule and route to meet the majority of cases, negotiate handshake agreements on fares, and run my own "Keystone" mini-transit service.

[daveklepper]

I should have noted that my favorite "Fallen Flags" are the NYNH&H and the D%RGW?   So why woudl not I dress up my imaginary SUV with either of these two paint schemes?   The New Haven did have an extensive commuter operation, so it would be in the running.  But the dramatic McGinnis scheme is in use by Metro North and Shore Line East, and the classic green and yellow script lettering is too bland.   The Rio Grande never ran a real commuter operation and its scheme is in use by Rio Grande Scenic.

PRR's Congressional-Senator scheme is beautiful, dramatic, and classic, all at once, really a winner.   And PRR ran extensive commuter operations in the New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore-Washington, and Pittsburgh areas, with a small commuter operation out of Chicago.