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Pennsylvania Trolley Museum

More than just a ride...it's an Experience

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That’s Fare!

Create Your Own Fare

Passengers bought metal tickets, called tokens, or paper tickets as fare or payment for their rides.

Tokens and tickets all had unique designs depending on the location and trolley company. Some even had cut outs or designs in the center to make them look different than coins. Each token had a front and a back.

Create your own trolley token and/or ticket. What would your trolley fare look like? What color would it be? What would it be made of?

Want to see more token design inspiration? Check out this token grid – the top row shows the front of the token and the bottom row shows the back!

Calculate Your Fare

Before trolley companies used tokens and tickets as fare, passengers paid with money on the car. Look at the Pittsburgh Railways Co. Interurban System map to see the location of the stops and then use the chart to calculate how much money you need to give the conductor to reach your destination.

Each stop is 5 cents. Watch out for transfers! Sometimes you can’t get where you want to go without changing trolleys — you can transfer to a different trolley line at Washington Junction for 1 cent.

Register Your Fare

Fare registers helped conductors to track the number of fares paid throughout the day. When a passenger paid a fare, the conductor pulled the lever on the fare register. At the end of the conductor’s work shift, the amount of fare collected by the conductor should match the number recorded by the register.

Subtract the total at the beginning of the shift from the total at the end of the shift to find out how many passengers rode the trolley!

Purchase Discount Tickets

For faster boarding and easier fare collection, trolley companies encouraged passengers to pre-purchase tickets for their ride. Discounts were offered for passengers who purchased tickets in bulk.

What’s fare? How much money do you need to purchase tickets to ride in 1919, 1930, and 1950? For this activity, individual fares per time period have been assigned. Remember the discounts!

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About Us

The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum came to Chartiers Township, Washington County in February 1954 with three trolleys and a dream that was born in 1941. Today, that dream is  a reality. PTM now boasts a collection of nearly 50 cars, over 600 members worldwide, 150 active volunteers, and over 30,000 … Read More about About

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