Current Operations
With the growing popularity of the automobile and subsequent construction of new roads, ridership on the incline diminished and it was losing $25,000 a year by 1961. However, since the 1980s, the incline has become one of the main tourist attractions in Johnstown, with people visiting the incline to "ride for fun, nostalgia and novelty." Though primarily used for tourism, the incline's use by commuters, who bike or walk to work, has also increased. CamTran's Route 18 transit bus offers connections between the incline and downtown Johnstown. As of 2012, the cost for a ride on the incline is $2.25 or $4 for a roundtrip; fares for automobiles to be transported by the incline are $6 one way. The incline takes around 90 seconds to travel from one station to the other; the same trip takes 10 minutes by automobile. In 2011, the Johnstown Inclined Plane had an annual ridership of 81,236 passengers, a decrease of 11.9 percent from the previous year.
The upper station of the incline has a gift shop that sells souvenirs and snack foods. A visitor center is adjacent to the upper station; a restaurant, the City View Bar and Grill, is located directly below the center. The mechanical room housing the incline's electric motor and hoisting mechanism can be viewed from windows in the gift shop, the restaurant and the lobby of the visitor center. An observation deck providing views of the incline, the city, and the valley is located on the opposite side of the station from the visitor center. Two hiking trails allow visitors to walk the slope. One is a sculpture trail, with works created in 1989 by local artist James Wolfe, who used remnants of the Bethlehem Steel factory in Johnstown.
Read more about this topic: Johnstown Inclined Plane
Famous quotes containing the words current and/or operations:
“This is no argument against teaching manners to the young. On the contrary, it is a fine old tradition that ought to be resurrected from its current mothballs and put to work...In fact, children are much more comfortable when they know the guide rules for handling the social amenities. It’s no more fun for a child to be introduced to a strange adult and have no idea what to say or do than it is for a grownup to go to a formal dinner and have no idea what fork to use.”
—Leontine Young (20th century)
“It may seem strange that any road through such a wilderness should be passable, even in winter, when the snow is three or four feet deep, but at that season, wherever lumbering operations are actively carried on, teams are continually passing on the single track, and it becomes as smooth almost as a railway.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)