This video is unreal. I would never have known you weren’t from Pittsburgh the way you researched, pronounced everything right and had tons of anecdotes. I’m from Pittsburgh and don’t really take the T so I even learned some stuff here. Well done
I was born in Pittsburgh, and even though we moved away when I was still young, every time I return I find it one of America’s best-kept secrets: full of spirit, charm, grit and some real beauty. You do a great job getting at this, at least along the light rail lines. Thanks for shining a light on my home city!
Pittsburgh is such an undervalued city. It is so amazing. The bones are there definitely, the neighborhoods are so cool. I live in Miami Beach but I always have had some kind of obsession with this city. Thank you for the video, it is really cool.
there's another rail route that runs up over mt washington that is only used currently in emergencies when the tunnel is blocked as it branches off between first avenue and station square up onto the hill and meets up with the other lines again at south hills junction. There's been a campaign from residents along the route to get it back in active service for many years now. I was able to ride out that way a few times due to them detouring the trains for problems over the years, it'd be good for the neighborhoods out that way to have rail service again. there was talk of extending the rail out into oakland and the north side way back when i was in college, and well before, but they've been kicking that can along for well over 20 years at least now. Sometimes i kinda miss the gateway turnaround, but the new line under the river and the new stations are so nice now, and at least we finally got that.
@@todgodTalks on the “Next transit plan” you mentioned I n this video do show that they will evaluate bring in that line back because the population in the Allentown area of Pittsburgh and such grew since they closed the line back in 2011 because of system wide cuts. The other reason was the trains were getting older and did not have the umph anymore to go about it. However, they just spent 1 million dollars for design plans for new 84 light rail car trains! That 1 million is in this coming year PRT budget. To replace the 84 trains they are estimating it to cost 500 million dollars.
@@todgodyeah, it was the brown line. It goes through the Allentown neighborhood, which has historically been pretty poor, though it’s getting more attention nowadays. They shut it down because the residents there and in surrounding neighborhoods were mostly low-income so ridership was lower from people not being able to afford it. Though now that more people are moving into Allentown and it’s getting more attention, they’re looking at bringing it back. It’s definitely a crappy situation. A lot of people relied on that line, especially since they can’t afford a car. But cost can be another accessibility issue. There is at least a bus that goes nearby the neighborhood though.
The shared operation of the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel being used by both buses and trains makes it so interesting. The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel famously used to operate this way between 2009 and 2019. Before that, it was a 1980s bus tunnel originally proposed as a rapid transit tunnel but after Seattle rejected it in the 1960s, federal funds went to Atlanta for MARTA! So after the buses left the Seattle tunnel and it became light-rail only in 2019, the tunnel in Pittsburgh is now the only one in the US used by just buses and trains. But there is ANOTHER road-rail tunnel in the US, the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel in Whittier, Alaska! Built as a rail-only tunnel in 1943 when Whittier was an important military base, it was turned into a road-rail tunnel in 2000 as a way to better connect Whittier to the rest of Alaska. They opted to do it this way instead of building a separate tunnel for cars as a cost-saving measure. It's not just a road-rail tunnel, but also the longest highway tunnel in North America at 2.5 miles long, the first designed for -40 Fahrenheit temperatures and 150 mph winds, and the first to be aired out with jet turbine ventilation. The US Army selected Whittier as a rail port during WWII because it was a shorter voyage, reduced exposure of ships to Japanese submarines, reduced the risk of Japanese bombing the port facilities because of the bad weather, and avoided the steep railroad grades required to traverse the Kenai Mountains
Nice Video! The Silver (Library) line (south of Washington Junction) is an amazing piece of old school infrastructure. It is actually the remainder of the former Charleroi Interurban and ( I think) still uses old PRC style signaling and in many ways still looks like it did under PRC ownership. Riding on it sure is a cool experience and feels like a step back in time. This is also why it has this minimalistic infrastructure. Taking some steep, narrow stairs into a ditch to the trolley platform is very Pittsburgh!
This makes me really happy :). Thank you so much for the kind words and wishes hope to spread more awareness about the lack of accessibility in my future videos!
As much as i care about ADA belasco is due for ADA upgrade the government failed it due to a 1% grade. Hampshire is perfect as a low level wheel chair stop because no one ever wants to get off there in a wheelchair.
@@todgod next time check out the Pennsylvania Trolley museum, As for the mall parking garage is park and ride which is EXCESSIVELY Busy during rush hour.
I got to admit Pittsburgh has life to it when compared to San Francisco and it does have an attractive light rail urban and suburban system. I dont consider it just a city system. 😊
Monongahela reportedly comes from one of several interpretations or spellings of one or more presumably Delaware words such as “Mehmannauwinggelan”, “Menaungehilla”, or “Meh-non-ge-heh-lal” which have been translated into phrases such as “many landslides”, “high banks or bluffs, breaking off and falling down in places”, or “places of caving or falling banks” which originally referred to the point of the junction between the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers at McKeesport. The Monongahela Incline backstory is interesting! Pittsburgh's expanding industrial base in 1860 created a huge demand for labor, attracting mainly German immigrants to the region. This created a serious housing shortage as industry occupied most of the flat lands adjacent to the South Side of the Monongahela River, leaving only the steep, surrounding hillsides of Mt. Washington, or "Coal Hill", for housing. However, travel between the "hill" and other areas was hindered by the steep terrain and a lack of public transport or good roads. The predominantly German immigrants, remembering the seilbahns (cable cars) of their former country, proposed construction of inclines. Prussian-born engineer John Endres of Cincinnati was commissioned to design the Monongahela Incline, which opened on May 28, 1870, as the first for passenger use. He was assisted by his daughter Caroline Endres, who was educated in Europe and became one of the first women engineers in the US.
Yes I’ve heard somewhat of the Mount Washington neighborhood being historically German due to the coal mines! I didn’t know the inclines were German inspired though that’s great!
If you're going to talk about Pittsburgh, you have to understand how the East Coast rivers work because it explains the 19th century development including the early railroads. Pittsburgh is the first major city in the Mississippi Basin, meaning its commerce would float down and out to New Orleans, unlike the Eastern Seaboard cities that drained into the Atlantic. Look up Braddocks's Road (this also explains the Maryland panhandle). Chicago has a similar situation because it's on the border of two major drainages.
Wow what an interesting transit system and city. Hopefully those stations can get the accessibility upgrades they need. And hopefully also the city can find better uses around the stations than just enormous carparks.
There are honestly so many corridors in the Bay that are just begging to have any sort of rapid transit on them. Imagine if the VTA 22 bus line on El Camino/Alameda became a light rail. Even a BRT would be unbelievably transformative!
The major issue with Transit expansion in Pa is the source of funding. Pa does not levy a tax (ie sales tax that is voted on by the residence of that community) to fund transit projects like in other states. Most of the funding comes from PA gas tax, then the state governments allocates the funds to the state's 33 transit agencies. The locate governments are required to fund a small portion of their transit system's budget. In the case of PRT, it is Allegheny County. So, since the residence do not have a direct "say" in funding, local and state politicians will not raise taxes to fund transit expansion projects. At the state level, state reps from rural counties do not support using gas tax funds to support transit projects that do not benefit their districts. The non-urban state reps are more interested in funding road and bridge projects.
The same can be said about urban folk paying for rural districts. I can guarantee you they don't put in enough in taxes to fund the high quality state roads going through their small towns
Great video, such an underappreciated channel you have! A little thing to note, PCC was not a thing until the mid-1930s and had not become the workhorse of the surviving systems until WWII. So, Pittsburgh's or any other city's streetcar network was not built for PCC or anything close in mind.
The main reason the system goes to the South Hills and nowhere else is due to the presence of the (pre-existing) Mount Washington Transit Tunnel, and that the South Hills lines had a lot of their own Right-of-Way. The decision was made to keep these few lines as light rail whereas the rest of the old streetcar system was dismantled and the old trolley routes subjected to "bus-titution". There was a plan in the 1960s and 70s to build an elevated "gadgetbahn" system of sorts (called Skybus) that dragged on forever and eventually fell apart. This plan would have used the old Wabash Tunnel through Mt. Washington (which was an old freight rail tunnel) and would have traveled across a rebuilt Wabash Bridge into downtown Pittsburgh. When this plan fell apart they made the decision to do light rail instead and ended up using the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel and the new purpose-built downtown subway tunnel, and the Wabash Tunnel was repurposed to auto traffic. Conversion of the existing busways to light rail and incorporating them into the existing LRT network makes a lot of sense but I don't think the city is too interested in this.
Dormont resident here - thanks for a great video! At one point I'm my life, i took the trolley (the T / LRT) nearly every day. I LOVE it, but i wish it went more places, especially east to Oakland, Shadyside, etc. And while Dormont and Mt Lebo are both great, walkable neighborhoods with trolley access, and while i generally walk to places in Dormont, i drive just about everywhere else. Pgh is better than most Midwestern/rust belt cities at public transit, but you really still need a car to get around.
Part of the reason for the abandonment of many routes is that Pittsburgh Railway spent more of its history in receivership than not. They could not afford their leases on street trackage, nor could they afford upkeep of their rails, or the replacement of rails when the streets were redone, so a lot of the move to buses is that is all they could afford.
I grew up in Fremont CA and moved to Pittsburgh 2 years ago - I wanted to get a house closer to any of the T stops because I love public transit (grew up riding BART and VTA when I was living in San Jose). Of course, the neighborhoods and cities that have access to the T are super desirable and therefore out of my price range. I am currently walking distance from a bus line that replaced what I think would be an EXTREMELY utilized light rail line, connecting the east suburbs (Wilkinsburg, Forest Hills, North Versailles) to downtown via Penn Ave. The service runs only once an hour and mostly during commuting times, so it's not a good option for when I just want to head over to Lawrenceville for fun. I also have a running theory that if Pittsburgh hadn't gutted it's lightrail, I think more people would have stayed instead of moving out of state/into the suburbs. I'm so glad the algorithm showed me this video, can't to watch more! Loved this!
Mt. Lebanon is (In) at the end not (on). The wasteland parking lot is full most mornings, especially in inclement weather. That area is more spread out so people have to drive to the station.
Part of the issue with running the T out toward/beyond the train station is that its a single track due to supports for the Steel Building. They are looking into a way to double track though but who knows if its ever going to happen.
In defense of the large parking lots at some of the stations the bus routes in the north and east have the same thing. It's part of a park and ride system. The further out you go the less likely there is good public transportation there just isn't a regular demand. Before the pandemic and remote working many people, who lived in the outlining communities also worked in the downtown section. Downtown Pittsburgh it notorious for outrageous parking prices at the garages and ticketing. So, park and ride offered people a chance to come part way with their car park and ride the trolly or bus to town.
I go to school in Pittsburgh and they need an LRT extension into the college neighborhoods in Oakland and Duquesne that could also connect to PPG paints arena
I had a friend visit me a few weekends ago to go to an event at the PPG arena. Knowing we would be going bar hopping afterwards and not home anytime soon afterwards, we had no choice but to uber from my place in Upper St Clair to the arena....and then from downtown back home around 3AM. So, not only does coverage lack all around, but times of service aren't that great IMO. Yes, I have the station at SHV only a 5 minutes' drive from my house, but not only would it not take us near enough to the arena, but getting home would've been a problem, given the event didn't end till 9:30/10. I know many transit systems in sm/md cities don't operate at all hours, even with reduced frequency, but I would think a little later on a Friday or Saturday would be wise.
Pittsburgh is much better at buses than they are at trains. There was a proposal in the early 90s to build a subway tunnel under the hill to Oakland, but we got the sports tunnel under the Allegheny instead. I read the document, but can't recall where I found it I'm afraid; there were three options, one under Duquesne, one under the hill, and then a third that was basically a budget option. Apparently hill residents wanted the tunnel and had told the planners so in community outreach meetings, and for obvious reasons-- something like 40% of residents had no car. The East busway carries as many riders as the red and blue combined, iirc.
@@todgod It is one of the better pieces of bus infrastructure in this country. It should probably be a T line. An impressive demonstration of bus potential though, together with the new one going up in Oakland the East End is getting remarkably good for the humble bus, which the city is electrifying.
The T is great in its way, but as a regular visitor to Pittsburgh, it is kind of confusing for tourists. Few of the trains have system maps inside them, the guidance on when to swipe your travel pass is unclear, the posted schedule is often just a suggestion, and frequency of trains outside the Golden Triangle area is terrible. Many of the stations need a total overhaul with better shade options and seating. Still, I'm grateful I can stay in the South Hills and use it to go Downtown instead of driving. Something is better than nothing.
Google maps is the best way to navigate and track the rail, you have to find a station and click on it but it will tell you where all the cars are, pretty much down to the minute. Also the walking directions/etas are very useful. Once I started using that it all made sense.
The north of the city used to be mostly farmlands in the early years of the city. It wasn't until maybe 30 years ago that major development began up in cranberry/Ross township. They made the decision to go to a car centric design to be away from the stigma of public transportation = low income and undesirables. I believe they made the decision to go to BRT instead of the light rail to oakland because the costs associated would be in the multi billions to tunnel their way there, eminent domain properties, etc. I think the T is good, but I live in the south hills where the t services and know many people who dislike the t because it doesn't serve their area. I know people forever have been begging for a line to the airport after the north shore connector was built. I believe it was more feasible to continue the north shore connector, out to sewickley, and then across the ohio to the airport
The issue with Pittsburgh's system is it has been gutted so badly from the 80s to now. If they had saved jusy 2 of the longer routes it would be utilized MUCH more
Interesting video. Maybe you should explain as well as City Nerd or Urbanity why there are so few TOD built along existing systems in Northern America. it's not the case in Europe, especially in France (Paris, Bordeaux, Nantes, Grenoble...) where TOD are systtematically built within reach of the Tram or LRT system (not Trolley which is not a Tram but an an electric bus with wires !)
I think part of it is an obsession with parking, either to 1). make the stations "park and ride" facilities or 2). because the TOD itself is required to have massive parking lots either by building codes themselves or by the investors, who can't imagine that every unit doesn't need two parking spaces. In either case, it's catering to ideas about auto-centric urban planning. Of course, parking can be made more space-efficient by adding parking garages or underground parking instead of surface lots but this radically increases the cost of TOD projects.
I think if they expand their T line the city would actually see a comeback of growth, mixed use urbanism centered around light rail is super “in” right now and I think due to remote work, people are going to start moving to places that progress in this direction faster than others
Yeah a T line expansion in the long run would certainly be beneficial to communities in either North Beach or south by Sunnydale, with a ton of mixed use properties being served heavily by LR.
You can take the 28X bus from the airport to downtown and now even past downtown to Oakland and Shadyside! It's not as quick as a train would be but is better than nothing.
I agree with Bradley -- the 28x "Airport Flyer" bus isn't as good as light rail and only has the benefit of one of PGH's wonderful high speed bus-only "busways" for part of its route, but it's a great way to to to and from the airport.
I’ll give them a little credit I would much prefer light rail but Pittsburgh does have some bus ways to other communities that provide decent service and act similar to a light rail line. Would like to see more work done towards expanding the light rail network rather than more bus ways but it’s not the worst thing in the world. As someone who lives 5 minutes from a t station it’s really convenient to have especially for sporting events. Makes travel to downtown a lot easier, cheaper, and time saving because you avoid traffic and parking.
Standard Gauge? Isn’t Pittsburgh using Pennsylvania Trolley Gauge? I looked it up is 1588mm (5 ft 2+1/2 in) not 1435mm (4ft 8+1/2 in). Anyway. When I at some point travel over the pond to the US I tend to do a cross country rail tour, maybe Pittsburgh will be on the list.
Thanks for the Pittsburgh review. You missed the trolley museum, which would have been a great supplement to your review. There were many other trolley lines that served Pittsburgh back in the day from other parts of the region. One line that you briefly showed a marquee of “Charleroi” roughly ran about 35+ miles from downtown that then became a Greyhound line then a private company, 88 Transit, (I worked for them for about 23 years) and now a transit authority that competes with the PRT Silver line on part of the route. It’s sad how transit ridership in a lot of cities like Pittsburgh has declined. Come back and visit the trolley museum and explore a little more of the regional transit history.
Starting this Friday, April 5, after the Pittsburgh Pirates home opener, they are going to once again start using the spur from steel Plaza to Penn Park They are starting a seven week long project to rebuild the track bed between steel Plaza and Gateway stations They have been using the pen park spar on weekends for the past several months, but then realized the scope of the project was too complex to just do on the weekends so they’re gonna do this around the clock closure for seven weeks
The problem with that spur tunnel between Steel Plaza and Penn Station (now Union Station) is single track. For any expansion east to really happen, that tunnel needs to be widened and there's no will to do that. It really would be great if they could get the gumption to do that, but... **shrug**
Having friends in PRT, 3 car trains don’t run in three car trains for revenue service, as the cars hate talking to each others when you add more than two together. The way the brakes release also cause troubles for this
The shared right-of-way with cars in Beechview isn't too bad because not too many people actually drive on the main street in Beechview, and it doesn't really slow the tram down at all. Where shared right-of-way is REALLY a problem is the Allentown detour. There's a clusterf**k of an intersection coming down the hill toward the Panhandle Bridge, and the tram has to pass through it. This can result in 20-minute delays if the detour is during rush hour.
You said Pittsburgh Railways had 600 miles of trackage in 1918 with a fleet of 660 PCCs at the beginning of the video, but I thought the PCCs were from the 1940s?
My old hometown of NYC had the first fleet of PCC trolleys in August 1936 and the first regular PCC trolley line on October 1936. They had blinker doors like the ones in Pittsburgh, PA. and some of the other cities had folding doors like the ones on the older trolleys of the previous decade. By 1941 Saint Louis, Missouri had the first fleet with standee upper windows above the passenger windows and was copied by General Motors City transit buses until 1958 when the last of the old look buses were built.
When new video? Me demand new video! Drop everything you're doing and give us new video! Seriously though! I would love to see a review of all/some of the new TOD polices that BART, Caltrain, Muni Metro, and VTA Light Rail have adopted. There seems to be a tooooooooon to talk about there with seemingly every park-and-ride in the Bay getting some type of TOD either planned or actively in construction. See the latest BART TOD "station village" approvals at Ashby and North Berkeley.
What a great overview! I've only ever taken the part of the T north of the transit tunnel, but you've inspired me to spend an afternoon exploring the south hills. Btw, how did you make your map animations?
The blue should be upgraded to light metro driverless operation then segregate it from the red line and reroute red to absorb the silver then extend it.
Dude, how is it that you know about all the planned TODs on this tiny light rail system in Pittsburgh, but you didn't know about a bunch of them by your own hometown's VTA light rail system?
@@todgodThat's always good to hear! I also wish you discussed all the TOD that VTA counted on to make the light rail system viable but that was subsequently blocked by the local NIMBYs. Ultimately, it's not just about what ended up being built by hook or crook, but about how they managed to push it through given the insanely NIMBY environment in most of these places.
A lot of people like light rail. But honestly i think busways are better. They are cheaper to build, plus the public transportation can venture off the line to other areas that need public transportation. A rail can only go where the rail goes.
PRT's shunning of Light Rail is absolutely NAUSEATING ESPECIALLY in Oakland - Pittsburgh's academic and cultural center.. Katharine Kelleman as a CEO is uninspiring and they chose to value engineer a system to run through Oakland in a district that DESPERATELY needs a Subway. I have trouble seeing how this project will be successful with the amount of on-street supply loading on Forbes Avenue and pedestrian traffic. This is the best example of using a screwdriver when you need a hammer. Her arguemnt that It"S tOo ExPeNsIvE, does not help in moving the needle away from car centric investment towards commuter and lifestyle choice.
This took away the charm of the old street cars. They went through woods, close to houses, etc . This is boring and plain. The old trollies did what busses do and more. The T sucks
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This video is unreal. I would never have known you weren’t from Pittsburgh the way you researched, pronounced everything right and had tons of anecdotes. I’m from Pittsburgh and don’t really take the T so I even learned some stuff here. Well done
I was born in Pittsburgh, and even though we moved away when I was still young, every time I return I find it one of America’s best-kept secrets: full of spirit, charm, grit and some real beauty. You do a great job getting at this, at least along the light rail lines. Thanks for shining a light on my home city!
Of course! I appreciated the charm of your home city when I visited!
Pittsburgh is such an undervalued city. It is so amazing. The bones are there definitely, the neighborhoods are so cool. I live in Miami Beach but I always have had some kind of obsession with this city. Thank you for the video, it is really cool.
there's another rail route that runs up over mt washington that is only used currently in emergencies when the tunnel is blocked as it branches off between first avenue and station square up onto the hill and meets up with the other lines again at south hills junction. There's been a campaign from residents along the route to get it back in active service for many years now. I was able to ride out that way a few times due to them detouring the trains for problems over the years, it'd be good for the neighborhoods out that way to have rail service again.
there was talk of extending the rail out into oakland and the north side way back when i was in college, and well before, but they've been kicking that can along for well over 20 years at least now. Sometimes i kinda miss the gateway turnaround, but the new line under the river and the new stations are so nice now, and at least we finally got that.
Yeah I believe I that alternate route was called the brown line right? I’m not sure why they shut it down as a main service.
@@todgodTalks on the “Next transit plan” you mentioned I n this video do show that they will evaluate bring in that line back because the population in the Allentown area of Pittsburgh and such grew since they closed the line back in 2011 because of system wide cuts. The other reason was the trains were getting older and did not have the umph anymore to go about it. However, they just spent 1 million dollars for design plans for new 84 light rail car trains! That 1 million is in this coming year PRT budget. To replace the 84 trains they are estimating it to cost 500 million dollars.
It goes through Allentown, not Mt. Washington.
@@todgodyeah, it was the brown line. It goes through the Allentown neighborhood, which has historically been pretty poor, though it’s getting more attention nowadays. They shut it down because the residents there and in surrounding neighborhoods were mostly low-income so ridership was lower from people not being able to afford it. Though now that more people are moving into Allentown and it’s getting more attention, they’re looking at bringing it back.
It’s definitely a crappy situation. A lot of people relied on that line, especially since they can’t afford a car. But cost can be another accessibility issue. There is at least a bus that goes nearby the neighborhood though.
As someone who grew up near Pittsburgh and now lives in the Bay Area I appreciate this video and all of your videos
That’s so amazing to hear! I hope that I did your city justice with this video. It was such a blast and I wish I spent more time there
(their vehicles are) very similar to SacRT's. Interesting! I had not known that Pittsburgh had an LRT system before this.
Glad I can inform you! :)
The shared operation of the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel being used by both buses and trains makes it so interesting. The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel famously used to operate this way between 2009 and 2019. Before that, it was a 1980s bus tunnel originally proposed as a rapid transit tunnel but after Seattle rejected it in the 1960s, federal funds went to Atlanta for MARTA! So after the buses left the Seattle tunnel and it became light-rail only in 2019, the tunnel in Pittsburgh is now the only one in the US used by just buses and trains. But there is ANOTHER road-rail tunnel in the US, the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel in Whittier, Alaska!
Built as a rail-only tunnel in 1943 when Whittier was an important military base, it was turned into a road-rail tunnel in 2000 as a way to better connect Whittier to the rest of Alaska. They opted to do it this way instead of building a separate tunnel for cars as a cost-saving measure. It's not just a road-rail tunnel, but also the longest highway tunnel in North America at 2.5 miles long, the first designed for -40 Fahrenheit temperatures and 150 mph winds, and the first to be aired out with jet turbine ventilation. The US Army selected Whittier as a rail port during WWII because it was a shorter voyage, reduced exposure of ships to Japanese submarines, reduced the risk of Japanese bombing the port facilities because of the bad weather, and avoided the steep railroad grades required to traverse the Kenai Mountains
Imagine a todgod video in Alaska though? 👀
Nice Video! The Silver (Library) line (south of Washington Junction) is an amazing piece of old school infrastructure. It is actually the remainder of the former Charleroi Interurban and ( I think) still uses old PRC style signaling and in many ways still looks like it did under PRC ownership. Riding on it sure is a cool experience and feels like a step back in time. This is also why it has this minimalistic infrastructure. Taking some steep, narrow stairs into a ditch to the trolley platform is very Pittsburgh!
Great video! thank u for talking abt ADA so much as a disabled person it means a lot!
This makes me really happy :). Thank you so much for the kind words and wishes hope to spread more awareness about the lack of accessibility in my future videos!
As much as i care about ADA belasco is due for ADA upgrade the government failed it due to a 1% grade. Hampshire is perfect as a low level wheel chair stop because no one ever wants to get off there in a wheelchair.
@@todgod next time check out the Pennsylvania Trolley museum, As for the mall parking garage is park and ride which is EXCESSIVELY Busy during rush hour.
the library line is apart of the Charleori interurban which is supposed to be preserved as a historic line.
I got to admit Pittsburgh has life to it when compared to San Francisco and it does have an attractive light rail urban and suburban system. I dont consider it just a city system. 😊
Very fair. The system blurs the line between interurban and a metro system pretty quickly
Pittsburgh native here, awesome video man, taught me things I didn’t even know.
Keep up the quality work, we all appreciate it
Thanks! Glad to have made the Yinzers proud
Monongahela reportedly comes from one of several interpretations or spellings of one or more presumably Delaware words such as “Mehmannauwinggelan”, “Menaungehilla”, or “Meh-non-ge-heh-lal” which have been translated into phrases such as “many landslides”, “high banks or bluffs, breaking off and falling down in places”, or “places of caving or falling banks” which originally referred to the point of the junction between the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers at McKeesport. The Monongahela Incline backstory is interesting! Pittsburgh's expanding industrial base in 1860 created a huge demand for labor, attracting mainly German immigrants to the region.
This created a serious housing shortage as industry occupied most of the flat lands adjacent to the South Side of the Monongahela River, leaving only the steep, surrounding hillsides of Mt. Washington, or "Coal Hill", for housing. However, travel between the "hill" and other areas was hindered by the steep terrain and a lack of public transport or good roads. The predominantly German immigrants, remembering the seilbahns (cable cars) of their former country, proposed construction of inclines. Prussian-born engineer John Endres of Cincinnati was commissioned to design the Monongahela Incline, which opened on May 28, 1870, as the first for passenger use. He was assisted by his daughter Caroline Endres, who was educated in Europe and became one of the first women engineers in the US.
Yes I’ve heard somewhat of the Mount Washington neighborhood being historically German due to the coal mines! I didn’t know the inclines were German inspired though that’s great!
Grew up riding the T from SS to SHV with my grandma back in the 90s; thanks for covering!
Of course!!
If you're going to talk about Pittsburgh, you have to understand how the East Coast rivers work because it explains the 19th century development including the early railroads. Pittsburgh is the first major city in the Mississippi Basin, meaning its commerce would float down and out to New Orleans, unlike the Eastern Seaboard cities that drained into the Atlantic. Look up Braddocks's Road (this also explains the Maryland panhandle). Chicago has a similar situation because it's on the border of two major drainages.
Wow what an interesting transit system and city. Hopefully those stations can get the accessibility upgrades they need. And hopefully also the city can find better uses around the stations than just enormous carparks.
A tram station that is font of a Rite Aid, seems like a dream for San Jose. I cannot image a tram going down Homestead Rd in Santa Clara county.
There are honestly so many corridors in the Bay that are just begging to have any sort of rapid transit on them. Imagine if the VTA 22 bus line on El Camino/Alameda became a light rail. Even a BRT would be unbelievably transformative!
Oh yeah a West Valley rail extension would be an amazing effort
Excellent and informative video!
Thank you!
The Library line is a fantastic look back into the trolley era
6:38 Pittsburgh LRT uses Pennsylvania trolley gauge (1588 mm), not standard gauge
Thank you, glad someone heard that too.
As someone who was born raised and live in Pittsburgh I wish we still had the street car system
I don't think we'd call Pittsburgh an east coast city, but close enough :)
The major issue with Transit expansion in Pa is the source of funding. Pa does not levy a tax (ie sales tax that is voted on by the residence of that community) to fund transit projects like in other states. Most of the funding comes from PA gas tax, then the state governments allocates the funds to the state's 33 transit agencies. The locate governments are required to fund a small portion of their transit system's budget. In the case of PRT, it is Allegheny County. So, since the residence do not have a direct "say" in funding, local and state politicians will not raise taxes to fund transit expansion projects. At the state level, state reps from rural counties do not support using gas tax funds to support transit projects that do not benefit their districts. The non-urban state reps are more interested in funding road and bridge projects.
The same can be said about urban folk paying for rural districts. I can guarantee you they don't put in enough in taxes to fund the high quality state roads going through their small towns
Great video, such an underappreciated channel you have! A little thing to note, PCC was not a thing until the mid-1930s and had not become the workhorse of the surviving systems until WWII. So, Pittsburgh's or any other city's streetcar network was not built for PCC or anything close in mind.
The main reason the system goes to the South Hills and nowhere else is due to the presence of the (pre-existing) Mount Washington Transit Tunnel, and that the South Hills lines had a lot of their own Right-of-Way. The decision was made to keep these few lines as light rail whereas the rest of the old streetcar system was dismantled and the old trolley routes subjected to "bus-titution". There was a plan in the 1960s and 70s to build an elevated "gadgetbahn" system of sorts (called Skybus) that dragged on forever and eventually fell apart. This plan would have used the old Wabash Tunnel through Mt. Washington (which was an old freight rail tunnel) and would have traveled across a rebuilt Wabash Bridge into downtown Pittsburgh. When this plan fell apart they made the decision to do light rail instead and ended up using the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel and the new purpose-built downtown subway tunnel, and the Wabash Tunnel was repurposed to auto traffic. Conversion of the existing busways to light rail and incorporating them into the existing LRT network makes a lot of sense but I don't think the city is too interested in this.
Dormont resident here - thanks for a great video! At one point I'm my life, i took the trolley (the T / LRT) nearly every day. I LOVE it, but i wish it went more places, especially east to Oakland, Shadyside, etc. And while Dormont and Mt Lebo are both great, walkable neighborhoods with trolley access, and while i generally walk to places in Dormont, i drive just about everywhere else. Pgh is better than most Midwestern/rust belt cities at public transit, but you really still need a car to get around.
Yeah I stayed around Oakland so it was dissatisfying not seeing a light rail line there. But the bus services were excellent
The Busway is really so awesome to get east to west.
Part of the reason for the abandonment of many routes is that Pittsburgh Railway spent more of its history in receivership than not.
They could not afford their leases on street trackage, nor could they afford upkeep of their rails, or the replacement of rails when the streets were redone, so a lot of the move to buses is that is all they could afford.
I grew up in Fremont CA and moved to Pittsburgh 2 years ago - I wanted to get a house closer to any of the T stops because I love public transit (grew up riding BART and VTA when I was living in San Jose). Of course, the neighborhoods and cities that have access to the T are super desirable and therefore out of my price range. I am currently walking distance from a bus line that replaced what I think would be an EXTREMELY utilized light rail line, connecting the east suburbs (Wilkinsburg, Forest Hills, North Versailles) to downtown via Penn Ave. The service runs only once an hour and mostly during commuting times, so it's not a good option for when I just want to head over to Lawrenceville for fun. I also have a running theory that if Pittsburgh hadn't gutted it's lightrail, I think more people would have stayed instead of moving out of state/into the suburbs. I'm so glad the algorithm showed me this video, can't to watch more! Loved this!
Appreciate it! Pittsburgh has a ton of charm and I loved riding the T
Underrated as always
Thank you! Appreciate it :)
Mt. Lebanon is (In) at the end not (on). The wasteland parking lot is full most mornings, especially in inclement weather. That area is more spread out so people have to drive to the station.
Part of the issue with running the T out toward/beyond the train station is that its a single track due to supports for the Steel Building. They are looking into a way to double track though but who knows if its ever going to happen.
In defense of the large parking lots at some of the stations the bus routes in the north and east have the same thing. It's part of a park and ride system. The further out you go the less likely there is good public transportation there just isn't a regular demand. Before the pandemic and remote working many people, who lived in the outlining communities also worked in the downtown section. Downtown Pittsburgh it notorious for outrageous parking prices at the garages and ticketing. So, park and ride offered people a chance to come part way with their car park and ride the trolly or bus to town.
This guy just has a hate boner for parking lots. If transit is supposed to be accessible, parking lots do that.
I go to school in Pittsburgh and they need an LRT extension into the college neighborhoods in Oakland and Duquesne that could also connect to PPG paints arena
Facts
I had a friend visit me a few weekends ago to go to an event at the PPG arena. Knowing we would be going bar hopping afterwards and not home anytime soon afterwards, we had no choice but to uber from my place in Upper St Clair to the arena....and then from downtown back home around 3AM. So, not only does coverage lack all around, but times of service aren't that great IMO. Yes, I have the station at SHV only a 5 minutes' drive from my house, but not only would it not take us near enough to the arena, but getting home would've been a problem, given the event didn't end till 9:30/10. I know many transit systems in sm/md cities don't operate at all hours, even with reduced frequency, but I would think a little later on a Friday or Saturday would be wise.
Oh 100%, especially because Pittsburgh has an amazing nightlife and bar scene
Pittsburgh is much better at buses than they are at trains. There was a proposal in the early 90s to build a subway tunnel under the hill to Oakland, but we got the sports tunnel under the Allegheny instead. I read the document, but can't recall where I found it I'm afraid; there were three options, one under Duquesne, one under the hill, and then a third that was basically a budget option. Apparently hill residents wanted the tunnel and had told the planners so in community outreach meetings, and for obvious reasons-- something like 40% of residents had no car. The East busway carries as many riders as the red and blue combined, iirc.
Wow that’s impressive! I didn’t get a chance to ride the busways but I didn’t know about those ridership numbers! Quite astounding
@@todgod It is one of the better pieces of bus infrastructure in this country. It should probably be a T line. An impressive demonstration of bus potential though, together with the new one going up in Oakland the East End is getting remarkably good for the humble bus, which the city is electrifying.
@@roblywobly he also didn't notice that a good stretch of the southern lines are a combined bus/rail way - double the pleasure, double the fun.
The T is great in its way, but as a regular visitor to Pittsburgh, it is kind of confusing for tourists. Few of the trains have system maps inside them, the guidance on when to swipe your travel pass is unclear, the posted schedule is often just a suggestion, and frequency of trains outside the Golden Triangle area is terrible. Many of the stations need a total overhaul with better shade options and seating. Still, I'm grateful I can stay in the South Hills and use it to go Downtown instead of driving. Something is better than nothing.
Google maps is the best way to navigate and track the rail, you have to find a station and click on it but it will tell you where all the cars are, pretty much down to the minute. Also the walking directions/etas are very useful. Once I started using that it all made sense.
The north of the city used to be mostly farmlands in the early years of the city. It wasn't until maybe 30 years ago that major development began up in cranberry/Ross township. They made the decision to go to a car centric design to be away from the stigma of public transportation = low income and undesirables. I believe they made the decision to go to BRT instead of the light rail to oakland because the costs associated would be in the multi billions to tunnel their way there, eminent domain properties, etc.
I think the T is good, but I live in the south hills where the t services and know many people who dislike the t because it doesn't serve their area.
I know people forever have been begging for a line to the airport after the north shore connector was built. I believe it was more feasible to continue the north shore connector, out to sewickley, and then across the ohio to the airport
major development in North Hills and McCandless occurred in the 50s 60s
There were trolley lines that went north to West View until the early 60’s .
I believe PRT should have developed a line from downtown via the East busway that looped through Oakland.
I totally agree about the airport.
Hopefully one of these days these can go to Monroeville and Robison N’at
At first I thought this was about Pittsburg, CA 😅
I will be covering Pittsburg, CA in my BART episode!
The issue with Pittsburgh's system is it has been gutted so badly from the 80s to now. If they had saved jusy 2 of the longer routes it would be utilized MUCH more
Interesting video. Maybe you should explain as well as City Nerd or Urbanity why there are so few TOD built along existing systems in Northern America. it's not the case in Europe, especially in France (Paris, Bordeaux, Nantes, Grenoble...) where TOD are systtematically built within reach of the Tram or LRT system (not Trolley which is not a Tram but an an electric bus with wires !)
I think part of it is an obsession with parking, either to 1). make the stations "park and ride" facilities or 2). because the TOD itself is required to have massive parking lots either by building codes themselves or by the investors, who can't imagine that every unit doesn't need two parking spaces. In either case, it's catering to ideas about auto-centric urban planning. Of course, parking can be made more space-efficient by adding parking garages or underground parking instead of surface lots but this radically increases the cost of TOD projects.
You call Overbrook a municipality, but it’s actually part of the city of Pittsburgh
I think if they expand their T line the city would actually see a comeback of growth, mixed use urbanism centered around light rail is super “in” right now and I think due to remote work, people are going to start moving to places that progress in this direction faster than others
Yeah a T line expansion in the long run would certainly be beneficial to communities in either North Beach or south by Sunnydale, with a ton of mixed use properties being served heavily by LR.
Regarding expansion, the proposed NEXTransit Network does include restoring the light rail Brown Line through Allentown.
I really wanna visit this city, but I wish they would build a line to the airport so I don't even have to potentially rent a car.
You can take the 28X bus from the airport to downtown and now even past downtown to Oakland and Shadyside! It's not as quick as a train would be but is better than nothing.
I agree with Bradley -- the 28x "Airport Flyer" bus isn't as good as light rail and only has the benefit of one of PGH's wonderful high speed bus-only "busways" for part of its route, but it's a great way to to to and from the airport.
I’ll give them a little credit I would much prefer light rail but Pittsburgh does have some bus ways to other communities that provide decent service and act similar to a light rail line. Would like to see more work done towards expanding the light rail network rather than more bus ways but it’s not the worst thing in the world. As someone who lives 5 minutes from a t station it’s really convenient to have especially for sporting events. Makes travel to downtown a lot easier, cheaper, and time saving because you avoid traffic and parking.
Pittsburgh native here. We don't call it Saw Mill Run Blvd. We just say Rt. 51.
Standard Gauge? Isn’t Pittsburgh using Pennsylvania Trolley Gauge?
I looked it up is 1588mm (5 ft 2+1/2 in) not 1435mm (4ft 8+1/2 in).
Anyway. When I at some point travel over the pond to the US I tend to do a cross country rail tour, maybe Pittsburgh will be on the list.
Yeah that’s totally my bad on that part. But yes I highly recommend Pittsburgh’s T! I’m sure it’ll be worth your while
Thanks for the Pittsburgh review. You missed the trolley museum, which would have been a great supplement to your review. There were many other trolley lines that served Pittsburgh back in the day from other parts of the region. One line that you briefly showed a marquee of “Charleroi” roughly ran about 35+ miles from downtown that then became a Greyhound line then a private company, 88 Transit, (I worked for them for about 23 years) and now a transit authority that competes with the PRT Silver line on part of the route. It’s sad how transit ridership in a lot of cities like Pittsburgh has declined. Come back and visit the trolley museum and explore a little more of the regional transit history.
Starting this Friday, April 5, after the Pittsburgh Pirates home opener, they are going to once again start using the spur from steel Plaza to Penn Park
They are starting a seven week long project to rebuild the track bed between steel Plaza and Gateway stations
They have been using the pen park spar on weekends for the past several months, but then realized the scope of the project was too complex to just do on the weekends so they’re gonna do this around the clock closure for seven weeks
The problem with that spur tunnel between Steel Plaza and Penn Station (now Union Station) is single track. For any expansion east to really happen, that tunnel needs to be widened and there's no will to do that. It really would be great if they could get the gumption to do that, but... **shrug**
Yeah… single tracking always leads to congestion issues
i thought the tunnel couldnt be widened due to foundational columns for the US Steel Building being too close
Having friends in PRT, 3 car trains don’t run in three car trains for revenue service, as the cars hate talking to each others when you add more than two together. The way the brakes release also cause troubles for this
The shared right-of-way with cars in Beechview isn't too bad because not too many people actually drive on the main street in Beechview, and it doesn't really slow the tram down at all.
Where shared right-of-way is REALLY a problem is the Allentown detour. There's a clusterf**k of an intersection coming down the hill toward the Panhandle Bridge, and the tram has to pass through it. This can result in 20-minute delays if the detour is during rush hour.
Blessed I haven’t encountered that Detour yet, heard it was rough!!
You said Pittsburgh Railways had 600 miles of trackage in 1918 with a fleet of 660 PCCs at the beginning of the video, but I thought the PCCs were from the 1940s?
1935. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCC_streetcar
My old hometown of NYC had the first fleet of PCC trolleys in August 1936 and the first regular PCC trolley line on October 1936. They had blinker doors like the ones in Pittsburgh, PA. and some of the other cities had folding doors like the ones on the older trolleys of the previous decade. By 1941 Saint Louis, Missouri had the first fleet with standee upper windows above the passenger windows and was copied by General Motors City transit buses until 1958 when the last of the old look buses were built.
When are you going to talk about BART?
In the south his parking lots are foe park and ride during the week and sports access
No line takes you to Kennywood. That is pretty depressing.
I know right!
Not anymore but when I was a kid in the 50s, I rode the 68 Kennywood many times and the 10 West View too.
nice video. you have a nice voice too.
When new video? Me demand new video! Drop everything you're doing and give us new video!
Seriously though! I would love to see a review of all/some of the new TOD polices that BART, Caltrain, Muni Metro, and VTA Light Rail have adopted. There seems to be a tooooooooon to talk about there with seemingly every park-and-ride in the Bay getting some type of TOD either planned or actively in construction. See the latest BART TOD "station village" approvals at Ashby and North Berkeley.
Muni soon :)
@@todgod Let's go!
(Your work is highly appreciated btw! Thank you for the work you do for our local transit community!)
What a great overview! I've only ever taken the part of the T north of the transit tunnel, but you've inspired me to spend an afternoon exploring the south hills. Btw, how did you make your map animations?
All the stops on the outer silver line that are lower are over 100 years old. Like kings school
You forgot to mention how baffling it is that the T doesn’t go to the airport.
Yeah, especially with the fact that Pittsburgh’s airport is getting a huge renovation
Rode it every day for many, many years. Needs a line into Oakland, other than that it is a great system that is unfortunately under-utilized
A very nice surprise of a light rail system, especially for a city that’s as small as Pittsburgh
14:33 did you just call the silver line gray?
Fun Fact: The rail cars that we use are either from 1984 or 2007 and are still in operation today.
Correction: the cars we use are from the 70's and 80's and were REFURBISHED in 2007. I'm a Rail Technician (I work on and repair the rail cars)
They need to run more trains out of North Shore after Pirates games
It would be nice if it ran to more places than it does
6:12 Bro's fighting the pole
The blue should be upgraded to light metro driverless operation then segregate it from the red line and reroute red to absorb the silver then extend it.
Pittsburgh has one of the most accessible older system in the country, I think. 31% of the NYC subway is accessible. Not that that's a good thing.
Dude, how is it that you know about all the planned TODs on this tiny light rail system in Pittsburgh, but you didn't know about a bunch of them by your own hometown's VTA light rail system?
Because I improved my video researching in the span of my RUclips channel, and now I spend much more time beforehand.
@@todgodThat's always good to hear! I also wish you discussed all the TOD that VTA counted on to make the light rail system viable but that was subsequently blocked by the local NIMBYs.
Ultimately, it's not just about what ended up being built by hook or crook, but about how they managed to push it through given the insanely NIMBY environment in most of these places.
A lot of people like light rail. But honestly i think busways are better. They are cheaper to build, plus the public transportation can venture off the line to other areas that need public transportation. A rail can only go where the rail goes.
The problem with those mall parking lots, is they need them for the holidays. It's so stupid.
Some people call Pittsburgh "a heterosexual San Francisco."
So, are you a Mill Hunk, or a Cake Eater?
✌🏾
dor-MONT
PRT's shunning of Light Rail is absolutely NAUSEATING ESPECIALLY in Oakland - Pittsburgh's academic and cultural center.. Katharine Kelleman as a CEO is uninspiring and they chose to value engineer a system to run through Oakland in a district that DESPERATELY needs a Subway. I have trouble seeing how this project will be successful with the amount of on-street supply loading on Forbes Avenue and pedestrian traffic. This is the best example of using a screwdriver when you need a hammer. Her arguemnt that It"S tOo ExPeNsIvE, does not help in moving the needle away from car centric investment towards commuter and lifestyle choice.
This took away the charm of the old street cars. They went through woods, close to houses, etc . This is boring and plain. The old trollies did what busses do and more. The T sucks
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