A Complete Tour of Pittsburgh's Lost Light Rail Line
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Back in the day, the Allentown Line carried the 52 Streetcar, later known as the Brown Line, over Mount Washington and into Downtown Pittsburgh. Today, the line is maintained as a deviation route for light rail trains that can't use the more direct Mount Washington Transit Tunnel. Here's a full end-to-end ride on one!
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Classy Whale - at-least-weekly misadventures with trains and transit!
Pittsburgh should run trolley buses.
More the merrier.
They brought in a Battery Bus Prototype, but I'm guessing that didn't go well. I think they were failing State Police Inspections across the country. Pittsburgh wasn't the only pilot test city for them.
I've always wondered about this line but I haven't thought about it since seeing Vanishing Underground's Evolution of Pittsburgh's Public Transit Video, and I never realized what a cool story it had. Great video idea!
I rode PCC cars on this line nearly fifty ago. I enjoyed doing it again with your video. I hope they restore regular service
If the neighborhood is really considered an urban renewal project, it would make a LOT of sense to reintroduce the streetcar there. If I am not mistaken, the branch to the railway station is also closed but still there, so maybe they could jsut run a new line that connects everything up. Here in Europe such thing would be obvious
One way to bring service back to this line would be to add a fourth line from, say, Carnegie to Penn Station via Allentown. It is clear that Carnegie would be an amazing extension, and reestablishing access to both Allentown and Penn would drastically improve service quality in Pittsburgh. Also, make a free fare zone between Allegheny and Station Square.
Hopefully this line will open up again, former stops should at least have a short high level platform which only has space for one door, don’t know how efficient this would be with 2 LRVs coupled together, however these stops would have up to code ramps to make them accessible.
I enjoy your videos. Is it possible to take a ride on the old 47D Light Rail line? I remember hearing about it being discontinued but not sure when that happened.
I don't believe it's ever used for service, but some of it is still used as a storage track!
It should be operated by one of the two lines
Nice to see they have a work around when the tunnel is undergoing repairs! 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, and 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
Fun fact, the control systems for both the PRT Light Rail and the Alaskan line you mentioned were created by the same company: Union Switch & Signal. They were purchased, renamed to Ansaldo STS USA, and that's when I worked for said company to learn of this fun tidbit. The named changed again recently in 2019 to Hitachi Rail STS.
This is so weird to see Pittsburgh just not using this line more regularly, other cities spend tens of millions on downtown streetcar loops and Pittsburgh already has everything but the vehicles and ticket machines to create a more useful local route for less money
Allentown in Pittsburgh has a different name origin than the city though: Allentown was carved out of St. Clair Township, which was one of the original townships of Allegheny County. On April 26, 1827, Joseph Allen, an Englishman, purchased the land that would eventually be known as Allentown from Jeremiah Warder. Allentown would be incorporated on March 2, 1870, and annexed by Pittsburgh on April 2, 1872.
Meanwhile the city of Allentown is named after Chief Justice William Allen, chief justice of Pennsylvania from 1750 to 1774, who owned thousands of acres known as the Allen tract, given to him by the Penn family in 1748. In that tract, Allen laid out a town that he called Northampton, because it was still in Northampton County at the time, though many are said to have called it “Allen’s town.” An effort was made by William Allen and others to move the county seat from Easton to Allentown, but the Penns' influence prevailed, and the county seat remained in Easton. He gave the property to his son James in 1767. Allentown wouldn't be called such until 1838.
Honestly the brown line should be revived, the current bus service through the area on the 48 bus is really subpar. I'd say have it run from south hills, through Allentown, and up to Union station so that also gets serviced and can connect to the busway there. Either that or make one of the other lines go there and have the Brown line go to Allegheny.
I will also say, the city and transit authority should whenever getting new trains probably consider getting ones that have better entry from the street level than just a single narrow front door.
From what i heard there are plans to reopen the Brown Line for regular service again
Cool! I wish Boston had something like this!
Definitely, when there’s green line closures for tunnel inspections in the downtown area they should definitely have an alternate route because that delayed me like 1hr 20mins
@@42ndStreetShuttle ikr!!
At least to Arlington Street to the west and North Station to the north.
That would have been the Arborway "E" branch; The line in this posting was cited by JP advocates when the "T" was working on the final solution to the streetcar question
Pittsburgh had more transit than now
Yeah, now it's a bit...over the hill 😂
Why isnt this line in use? "This predominately african-american neighborhood..." Ah thats why, right, right.
It's a little sus
Planners from Port Authority (now PRT) accused me of being racist for advocating for rail expansion (still trying to figure out the logic behind that), meanwhile the majority of their transit cuts such as cutting the Allentown Line or discontinuing the PATrain to McKeesport, not to mention the nearly quarterly cutbacks to bus service, disproportionately affect minority riders.
Brown line from Penn Station to Library
It's not really "lost".
That's the old 52-Allentown Line (later renamed Brown Line).
I rode it a handful of times when my ex lived above SHJ, and hardly ANYONE used it.
Wasn't worth the ATU Pay to keep a schedule running all the time, so now it's just s Detour Route whenever the Mt. Washington Transit Tunnel is undergoing repairs.
Overbrook line is not disused. That's the Blue Line that goes down along Saw Mill Run Boulevard before going into the South Hills.
The first successful electric streetcar line in Pittsburgh was the 57 Glenwood which went to downtown Pittsburgh via @nd Avenue through Hazelwood. I believe the year waw 1884.
From Pittsburgh all the way to Allentown you can simply stay on US-22 East. Be aware NJ Border is MP 337.9 while I-78 MP 77.3 NJ boundary. Speaking of the light rail system in Pittsburgh if they need to order new trains Alstom Citadis Sprint will work made in Upstate NY Hornell Salt Lake City Stadler Tango also fits and lastly CAF Urbos used in Boston and Washington DC Purple line works too. These need to be the 5'2 1.58m track version unlike the 4'5 8.5 ft 1.435m track versions of Boston and DC light rail systems.
Notably, Pittsburgh light rail uses a broad gauge known as PA Trolly Gauge, 5ft 2.5in. Standard Gauge is 4ft 8.5 in.
SEPTA (Philadelphia) Streetcars and Market Frankford Line (heavy metro) use this gauge.
New Orleans streetcars also use this gauge.
Interestingly, SEPTA's Broad Street Line (heavy metro) uses standard gauge.
That was fun to watch! And you really did your research!
0:44 it was also the last to use that tunnel lol
Has there been any talk of the form reviving this would take? There’s a still low floor platforms in the tunnel yeah? A Penn to South Hills streetcar would seem to make a lot of sense.
Very cool!
Very cool!
If they use Low Floor trains, then they could put those low platforms underground that were meant to serve PCCs to good use?
It would also be really nice if you talked about the other lost line- the Drake Line
what is the best way to be notified when the tunnel is closed, would love to ride this line at some point
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Modern streetcars with low floors would be incompatible with the downtown tunnel though. Its stations have high platforms iirc. Wouldn't the streetcars have to turn around before the tracks descend into it? And then people will want downtown surface streetcars with future extensions possible to the north and out east.
Steel Plaza and Wood Street have low platforms for PCCs! First Ave would be the only station that would need modifications if you turned back at WS
@@ClassyWhale Didn't know that, thanks.
Hey Classy Whale! I’ll be heading up to Pittsburgh in less than a week! Super excited to check out this city and the PRT!
Damn! I want to visit Pittsburgh just to ride the light rail system even more now!
This is something I've really wanted to see on a railroad, a route that normally takes place on it's own right of way, but on special occasions, takes a street running route.
We’re getting close to 6k boys 🎉
Fantastic Video 😊
Every bus line without a letter designation was a trolley line. Pittsburgh is a shell of it's former self. Its current state is pitiful
On one of my trips to Pittsburgh when they still used PCC cars I got to ride the old route that served the neighborhood. I feel they still should run regular service on this line. There are plenty of houses and business on this route. I am sure it would have reasonable useage with good service. I am sure it would especially be good in winter when snow can slow down or stop busses over this route.
wait, is the UK thing happening imminently? I want to join you between York and Washington
UK will be next March! This was an unrelated thing that just happened all of a sudden
@@ClassyWhale phew! I’m busy this month, so was a bit panicky
The black box pretty much ruins the video.
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Thank you for bringing us this very interesting video presentation, it is great that they keep the route open even if it is at the moment for deviations, most useful and a sensible thing to do.