The "T" and the Penn Avenue Station (Pittsburgh: living, cost of)

[gofonso]

This may be a dumb question but i cant get over the fact that though the infrastructure for the station is present in the "Penn Avenue" station on the east busway why is the station being unused?The T stops at US Steel station and goes right over to first avenue.


Thanks
gofonso

[urbanpreppie05]

Penn Station stop? Closed for Lack of use because only one track goes from US Steel to Penn Station and it was too time consuming to run a single train at a time, so it wasnt used.

[BobMcKelvin]

I wasn't aware that it was single tracked...that may explain the low ridership if indeed that was the case. It seems to me it would only serve as a shuttle between Steel Plaza and Penn Station the way it's currently set up. The established red and blue lines already go all the way to the north shore, it wouldn't be very efficient to have any of those trains detour to Penn Station. Even if they resurrected the Brown Line and had a terminus there, I question if the ridership would prove economical (would it be part of the free fare zone?) as the Brown Line/52 only ran once an hour anyways if I recall.

In an ideal world Penn Station would be the first stop on that branch, not the only stop. I can envision a climb up to Bigelow (which would be put in a "road diet" to accommodate a set of tracks in each direction) with stops at the staircases to the Hill District and Polish Hill (does the latter exist? SCR?) as well as Herron, Finland, and the Bloomfield Bridge before continuing onto Craig and Baum to S'Liberty. Alternatively the line could find a way over the busway and train tracks to be a surface line through the Strip into Lawrenceville or Bloomfield, perhaps as part of the circulator route involving Oakland and Hazelwood.

I agree it seems like a waste to have the infrastructure in place, but truth be told it's pretty useless infrastructure as it currently stands and it's going to involve some major decisions (and major $$$) to incorporate any of the kinds of changes needed to make it useful. Just my opinion though I'd love to hear any better ideas.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by BobMcKelvin

In an ideal world Penn Station would be the first stop on that branch, not the only stop. I can envision a climb up to Bigelow (which would be put in a "road diet" to accommodate a set of tracks in each direction) with stops at the staircases to the Hill District and Polish Hill (does the latter exist? SCR?) as well as Herron, Finland, and the Bloomfield Bridge before continuing onto Craig and Baum to S'Liberty. Alternatively the line could find a way over the busway and train tracks to be a surface line through the Strip into Lawrenceville or Bloomfield, perhaps as part of the circulator route involving Oakland and Hazelwood.

That might not be that practical, climbing up Bigelow Blvd with an LRT car might be too steep of a grade for that vehicle.


The idea of the Penn Station stop was to provide service to the East Busway stop and connect the south hills to points east.


I thought the idea of building the LRT tracks under the Allegheny at the point wasn't that great.

Penn Station could have been useful if they would have used the bottom, unused deck of the Ft. Wayne Railroad Bridge to cross the Allegheny.

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

That might not be that practical, climbing up Bigelow Blvd with an LRT car might be too steep of a grade for that vehicle.


The idea of the Penn Station stop was to provide service to the East Busway stop and connect the south hills to points east.


I thought the idea of building the LRT tracks under the Allegheny at the point wasn't that great.

Penn Station could have been useful if they would have used the bottom, unused deck of the Ft. Wayne Railroad Bridge to cross the Allegheny.

The North Shore Connector was to include a spur to the convention center via Penn Station. That spur was eliminated as the cost of the project ballooned.

[szug-bot]

This unused station bugs me. It can be used to go up to the 21st street bridge, then turn left, cross Liberty, then cross Penn, then use Smallman or Railroad to go all the way up to freakin' Lawrenceville!

I am not a big fan of surface rail, but I think this could service 100 people on one trip from Penn Station to almost 40th Street. So it sits there, rotting under pigeon droppings.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by szug-bot

I am not a big fan of surface rail, but I think this could service 100 people on one trip from Penn Station to almost 40th Street. So it sits there, rotting under pigeon droppings.

If you're in town, and wanted to go to Lawrenceville, why would you want to have to walk all the way up to Penn Station to take a train which will let you off at just a single stop on 40th St?


Its a lot easier to take the bus which goes all the way downtown, and once in L'ville, will drop you at 39th, 40th, Main, 44th or 46th. Less of a walk and more convenient on both ends. Less expensive to operate as well.


Maybe if Pat extends the T out the East St. Valley, to McKnight or even Wexford and Cranberry, it can use the unused deck on the Ft. Wayne Bridge and originate at Penn Station.

[szug-bot]

Well, maybe it can be an express, maybe used 4 times daily. I surely would walk to Penn Station and take an express up to Lawrenceville if i lived there, or if i left my car there.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by szug-bot

Well, maybe it can be an express, maybe used 4 times daily. I surely would walk to Penn Station and take an express up to Lawrenceville if i lived there, or if i left my car there.

I don't think most people would. It isn't a long trip on the bus right now, and the trip could be shortened a bit right now at minimal expense if PAT wanted to route some trips via the Busway to 26th St.

Unless there was some destination in Lawrenceville that could really develop transit traffic, such a route would probably be throwing good money after bad.

I can't see this as being a great advantage for someone living on 45th St., and having to walk 5 blocks to a train and then from Penn Station to their final destination in town, as opposed to just taking a Butler St. bus and being dropped on Penn or Liberty in town.

[_Buster]

It's not single tracked at Penn station, take a look at Google earth, clearly shows double track. Whether there was a bottleneck underground in the subway portion somewhere I don't know.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pi...f915a15aa21b34