Some 'T' stops being elimiated (stations, businesses, distance)

[Blackbeauty212]

I still don't get people's excessive obsession with spending hundreds of millions of dollars converting the E Busway which is hugely effective when used at its peak potential and moves far more people at far faster speeds than Light Rail would....

I was on the NSC when I was home over the holiday weekend, and let me tell you....That Sh*t is slower than molasses going up hill on a 100 degree day...Its goes no faster than 5 MPH and stops at every signal in tunnel between Wood and Allegheny. I would cringe if we lost the Busway system to that slow mess. They spent 500 million on a what should be really a 2 min ride is more like 7-8 mins from Wood Street to Allegheny because it moves so friggin SLOOOOWWWWW!.

[BrianTH]

The chief source of benefit of trolleybuses would be energy savings, followed by lower maintenance costs. I'd agree you would have to do the math and make sure those categories of savings provided a sufficient return on a sufficiently short time-frame to justify the capital investment.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

I still don't get people's excessive obsession with spending hundreds of millions of dollars converting the E Busway which is hugely effective when used at its peak potential and moves far more people at far faster speeds than Light Rail would....

I agree that I think a lot of people are confusing the T with heavy-rail systems in terms of how they imagine it operating.

Now extending the East Busway to Monroeville--that would be a worthy project.

[pman]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

I still don't get people's excessive obsession with spending hundreds of millions of dollars converting the E Busway which is hugely effective when used at its peak potential and moves far more people at far faster speeds than Light Rail would....

I was on the NSC when I was home over the holiday weekend, and let me tell you....That Sh*t is slower than molasses going up hill on a 100 degree day...Its goes no faster than 5 MPH and stops at every signal in tunnel between Wood and Allegheny. I would cringe if we lost the Busway system to that slow mess. They spent 500 million on a what should be really a 2 min ride is more like 7-8 mins from Wood Street to Allegheny because it moves so friggin SLOOOOWWWWW!.

well, there's really no reason it has to be slower than a bus. that said, the T is really an example of poor planning and implementation from start (decades ago) to today. they stuck it in a tunnel because they wanted more street space on the smithfield bridge...the bridge is a more direct route downtown. the tunnel alignment is a butchered spine line without the important east end piece and built to lrt standards that would likely be inadequate should it ever run to the east end. the busways are nice, but expensive. if I were going to instruct someone on what a haphazard transit system might look like, pittsburgh would be fairly high on the list. the busway is where it is because it cannibalized the railroad, the T goes into a tunnel because, again, the tunnel existed asa part of the pennsy's connection between it's main and the acquired steubenville branch and makes a good bit of sense when travelling from the east to steubenville OH. that said, I do think that a johnstown-pittsburgh "keystone" service in addition to better pittsburgh-philly-ny service would need more than two tracks in and out of pittsburgh given the heavy freight traffic and the busway eats up enough territory that it the right of way could probably accomodate 3 more tracks...and with the new ruling, lrt could share that track. not that any of it matters since it all requires money that isn't available.

[UKyank]

I especially like the super tight turns on the line downtown (I sincerely hope they were necessary for reasons other than just being engineered that way) that make the trains squeak & scrape like no other transit I've ever used.

[pman]

Originally Posted by UKyank

I especially like the super tight turns on the line downtown (I sincerely hope they were necessary for reasons other than just being engineered that way) that make the trains squeak & scrape like no other transit I've ever used.

Sharp turn at smithfield.bridge to avoid the old routing and use an old rr routing...then another sharp turn towards wood and first.ally the new sharp turn ...since they didnt want to use the old gateway which would have bypassed pnc. If you'll notice station sq to Penn stn has the straight move.

[fleetiebelle]

I took the T the other day, and noticed that my closest stop, Coast, is now being eliminated:

Port Authority of Allegheny County > News & Events > Latest News

The only change from the initial list of stops identified a week ago is in Beechview, where the Coast stop will be eliminated instead of the Hampshire stop. The change was made following appeals by State Senator Wayne D. Fontana and Phyllis DiDiano of the Community Leaders United for Beechview on behalf of the Beechview business community. The business community believed that the Hampshire location better served the community's business district than the Coast location.

It's pretty ridiculous, because the Hampshire stop is literally 200 feet from the Fallowfield station, while the next stop is a quarter mile away (not that that's a huge distance, but still.)

[gallacus]

Originally Posted by fleetiebelle

I took the T the other day, and noticed that my closest stop, Coast, is now being eliminated:

Port Authority of Allegheny County > News & Events > Latest News


It's pretty ridiculous, because the Hampshire stop is literally 200 feet from the Fallowfield station, while the next stop is a quarter mile away (not that that's a huge distance, but still.)

That's insane. The Hampshire stop may be the single most superfluous rail stop in the entire country. I challenge anyone to find two rail stops so close together on any line anywhere!

I was so excited that they were getting rid of that one, bummer.

[fleetiebelle]

The Hampshire stop may be the single most superfluous rail stop in the entire country. I challenge anyone to find two rail stops so close together on any line anywhere!

It always feels like (at least at the outbound stops) that when the front of the train is at Hampshire, the back is still at Fallowfield.

[andyt4579]

Every day coming home, The T will stops at Hampshire to drop people off, and you watch the people who got off at Fallowfield as they walk by. It is insane. But its also the closest stop to the 'heart' of the Beechview business district.