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Old 11-03-2015, 12:31 PM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, PA (Morningside)
14,361 posts, read 16,879,345 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UKyank View Post
That's what I'm curious about - I didn't know if the RR's currently served any businesses in the city directly anymore.
There's a few I know of still in the Strip and Lower Lawrenceville. I'm sure Chateau has them as well. The USPS facility in California-Kirkbride makes major use of the rail lines. Plus there's a scrapyard in Hazelwood, a facility on the North Shore upriver from Heinz Lofts, and a few businesses down by Neville Street in the "Busway valley." Probably more I'm not aware of south of the rivers as well.
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Old 11-03-2015, 03:42 PM
 
Location: Pittsburgh
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eschaton View Post
There's a few I know of still in the Strip and Lower Lawrenceville. I'm sure Chateau has them as well. The USPS facility in California-Kirkbride makes major use of the rail lines. Plus there's a scrapyard in Hazelwood, a facility on the North Shore upriver from Heinz Lofts, and a few businesses down by Neville Street in the "Busway valley." Probably more I'm not aware of south of the rivers as well.

UPS and OK Groceries over where Broached was, probably use it. I think there are industrial businesses in East Carnegie , like where Columbia Teledyne used to be.

Certainly not as many places use the rails as they did back in the day, but there are some.

And since the railroads have the right of ways, they aren't going to be likely moving them.
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Old 11-04-2015, 10:47 AM
 
175 posts, read 167,265 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam View Post

And since the railroads have the right of ways, they aren't going to be likely moving them.
Mostly this. Despite whatever inconvenience they may cause (personally I find them nostalgic, yet I don't quite agree with the long obnoxious whistles to warn people of something they should already be keenly aware of), they are a legacy and entitled to their rights of way etc, especially because they still provide a major function for the economy from the local to national scale. Many major junctions are located within the city too, so to not as simple as moving one line at a time.

I think we should first focus on the highways causing blight along our rivers (caps, boulevardization and/or ped/bike crossings everywhere) before worrying about the rail lines which are incredibly efficient means of moving goods, While it'd be nice to have an extensive passenger network, we still benefit greatly from having the most robust cargo rail system in the world. Unfortunately without expensive upgrades to the technology systems, passengers can't coexist with these trains without being a huge liability.

Since they are indeed here to stay, a great first step would be to reestablish lost connections and create new ones like at Panther Hollow and Duck Hollow @ Hazelwood via an under- or overpass. Also, if we are letting the railroads close crossings etc where they see fit, we should demand they also improve some of their **** poor road crossings in the region that often include limited sight lines, dog legs, low clearance, narrow lanes, etc etc. If they want to preach safety they need to put their money where their mouth is instead of leveraging said legacy only to close people off.
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Old 11-04-2015, 11:11 AM
 
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I had heard of a municipality where one of the big railroads came to council offering $x to close off half the grade crossings in town. They accepted the deal without asking for input from their solicitor and engineer. One of the crossings was the only access to several residents and a critical facility. The town wound up spending nearly $10x to create a new drivable pathway to restore access. Beware of large rail systems bearing gifts.
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Old 11-04-2015, 11:39 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ki0eh View Post
I had heard of a municipality where one of the big railroads came to council offering $x to close off half the grade crossings in town. They accepted the deal without asking for input from their solicitor and engineer. One of the crossings was the only access to several residents and a critical facility. The town wound up spending nearly $10x to create a new drivable pathway to restore access. Beware of large rail systems bearing gifts.
They are also carrying increasing amounts of hazardous material through our neighborhoods, it's only a matter of time before some place in America (our region stands as good a chance as any) experiences its own https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-..._rail_disaster

Meanwhile, one local municipality has already seen the realities of a lack of adequate access for residents

West Newton neighborhood works to avoid being cut off | TribLIVE
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Old 11-04-2015, 01:52 PM
 
1,146 posts, read 1,405,092 times
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If you ship or receive anything from UPS (and probably other carriers) to/from the West coast then it travels by train (via the loaded 35 foot trailers that would be on the road), to an intermodal place where the UPS tractors pick up the trailers and then take them to the New Stanton hub to continue on their way.

I used to work at UPS on the midnight shift. These trailers would usually spike the volume going through the hub early on in the shift. There were several times where the "rails were late" and we would get that volume mixed in with the other heavy volume times of the shift and then you were drowning in boxes. Interesting experience. The amount of logistics involved that UPS, FedEx, etc do to deliver stuff is insane.
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Old 11-04-2015, 02:25 PM
 
5,894 posts, read 6,842,546 times
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I just wish we had more riverfront usage as cities that do seem more connected & less neighborhood segregation by dreaded rivers & bridges to cross as the pedestrian areas meld together a bit from one side of the river to the other, but unfortunately a good portion of our riverfront land is all rails & roads.
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Old 11-04-2015, 03:11 PM
 
Location: Pittsburgh
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UKyank View Post
I just wish we had more riverfront usage as cities that do seem more connected & less neighborhood segregation by dreaded rivers & bridges to cross as the pedestrian areas meld together a bit from one side of the river to the other, but unfortunately a good portion of our riverfront land is all rails & roads.
When the whole system was designed, the rails, rivers and roads were designed for the advantage of industry, moving freight in and out of the numerous factories and mills. It gave the impression to me as a youngun that I was living in the middle of a large cohesive factory, with the heavy barge traffic on the rivers, the rails and roads running parallel and the high degree of pollution being effused into the waterways. Its a new world where the rivers are considered recreational and the riverfront considered a desirable place to be or to live.
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Old 11-04-2015, 04:11 PM
 
Location: The canyon (with my pistols and knife)
14,169 posts, read 22,596,535 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UKyank View Post
I just wish we had more riverfront usage as cities that do seem more connected & less neighborhood segregation by dreaded rivers & bridges to cross as the pedestrian areas meld together a bit from one side of the river to the other, but unfortunately a good portion of our riverfront land is all rails & roads.
The Allegheny River is quickly becoming a major recreational asset for the Pittsburgh area, and has become very active with people. The Monongahela River near the South Side is also becoming more active, but the presence of heavy industry upriver with its resultant barges and pollution will ultimately prevent the Monongahela from ever being as appealing as the Allegheny. A couple of years ago, I saw a list of the 50 most polluted rivers in the U.S., and the Allegheny didn't even make the list, so it's no coincidence that recreation has flourished on it.

Realistically, no city can preserve its entire riverfront, and no city will ever be entirely pretty either. The ugly, utilitarian stuff like railroads, highways, ports, dams, landfills, sewage treatment plants, power plants and power lines all have to go somewhere, and sometimes the only place they can go is along the river. When I deride SimCity urbanism, I'm deriding people who are so hell-bent on making every corner of a city pretty that they're willing to either neglect or demolish all the ugly stuff that actually makes the city function properly. Those people are incredibly myopic.
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Old 11-05-2015, 10:47 AM
 
175 posts, read 167,265 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UKyank View Post
I just wish we had more riverfront usage as cities that do seem more connected & less neighborhood segregation by dreaded rivers & bridges to cross as the pedestrian areas meld together a bit from one side of the river to the other, but unfortunately a good portion of our riverfront land is all rails & roads.
The key will be to continue to develop our riverfront parks, even if that means they abut active rail lines, and provide connections where logical/feasible. Crossing from Southside Works to the Jail Trail via the Hot Metal Bridge is a pleasant experience because on one side the rail line is buried and on the other side the trail passes over the tracks in such a way that most don't even think of them as being impeding.

I still think the highways (65/279 on north side, 28 on Allegheny River, 376 through downtown) create more of a barrier than the railroads.
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