Exploring Pittsburgh's ABANDONED Light Rail Stations

[@vernondotson2975]

"Here on Classy Whale, we do not trespass." Legal. Ethical. Moral. Classy.

[@michaelfrank1048]

Thanks for having me and the other guys on! This was quite the fun night :) - Michael

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

The light-rail really should be a lot bigger, but I love the system's interurban and subway charm, and it's interesting to dive deeper into the system's history! While the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel is the only tunnel in the US shared by bus and rail services, it's not the only road-rail tunnel left in the US! There's another in Alaska, the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, which serves Whittier, the place where nearly all of its population lives in one building, Begich Towers! Begich Towers was built in the 1950s originally to house the US Army Corps of Engineers. 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. After the army stopped using it, Begich Towers became public housing, and many people from Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, and the Philippines moved in! Today, Whittier has been a port of call for Alaskan cruises, and also a port for the important Alaska Marine Highway, and the Alaska Railroad uses Whittier as its connection to the rail systems in Canada and the lower 48 states by way of rail barge, with barges going all the way to Harbor Island in Seattle. And I can't help but think of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood when thinking about Pittsburgh's trolley heritage. Living along the Metro-North's Hudson Line as a kid was what got me into trains and urbanism with Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow, but Mister Rogers got me into the concept of trolleys/streetcars, to the point when I moved to Jersey City and realized it had a "trolley", I was excited. I think it helped turn us into urbanists, because it helped us better understand walkable transit communities through the models on the show. The trolley on the show was hand-built from wood by a Toronto man named Bill Ferguson in 1967, the year before Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood premiered. During one 1984 episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, he visited the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum and remembered accompanying his dad on long trolley trips. Fred Rogers was originally from Latrobe which is outside Pittsburgh, known to be the place where the banana split was created! Viewers wrote to Rogers about why there were no people aboard the trolley, to which he responded that the lack of passengers encouraged kids at home to visualize themselves aboard. Rogers was a big fan of trains, and one day when it was a rainy day in NYC and he opted to take the subway instead of taking a taxi, the train was crowded in schoolchildren. But instead of them asking for his autograph, they sang his theme song in unison, turning the train into a choir (in a movie about Fred with Tom Hanks, they changed it to adults singing). Fred Rogers was an incredible person. He made the US govt realize the importance of public educational broadcasting. LBJ introduced 20 million funding for PBS before he left office, but Nixon wanted to slash it to 10 million. If it wasn't for Fred and his powerful speech when he testified to the Senate in 1969, PBS wouldn't have been able to secure the funding it needed from the government. Fred saved PBS in 1969 by reading a children's song to a senator. His speech was so powerful, it brought Senator John Pastore of Rhode Island (who chaired the Subcommittee on Communications) to tears. The senator went from mocking him to practically holding back tears.

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Love the Pittsburgh skyline! Some of my other favorite skylines in the world are also mountainous cities, like Rio de Janeiro and Hong Kong! With Rainier in the background, Seattle's skyline is also stunning! Vancouver also looks great with the North Shore Mountains! While the Allentown neighborhood shares a name with the city in Lehigh County, they are named after two different people. The one in Pittsburgh is named after Joseph Allen, an Englishman who purchased the land that would eventually be known as Allentown from Jeremiah Warder in 1827. It was annexed by Pittsburgh in 1872. The community of Library was once known as Loafer's Hollow, it was renamed Library by its residents in honor of the first library in the area, founded by John Moore in 1833. Pittsburgh's Penn Station was designed by the famed Daniel Burnham! As mentioned, the Amtrak station is known as both Penn Station and Union Station, but the latter is a misnomer since it was only served by the Pennsylvania RR as other railroads used other stations like Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Station and the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal. Fun fact about PCCs and their history in Pittsburgh, the very first PCC to enter revenue service was in August 1936 in Pittsburgh! Its 666 PCCs were second in number to Chicago’s 683 among US operators. As mentioned, PCCs were operated in Pittsburgh until 1999, one of the longest tenures of any PCC operator. Pittsburgh Railways Company began the PCC era with Car No. 100, which began carrying passengers shortly before Brooklyn’s first PCCs did. Pittsburgh rapidly expanded its PCC fleet in a bid to modernize its extensive streetcar system, which once numbered 68 lines. Pittsburgh’s PCCs routinely climbed grades up to 15%, far steeper than Muni's PCCs in San Francisco had to handle. The MLK Jr East Busway was originally a Pennsylvania Railroad line, and planning for the East Busway began shortly after the Port Authority of Allegheny County purchased the Pittsburgh Railways Company in 1964. The original segment of the busway opened in February 1983, running between Downtown Pittsburgh and Edgewood for 6.8 miles, before expanding to 9.1 miles in 2002. The Pyongyang Metro has its own permanently closed station, Kwangmyong station on the Hyoksin Line. The station closed in 1995 because the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun is located at the station. The palace was once Kim Il-sung's residence, but it became the mausoleum of Kim Il-sung after he passed in 1994 (and Kim Jong-il after he passed in 2011). Thus as the station's location became sacred ground, it closed, and as a replacement, a tram shuttle line was built, connecting Samhung station on the Hyoksin Line to the palace. The Kumsusan tram line is operated by the military using a Swiss tram built in the late 1940s that was retired from the Zurich network in 1994 where it was purchased by us the next year.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

I agree, I love the Brutalist design of Steel Plaza, really makes it stand out! And it doesn't come as a surprise that Pittsburgh has more steps than any other city in the US. Pittsburgh has nearly 800 sets of city-owned steps! Pittsburgh's public stairways were a lifeline for many residents, enabling steel workers who lived in the hills to commute down to the mill in the valley and back each day. Steps served a functional purpose in everyday life, a daily trudge of necessity. Stacked one on top of the other, a stair walker would climb 24,000 vertical feet of steps to complete them all, a four-and-a-half-mile stairway. More than 45,000 individual steps dispersed throughout the landscape. As Pittsburgh’s population grew in the late 1800s, the need for reliable transportation systems became apparent. While omnibuses and trolleys were available, the fee to ride was often beyond what new arrivals and laborers could regularly afford. The hilly terrain of course also posed a challenge, but the solution came in the form of public stairways. The city began constructing long flights of wooden stairways in the 1870s, and by 1937, over 13 miles were available, with more flights of city steps being constructed every year. As World War II ended, Pittsburgh City Council members and Mayor Cornelius D. Scully proactively started planning post-war infrastructure updates, including replacing nearly 100 flights of wooden city steps plagued by structural issues. Concrete stairs with steel railings were engineered and installed as they were more durable and had a life span ranging between 50 and 75 years. As shown in your other vids, 344 flights of stairs are legal streets, with specially designed street signs. In the early days of GPS systems, drivers were commonly misdirected to flights of stairs. And the terrain means every flight is custom-designed and unique. In 2014, then newly elected mayor Bill Peduto tasked city planners with conducting a citywide steps assessment to collect data and photos documenting each staircase’s location and condition. The city steps were part of Peduto’s plan to promote environmentally friendly transportation and provide mobility options for the 20 percent of residents without vehicles. In 2017, the City Steps Plan was released. Through community meetings, field visits, and survey collections, quantitative and qualitative data helped determine what flights were critical for accessing public transportation, schools, grocery stores, hospitals, libraries, houses of worship, and main street business corridors. The plan helped systematize and prioritize the upkeep of city steps in areas with the greatest need. The first of several large-scale city steps rebuilding projects was Joncaire Street in Central Oakland, near the University of Pittsburgh and Schenley Park. Completed in late 2018, the new stairs had a lower profile for easier climbing, closed railings and enhanced lighting for safety, an embedded bike runnel for cyclists, and stormwater and invasive species management features.

[@anonymoos]

I recently learned that the PRT is trying to convert the Drake line to a multi-use recreational trail for walking/biking but retain ownership of the corridor in case they want to re-activate it at a later date. They are looking for community support for this plan, including an organization to manage this converted trail. This would be a good extension of off-road cycling access in Bethel Park and Upper St Clair, with a reasonable path to the Montour Trail Bethel Branch along the wide shouldered Drake Road and more-quiet residential Patterson Road.

[@SleepTrain456]

As usual, I found this informative! I've heard of some of those abandoned stations and lines, but I didn't know about some of those stations, like the loop at Gateway Center. Also, I've heard that some of those lines might be used again in the future: the PRT has plans to restore the Brown Line and the Penn Station spur as a single line. Thanks for the video!

[@stevens1041]

Pittsburgh looks beautiful when it's not covered in snow. Cool rail system, thanks for the tour.

[@BrodyMK64]

Was very happy to be featured in this video!

[@nebula3lem123]

10:58 I have 2 guesses here, it could either be 1: a guard rail to keep derailed trains from hitting the wall of the tunnel or 2: a derailer switch to prevent trains from going further down the line

[@29downtheline]

Excellent video! I’m really not too familiar with Pittsburgh’s light rail, but couldn’t they operate to some of those abandoned stations on the still-existing lines as flagstops?

[@ClassyWhale]

Most of the system is actually flagstops! There's a stop request system and everything. In retrospect I should have highlighted this, but I got so used to it that I didn't think to!

[@29downtheline]

@@ClassyWhale Ah that makes sense! The light rail I ride most often (the Tide) makes every stop, regardless of whether anyone wants to board or detrain there, so I guess I’m just used to not having flagstops!

[@DylanSargesson]

I feel like so many of those closed stations will be reopened in the future with the next generations being angry at the planners of today for ever closing them. That's definitely the feeling we have in England with so many fomer passenger lines wanting to be reopened.

[@NottJoeyOfficial]

There are already some talks about completely reopening the tunnel bypass route as a normal line again. Currently since 2012, it has only been used when the tunnel has been closed, but before that it was a normal service with over 10 stops. I'm not sure if it will open again as a normal route, but I'd definitely love to try it if it was!

[@NottJoeyOfficial]

Hearing Pittsburgh Regional Transit and whatever the stadium is called now since it's too hard to spell instead of Port Authority and Heinz Field still gets to me lol. I don't think I'll ever get used to those two name changes. As someone who has lived here all my life, it's insane that I didn't know this at all! I never used public transit in Pittsburgh before 2013, and the only place I've been on the light rail is between the North Shore and downtown since that stretch is free to ride on. I wasn't aware of all of these abandoned areas, and now I definitely want to try this rail system out soon! Thanks for this amazing video showing me some history of Pittsburgh that I never knew!

[@drescherjm]

3:48 Steel Plaza was my favorite stop. I have been in that location thousands of times mostly from the late 1980s to 2004. I had moved off the red line then so I'm not on the rail service that often.

[@Iamang-ry]

I highly recommended reading the absolutely “off the rails” history of the Mount Washington Tunnel. It is a perfect example of “first as tragedy, then as farce.”

[@EddieLeindecker-re1hg]

I actually remember when I was a little boy riding the pcc’s with my father from Gateway center to McNeely Station In 1999 when I was in high school I was one of the people that got to take a last ride on the 47D Drake before it was discontinued In February, they are going to be resuming service to Penn Station due to track work. They’re gonna be doing at Steele Plaza so if you get another opportunity to take a ride, take advantage because it’s only gonna be for one month and one month only. I am also told and I don’t know how true this is that the rails from the Drake loop were donated to the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum

[@thetrainguy1]

I wish Pittsburgh light rail system was much bigger.

[@ClassyWhale]

Me too bro

[@thedapperdolphin1590]

I regularly look at all the freight rail tracks and wish they were used for the trolley. Taking the tracks along the Mon and Allegheny would actually go a long way for connecting the county.

[@brianhubert8418]

Great video. What a complex story. How much of these changes do you feel are progress and how many do you feel are regression? Merry Christmas!!

[@ClassyWhale]

@@brianhubert8418 honestly most of the closures make sense, but I'd love to see the Brown Line return - with a less unfortunate name 😂

[@transitcaptain]

I often find myself thinking that the Pittsburgh light rail could be so much better Whether it was going to more places, frequency, or just the fact that they were a lot more useful back in the days of interurban Street cars I think they could still be as good as it was with expansion

[@puh_euet9095]

I laughed out loud at the ending lol THERE WAS A CLASSY WHALE VIDEO WITH SUBCRIBERS IN PITTSBURGH AND I WASNT IN IT NOOOOOOOOO.........

[@drescherjm]

As a resident I really wished that the service was extended into Oakland and was underground that instead of the bus service on Fifth avenue and Forbes. I had wanted that for decades since I was a student of Pitt starting in 1989 and then an employee after graduation. I still work at the university but live near the airport where there is no light rail service for many miles.

[@NickBurman]

It's worth noting that what is today the Overbrook line (and I believe the Drake spur was also part of it) was once a 3'4" gauge railway called the Pittsburgh & Castle Shannon (Google it, there is a nice page about it). The weird gauge (1016mm, so just a tad over meter gauge) was once common inside PA coal mines and influenced the wish of promoters to run coal trains directly from the mine face to a barge loader on the Monongahela. Pittsburgh Railways bought the company and rebuilt the line for trolley car service - for a while a part of the Overbrook line was mixed gauge, 5'2.5"/3'4", to allow coal trains to continue running. This didn't last long as the mines played out.

[@davidkacprzyk1989]

The east busway should be converted to rail with a branch at neville to serve oakland

[@hyperthreader]

There is something to see on the Overbrook line. Right before Bon Air outbound, you can see the old grade the PCCs used that's closer to the edge of the hillside. The tracks are gone, but a few telephone poles that held the wire are still there. This path is visible in Google Maps terrain view. Also, I believe that extra rail is called a "safety rail" to keep the cars on the roadbed in case of derailment.

[@ClassyWhale]

That's really cool, I'll have to check that out!

[@ChasMusic]

Thank you, this was fun! I think I've ridden all of these, but wasn't aware of the closed stations. Nice tour. Don't think I ever took the Drake line, but did take the Brown line when it was still the 52. It was fun to go through the curved right of way behind the houses, something you can still do in San Francisco on the J line (which, when I do it, reminds me of the 52). I've been a big fan of the busways, although I wish the west busway went all the way to downtown, maybe by way of the North Side, and avoided Carson Street.

[@Cupertinorail]

I am actually sad no Pittsburgh PCC made it to the SF F line. The abandoned line was talked about by Trains are Awesome but he never gave it much thought. Pittsburgh is one of the only cities with a flag bus stop. All you have to do is press a button.

[@vonyinzer]

The Allentown Branch will be going into service for a period to test the viability of the line. Here is a Quote from an amazing shop called "The Weeping Glass" on the subject, "They are bringing the light rail back to the hilltop for a limited time in February 2025 until October 2025. If it can prove that there is ridership in our area then they will work on a more permanent route." there are some amazing little shops up in Allentown. I am really looking forward to finally riding the line.

[@teecefamilykent]

Brilliant video sir.

[@lillywho]

If you want to look at more light rail some day and have got the budget for going abroad, in Germany there are several systems that are a lot more expansive than most American systems. There are several in the Rhein/Ruhr region, Hannover, Stuttgart and Frankfurt.

[@ClassyWhale]

I filmed Frankfurt and then my memory card crapped out on me 😡

[@junovzla]

that's funny, because a few days ago I was also visiting abandoned stations from another system that uses SD-460s (not SD-400s but close enough) except in my case the stations are abandoned because the construction stopped due to political negligence and economic crisis (I'm talking about Valencia Metro in Venezuela)

[@ClassyWhale]

High-key jealous

[@jaylewis5035]

The entire system was disabled through the Downtown subway and across the Panhandle Bridge yesterday morning as an inbound train broke down and finally shut down just outside of North Side. I was in one of the trains that were stuck beneath the Allegheny River for almost an hour. These failures happen often now as the rolling stock rolls past age 40.

[@anonymoos]

Good thing they are looking to replace the rolling stock soon (well the next 12 years), with prototype cars starting to be tested in about 4 years...

[@neuralwarp]

I bashed (rode the whole) Drake loop in '99 when I visited your Pittsborough for an academic conference. Only one on it, and the driver let me drive the heritage car a few yards on the turning loop.

[@ralphbonkale1171]

I believe there will be a light rail extension eventually. it's bound to happen in the near future.

[@toetankgr]

next time can you please trespass for us? would be appropriated! Overall great video though

[@R262SubwayCar1]

Awesome Video

[@pineapplepizza27]

god pittsburgh is such a beautiful city but it always makes me so sad. what used to be. what should have been.

[@DavidShepheard]

What was the justification of closing two or three stations on the top of that hill that have houses all around the line? Those look like places where step-free access would be super-easy to implement.

[@alexanderkvenvolden4067]

Such a shame to see so many closures in 2012 for speed reasons. There are ways of serving all stations while speeding up service, like a skip stop pattern. Every train would stop at half the now-closed stations, and these stations would be served at half frequency. This wouldn't require passing track either.

[@ClassyWhale]

@@alexanderkvenvolden4067 most Pittsburgh Light rail stations are stop request only as is

[@griffinrails]

Awesome video as always, so glad that I found this channel back in the day, you should really come down to Australia and check out some of our networks! I’ve always wondered why on a lot of American LRVs they use really barebones fences on the ends of their platforms made out of timber planks. Is it just tradition? Budget cuts? Just seems kinda odd to me with how much it clashes with the rest of the stop’s design…

[@thedapperdolphin1590]

I wish they still had Traymore and Pennant stations open since that part of Beechview is pretty cut off and it’s a bit of a walk to Westfield. The rationale for closing it doesn’t make much sense. If they weren’t used a ton, they wouldn’t have impacted travel time on most trips anyway, and stopping takes like 30 seconds to begin with. They also kept Hampshire station despite it being right next to a full-fledged station.

[@MassbyTrain]

rail in middle occurs on a tunnel/bridge in the event of a derailment to keep the train going straight

[@lillywho]

Ah, a light rail running quality Duewag stock. _They don't make 'em like they used to, anymore!_

[@sek153]

I guess the real question here is Is Pittsburgh Light Rail still consider as light rail or is it much closer to the Stadtbahn concept?

[@LemThurdy420]

It would make a lot more sense for the light rail line to come thru Monroeville and continue to Greensburg, but instead were stuck with this nearly useless system. The South Hills is a deadzone as far as most Pittsburghers are concerned.

[@Trainsaregreat365]

Nice one

[@michlschade2236]

Would it make sense to restore Penn Station and extend it to The Strip and Lawrenceville? It seems to me Lawrenceville is PGH's best neighborhood and would be even better with a transit link to downtown.

[@MilesinTransit]

Based Calvin and Hobbes

[@maddyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy]

they should bring back Mine 3 purely because i find the name amusing

[@mmrw]

Pretty sad that the platforms at the Amtrak station still exist :( that distance is like just annoyingly far to walk

[@SamSitar]

the PRT should re extend one stop after library. they should run a bus where the 47d was.

[@michlschade2236]

Where does Nick post his photos...?

[@ClassyWhale]

Nick?

[@michlschade2236]

@@ClassyWhale Nick or Rick or Mick; the guy taking pix while you all were walking.

[@DavidShepheard]

Why on Earth would they shut the streetcar spurs, instead of double tracking them and converting them to light rail?

[@blue9multimediagroup]

Low ridership

[@urbanpreppie05]

I have…resigned myself that the University Line is the best we can get because of the sheer cost of extending the T to Oakland. i look forward to its opening and am optimistic it will do well. Now an airport extension and bringing back the brown line? let’s go PRT…

[@sammymarrco47]

The video quality looks amazing!

[@Cupertinorail]

Michael? Hey my name is Michael too

[@alk61695]

It is always cool to see abandoned transit infostructure. Also, it will always be called Heinz Field.

[@history_leisure]

You could make the Penn Branch useful by extending along the MLK busway, but then its just getting it off the ROW to serve something else around or before East Liberty. Personally, I think Carnegie Mellon would be perfect with regional rail since the present Floridan passes by, so Highland Park would make sense since a mainline station would be too far away and Aspinwall might have two options between the Light Rail at Highland Park (although the idea might be more trolley park so it might not work unless we build a garage and make parking free just for the sake of bureaucracy between the Zoo/Parks & Rec and PRT) and the Kittanning (Alleghany) line at Blawnox. Extending the existing ROW to I-279 could be feasible (Brighton Heights does sound like a wall of NIMBY tho)

[@thedapperdolphin1590]

The most likely scenario, which officials have tossed around, is reintroducing the Brown Line and running it between South Hills Junction and Penn Station. There’s some interesting in that now that Allentown is starting to gentrify.

[@joefitz531]

EXTRA TRAINS AFTER PIRATES GAMES!

[@MassbyTrain]

love this my aunt and uncle leave in pittsburgh and i want to ride the whole system

[@JohnLumagui]

4:51 "We'll get to that!" DRINK

[@EdwardM-t8p]

Pittsburgh's East Busway should be converted to a combination light rail and busway with busses splitting off to serve neighborhoods. The South Busway? Similar if possible - I noticed it met the light rail on an elevated structure.

[@97nelsn]

Hmm, the Penn Station stop on the light rail would be way more useful if there were a light rail that went through the busway instead of buses but what do I know?

[@wattsnottherms]

I think what is supposed to come after that stop is street running along what is now the 87, 88, and 91 bus routes. (Those tracks are long gone.)

[@Josephcavagnaro]

7:03 Fallowfield is also a via rail station in canada.

[@IowaTrainGay]

Lmfao poor Walthers! Thank you for showing the pride unit several times. Also, I wish they'd open those shuttered branches. They seem like they need more stuff like that.

[@qjtvaddict]

The brown line should be replaced with a subway

[@detroitpeoplemover]

No. Expensive and super unrealistic. Downtown is the only place where a subway makes sense. The current line better serves Allentown This is why armchair people like you are not professional urban planners.

[@CallMeInfinite0000]

Great news for the Blue Line; Its actually getting a short extension to the new Esplanade development in Chateau to also serve Manchester!

[@ClassyWhale]

@CallMeInfinite0000 source?

[@urbanpreppie05]

ooh, is there an article that says that?

[@CallMeInfinite0000]

Ahh... I couldn't find the actual documents/article. (I'll find it eventually) Regardless, I have links to the Esplanade plans and NEXTransit's 20 year plan that ties well with what they're doing with the Blue Line. NEXTransit Plan: nextransit.network/plan-documents (PDF) City of Pittsburgh Official Master Plan for the Development: www.pittsburghpa.gov/files/assets/city/v/1/dcp/documents/planning-commission/dcp-mpzc-2023-00441-esplanade-mdp-hearing-presentation-2024-11-12.pdf

[@john-ic9vj]

there hasn't even been planning for this. Plus all lines would be extended, not just the blue line. I'm saying troll

[@urbanpreppie05]

@ so…you made it up then?