Transit Plan

[tooluther]

As promised here is my regional transit plan...

Light rail lines:

-Airport, Downtown, Oakland, Monroeville=Red Line

-South Hills Village, Downtown, Strip District, Waterfront=Blue Line (via Mt. Lebanon/Beachview)

=Blue Express (via Overbrook)

-Library, Downtown, Strip District, Monroeville=Green Line (Via Overbrook)

Busways:

-Carnegie, Downtown, RIDC=Gold Line (via West Busway & Transit Boulevard built into new Rt 28

-Pleasant Hills, Downtown, North Hills= Silver Line (Via South Busway/South Busway extension & HOV Lanes)

Street Car:

-Downtown, Technology Park, Oakland, Shadyside, Bloomfield, Lawrenceville, Strip District=Purple Line

Specialty Busses (High capacity, Electric, and Clean!):

-Station Square, South Side Works, Technology Park=South Sider...other busses on the old Mt. Washington "Shelf"

-Allegheny T Station, CCAC, Federal Street, E. Ohio Street, PNC Park=North Sider

Capital Improvements Necessary (other than the obvious routes)

-construction of a new Commuter Train terminal, or updating of the existing Penn Station

-Reconstruction of Steel Plaza to serve multi levels to routes (Airport-Oakland under South Hills-the Strip)

-Wabash Bridge for busses

-New South Side Busway on Conrail

[urbanophile]

Sounds great and realistic! There's no reason why the plan should not get built. As a suggestion, the purple line trolley route would best be run using restored trolley cars. This would serve as a good tourist attraction similar to the F Line in San Francisco which runs restored trolley cars (not teh cable car lines but actual restored trolley cars).

[noobie]

No Elizabeth, Clairton, Duquesne, McKeesport... Mon valley??? Oh well, we'll just continue riding the 2/3 buses that it takes to get us into town... or grab a jitney... or a barge

[tooluther]

The X plus Y plus X (Busway, LRT, Commuter rail) design would allow for continued and logical expansion, especially if/once a regional transit system is put into place. ie, your point about no mon valley (I'll admit I'm south west biased from where I grew up) could be a extension of the Homestead/Waterfront branch. And the south hills branches would continue across county lines. However, in Atlanta, the bus system runs in arcs to connect the branched of the MARTA train routes...I would imagine something similar here.

[Evergrey]

Where would you build parking garages for "park and ride" transit stops? I assume Monroeville would be one logical choice.

[Death To Johnstown]

Where would you build parking garages for "park and ride" transit stops? I assume Monroeville would be one logical choice.

Gotta have one in Monroeville!

[tooluther]

I also didn't include water shuttle routes. I haven't thought that far yet, but it seams to that they are a neccessity. This water taxi system is very haphazard. It would be better if there were multi modal stops to serve commuters rater than just tourists (all 10 of them)

Ie, Convention center would be a nexus point for a water shuttle to the north side, the commuter rail station, and the south hills T lines

I also wanted to point out that the "Red Line" light rail trains would be at least 3 car given the larger commuter numbers

[TheGerbil]

Question: Does anyone know if the water taxis ran for the ASG? Or were they not allowed for security reasons?

[mjcatl2]

It seems very doable to expand the T South to SSW and the Waterfront and to others stops in the Mon Valley. Obviously it's a sin that it hasn't moved east yet.