Hello! Resident Pittsburgher here, with a few comments: - The light rail is a bit streetcar-esque, but one could argue that that's the point of light rail - it's not trying to be commuter rail (cough, Dallas) or metro (cough, Seattle), it's genuinely a streetcar system upgraded to modern standards. So yeah, I get the bus-esque feeling that comes with it, but that's a feature, not a bug. Plus, it's way faster than buses during events such as Steelers/Pirates/Pens games (it serves all 3 stadiums/arenas), concerts, and the Fourth of July celebration recently. - The South Busway is not irrelevant! It's simply an access road. A lot of the routes between Pittsburgh and its southern neighbors involve tunnels through Mount Washington, and these can get clogged with traffic. Having a transit-only tunnel and a special bus-only highway south of that can help buses dodge congestion. - Light rail to Oakland is arguably one of the most needed transit projects in the entire state, if not the entire country. (I may be biased as it would go right past Carlow, my school!) - I don't think removing a chunk of the east busway would be helpful. There's a ton of ridership between downtown and the outer stations, and taking the current route would eliminate additional crowding of students and health workers in Oakland. Rather, I think these should both be separate entities. Ideally tracks would be laid into the busway to operate high-capacity rail service replacing the P1 and P2, with trains dumping into Steel Plaza; your Oakland line would replace the P3, and longer-distance routes would remain the same. - 376 express bus service is such a good idea! I love it! I never thought about it before. - Love the S Bahn idea. Not sure Norfolk Southern would... Overall, I LOVE this!

I think the Allentown Line is kept in tact as an alternative to the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel, in case the tunnel is closed.

3:48 "Century III, Chevrolet, Lebanon Church Road, Pittsburgh. Minutes from the mall!" 🎵 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/npxoepB1uqi-nmg.html

Y'know having a lot of inspiration from Germany in your transit networks would make a lot of sense because Pennsylvania has a large German ancestral population! I mean even the name Pittsburgh itself is a pretty German sounding name!!

At its peak, Pittsburgh Railways Company had over 600 miles of streetcar tracks and rights of way in the city. Interurbans connected the surrounding counties. Pittsburgh Railways ran interurbans to Washington, and Charleroi, PA. to the south. The Pittsburgh, Harmony Butler & Newcastle Railway served the north. West Penn Light Power & railways served Fayette and Westmoreland Counties to the East. Most ot these were built when and where there was NOTHING! They created their own markets. I believe that a regional light rail network has the potential to re-invigorate development in all of southwest Pennsylvania. This could include concepts like the German S-Bahn and U-Bahn. I remember "commuter rail" from when I was a child. One could take a B&O train to downtown Pittsburgh. But it was designed to discourage use. Scheduled arrival times in Downtown Pittsburgh in the AM were either 7:45 AM or after 9 AM. But on Saturdays we could get a B&O train at 8:30 AM in Hazelwood that would arrive in town at 8:45 AM. Go figure!

My only criticism is that you don't suggest reactivating the Allentown Light Rail Line. The big reason why it had low ridership before hand is that it only ran very infrequently during rush hours, so there was no reason to use it when there more frequently running bus service. I think I could be very useful if it ran at all times on a frequent schedule. Also if you're going to add rail to the East Busway which is pretty much grade separated, I think it would be better to go for a Skytrain like Innovia Light Metro that would run from Steel Plaza (taking over the Penn Station Spur) then continue along the existing East Busway to Swissvale or on to Braddock. Because it would be automated the trains would be able to run at very high frequencies without the cost of driver's (Pittsburgh has in the past been notorious for having operational funding cuts). I think you could still incorporate your stadbahn plans with the line through Oakland to Homestead, with a branch connecting to the new metro line at Shadyside. The transfer is offset by the super high freuqncies of the Metro. Otherwise, as someone who's visited Pittsburgh several times THIS SYSTEM WOULD BE AMAZING! I actually visited Oakmont and a S-Bahn train would be great!

we really do need more transit up the Allegheny valley. the 28 "express"way is hardly that anymore. it's always congested as it's the only highway that connects all of the north/northeast suburbs to downtown. i think expanding the Allegheny valley transit options is included in the NEXT plan, hopefully something comes of it!

Would totally love to see a video like this on Toronto!

Did not expect to see Pittsburgh but since there's an existing light rail tunnel I think the existing and suggested light rail should be respectively rebuilt and built as Skytrain automated light metros. Heck, if PRT can get the existing southern light railways out of the street the existing cars can be retrofitted for automatic operation. I would love to see you do Miami next! In the late 70s and early 80s they built a Metrorail at $40 million a mile cheap by today's standards but Reagan thought it so wasteful he cancelled all future rapid transit projects. Result? The notorious Miami-Dade traffic.

Nice vid glad you mentioned Monroeville

Awesome video! Did not expect to see Pittsburgh but it works out! I think Philadelphia or Portland should be next. Both cities have solid systems that need some work.

Idk how this ended up in my feed, all the way in India, but it's a great video. Here's to wishing all the success to you! Keep making videos!

literally love this series

great video and love the production quality

It's my dream to one day take a train from Washington in the south, all the way to down town in a single trip. Even if they simply extended the T past south hills to peters it would be a massive improvement.

Thanks for the thoughtful improvements to the Pittsburgh transit system. I live on the other side of the state in suburban Philadelphia. But I have visited Pittsburgh several times. I have made use of both the bus and light rail system to get around. The improvements you propose look good but in many cases be expensive to implement. Pennsylvania is not known to give much money to fund transit compared to road improvements. One point I feel that could be changed to save money would be to keep the busway system and just add rails to extend some of the light rail system. Busses and the light rail already co use the existing transit tunnel so that proves busses and rail,can both use the same right of way. Since the busses use a station system you just have the light rail use some or all of the existing stations. Of course for longer routes you could build bypass tracks at some stations for express light rail service. At the end of the light rail service,bus routes could continue to leave the transit way and serve areas that build ridership to the light rail line or also use the transit way to continue to provide a one seat ride to downtown especially at rush hour. Keeping expansion plans lower cost, yet effective have a better chance of being funded, built and used.

Since the Oakland connection is so important i think extending the VAL there would be critical, that way a proper metro thats not a tram tunnel connects the two cores.

Glad you mentioned my hometown, Greensburg, in there. When I was living there, I would have loved to jump on a train to get to the city just for the day, but Amtrak is so terrible that it's impossible. I'd even settle for a connection to Murrysville right at the edge of Westmoreland county, with bus services into communities like Greensburg, Latrobe, and Jeanette. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this! Pittsburgh just feels so disconnected to it's metro area and surrounding towns and they need to capitalize on the existing infrastructure to rope these communities back in. Thanks for the video!

Pittsburgh resident here. I would make a 5 lines Line 1 (PGH International to Monroeville) , the line would go through downtown , the growing east end , Wilkensburg and finally Monroeville. Stops in Green Tree , Carnegie , and Robinson Line 2 (South Hills village to Cranberry) It would extend the current line run Parallel to I-279 , I-79. Stops in West view , Ross , Wexford. Line 3 (Downtown to Penn Hills) Stop in Oakland , Squirrel Hill , East Liberty , Lawrenceville. Line 4 (North Shore to Ambridge). Runs along rt. 65. Stops in Bellevue , Avalon , Ben Avon , Sewickley. Line 5 (rt. 837). Station Square to Mckeesport. Help revitalize the 837 area. It will never happen. Area is not big enough. Just my dream.

Thank you for talking about Pittsburgh transit.Herd about the new passenger rail on the csx line I think?

cool video!! i've always thought the traintracks going through the state had such wasted potential, i'd go to the city so much more if i didn't have to drive! i've lived in new ken for the past 16 years and it's so sad to hear about how nice it used to be. there's some cool shops around but i wish i coulda experienced what it was like.. or at the very least have an actual grocery shop instead of loads of dollar stores that you can only walk to if you cross the main drag 🙃

I really like this. Although if we are ok with extensive tunnelling, I think it would be best to through-run the light rail network or form a downtown loop

I’m curious about what you think of the proposed East Busway extensions. From my understanding, phase 1 will be to East Pittsburgh, phase 2 to McKeesport, and phase 3 will have a branch through Turtle Creek and then Monroeville. I get the allure of rail, but the East Busway already is very useful. It only takes like 15 minutes to get between downtown and Swissvale. And having a connection to a lot of those economically depressed towns in the Mon Valley is sure to be helpful for development there.

The west busway is missing it's most important part.... it's own bridge so the busses are forced across the Fort Pitt bridge (notoriously bad traffic during rush hour, and more) and onto East carson St to the entrance of the busway. That needs it's own dedicated route into downtown. Which means new bridge or tunnel, both being expensive. The west busway does connect to 376 which I know the airport flyer (express) uses. There is only one 'west busway route' the G2. There used to be a G1 as well, I don't remember which but one did just the west busway into downtown and one went out to robinson. Once you are on the busway, it's very quick. It's following an old railroad line, it most likely could be expanded, even converted to light rail but still have pavement for busses. There are still relics of those street car lines around, there part of one old route that was separate from road along route 60 coming out of the west end up into crafton where it most likely went back on street. I'm sure there are other abandoned old right of ways around. I know there was even parts you could still see heading up to Butler PA in the Forward Twp area along route 68. A major issue with Pittsburgh is that our highways, bridges and tunnels are sorely undersized and we need more bridges and tunnels, what we have backs up a lot. We are limited by steep hills and the geography of this region which can be difficult so adding bus or rail lines into the existing highways is going to require expanding those highways, bridges and tunnels. It is absolutely needed and there really isn't a lot of room to expand them. There are a lot of either still in use rail lines or abandoned lines in this region. There are a good amount that have been converted to rails to trails which complicates reusing some of the old rail lines for obvious reasons. There is considerable freight traffic on some of the existing lines through the region. So you'll most likely not be able to utilize those that are heavy freight lines and there are a lot of places where there simply is not room to add lines beside. Sometimes there is not enough 'air space' in places to even do elevated above the freight lines. There is the Wabash Tunnel behind station square, the old bridge piers are still on either side of the river but the bridge is long gone. There may be buildings in the way but getting a new bridge to downtown from that tunnel could allow light rail / busses to bypass the clogged bridges and tunnels. On the other side of the tunnel is the old bridge over route 51 which a business uses for a parking lot now. There is old right of way through this area including bridges across 376 right behind the fort pitt tunnels into the west end. Part of the line was removed when they renovated the west end circle. Now there is freight lines that run out along east carson st which is route 837. This section from southside to the Interchange 885 (mess) is in bad need of expansion to 4 lanes, there is a rails to trails old line on the river side of 837, up an embankment on the other side is active freight lines. If this whole area could be reconfigured getting the freight lines pushed further away from the river, expand route 837 and maybe even sneak in some sort of light rail. If you can get out to that interchange, there could be one that continues along the river into homestead and the waterfront and could even continue out further along the river. Now back to the interchange on 837. If you continue along 885 you could connect to a number of old rail lines that are either under utilized or abandoned. You could get some sort of light rail out to west Mifflin, pleasant hills, Jefferson hills among other areas. Coming out of downtown from 2nd ave, there is an old rail line which has been converted to rails to trails. There really isn't much space along here with 376 and 2nd ave all smushed together. But this could be another route out along the mon. There's lots of possible access to various neighborhoods along this route including oakland, greenfield, hazelwood. There's many, many old or current rail lines but figuring out how to use some of those and aquiring them is going to be challenging to say the least. There's many ideas and solutions but getting many those built is going to be very challenging. Pittsburgh need A LOT of funding to be able to build out a lot more of the transit network. There are loads of possibilities but funding is going to be quite challenging.

With light rail to Oakland and Braddock and a 7 line regional rail system. the regional rail system would be electrified at 25KV 60 HZ AC. Hard to reach destinations would be served by gondolas.

can you do one of these for san francisco/bay area? these videos are great!

Please do Atlanta!

The Allentown Route wasn’t useless. It was an important connection for the south hilltop neighborhoods. It had low ridership because it was a pretty poor area, and there were affordability issues. Though the neighborhood has been getting more attention lately, and they’re considering bringing it back in some capacity. All the infrastructure is still maintained, and used whenever the Mt. Washington tunnel is underling maintenance, so it’s really just a matter of paying drivers to go through there.

Westmoreland Transit is planning a similar expansion project, but with how service has been lately, I would focus less on expansion and more on improving the service. Quality over quantity.

Do you have a link to the final map (it looks like it was done in Google Maps?). If so could you drop a link in the description? Thanks.

Convert the east and west busways to rapid transit at 1.435 mm track gauge and 750 Volt DC Third Rail and build a connecting tunnel with stations and then extend to Monroeville and the Pittsburgh Airport.

The expansion needs to focus on Allegheny county first before any thought of reaching out further . People moved out there to avoid paying taxes so let them fund their own connections

Can you do this for South Florida Metro?

The original plan for the light rail line is to connect it to the airport going thru north side belview coraopolis robert moris college moon but it won't happen any time soon.

Drivel from yet another arm chair expert.

I have one issue with this plan. There is no light rail service directly to the airport to downtown. While BRT could provide a connection, it's still not a "premium" service like light rail.

Overall there’s some nice thoughts in here yet a lot overlooked. The reality is between age, Maintenance issues, Staffing, and gov interference in some of the worst ways Light Rail, has about reached its limit in the PGH region, If you’re going to go whole hog and suggest more tunnels, many spurs, Oakland to which PAAC & others basically said no, multiple types of rail or multiple modes Then response would be I’d rather we did 1 and multiple expansions at once that mode being to build a replica Metro Of DC with maybe some inspiration from other places which PGH Should’ve done from the start. Having most of the system underground would solve many of infrastructure and property impact issues, doing heavy metro rail or a heavy-light hybrid reminiscent of CLE Rapid would alleviate some maintenance issues and the inability to replace aged out stuff ( a big issue we are facing now ) If we’re gonna go big anyway I could see a DC or NYC Style Metro covering some parts of the existing light rail but branching out in the following ways • A North Hills RT 65 Ohio Valley Sewickley Spur/Line • A North Hills RT 19 McCandless, Cranberry, Possibly New Castle/Zelionople spur • An Allegheny Valley RT 28 Fox Chapel Harmar New Ken spur • A West End, Crafton Kennedy , Robinson , Airport Spur maybe also extended to the various Amazon sites out that way and link to Weirton WV & Steubenville Ohio A small little known transit agency Known as SVRTA does a Robinson-Weirton-Steubenville route but with limited services and is in life support Giving them an option and links or folding them into a potential PRT Merger as PAAC adds “regional” to its moniker and would be expanding under such rail extension could work for all parties • An East End Wilkinsburg, Edgewood Monroeville CCAC Line and • A East End Wilkinsburg Edgewood, Braddock Versailles, McKeesport line

You’d need like 500 billion for all this lol

Grandiose ideas, to be sure, but the Silver Line/Library branch of the T STILL is an inconsistent mass transit service that needs and deserves the upgrading to similar standards long enjoyed by Red Line/ Blue Line commuters. We Silver Line commuters are still patiently waiting…. ☹️ 🚞 🇺🇸

Population would increase

While I do think lightrails are incredible, I was reading about how they use the busways for emergency vehicle transport so idk which would be more practical having a bus way or light rail system. I think initial cost for busways are cheaper, but light rail is cheaper in the long run.

Damn, this just makes me sad and depressed

1:01 there are many contributors to the “slowness” of the existing Light Rail ( T ) is attributable to many factors The largest being the age of the rail cars themselves, the overkill technology on the rail cars, The perpetual state of repair issues on most of the line and governments hands in that, among others

as a pittsburgher i love this plan but i think the 1 thing that this is missing is a rail connection between downtown and the airport

Two-car trains into the suburbs. Why are we comparing it to Germany when you’re just trying to create SEPTA West?

Please do this for Philadelphia

Allegheny County Little Dark age, but also just the entire rust belt

So you want Pittsburgh to be Karlsruhe. I'll only go along with this if we get Spaghettieis too

Please improve the DC metro(the silver expansion wasn’t enough)

Fyi century 3 mall is shut down

Rail link to the Airport.

omg you listen to mgmt???

Pittsburgh is a dying city that can’t even balance the budget. And please don’t say federal monies. Fed money is better spent in cities that have super growth.. Austin, Charlotte, etc. No one wants to move to Pitt why spend money on it.