I’m not sure how feasible the Route 8 corridor would be, but the Strip to New Kensington absolutely would be and AVRR ownership has long been amenable to it. Investing in some lightweight DMUs (and their maintenance) and making some small scale track improvements would absolutely be cheaper than paving over the whole line for a busway, and would attract a higher ridership while providing faster, scalable service.

I especially like the idea of building a little shoulder station in the Strip that could serve as the terminus for both the AVRR line and the Oakland gondola, while connecting with the Penn/Liberty bus trunk for an easy transfer to Downtown.

Edit: here’s an article on the Ottawa DMU line I mentioned http://www.eastsiderailnow.org/o-train.html

There’s a parm that is to die for. Can’t remember which one though.

I get all that for the current financial constraints for Port Authority, but the problem with BRT is projects end up getting watered down significantly. The West Busway is a great example, as is the Oakland “BRT” project (which would be a fine idea if it was actually BRT).

What I’d love to see Port Auth… errr, PRT do is commit to the full Gondola proposal, both for sex appeal and as a highly cost effective way to built a direct transit line to Oakland from multiple dense neighborhoods, use the AVRR as a high frequency regional rail line (which as I argued upthread would be cheaper than converting it to a busway and could pilot the feasibility of regional rail on other lines), and focus on improving the bus network through redesigning it on “high transfer, high frequency” principles and by actually enforcing the existing and proposed bus lanes.

I’d also love to see them electrify the heaviest bus trunks by using trolleybuses with in motion charging instead of buying battery electric buses that will struggle mightily in the winter, and will require expensive battery replacements and time intensive recharging.

Piave is the BEST

they have claimed in the past that heavy rail is not cost effective at the ridership levels it would get in a monroeville study but that was a while ago. Not many medium sized us cities use heavy rail. Now I’m going to have to read up on it because I’m not familiar with the Allegheny river valley. A big reason I like living in the south hills is the trolley and I wonder how many people in areas like Hampton chose to live there because they want to be away from the hustle and bustle. The south hills townships are a lot more cramped and dense than the route 8 corridor

Tokyo mart has it. So does Lotus next to Wholey's in my experience Tokyo mart is smaller, but better.

Yeah just the downtown to south hills village mall via Beechview was $500 in 1980s dollars. Even had they started ten years earlier they wouldn’t have built a lot more - maybe the would have tunneled to the north shore earlier but the steel mill collapse in 1982 still would have made it difficult. they built the east busway while the skybus debate was going on. Light rail is really tricky in a city the size of Pittsburgh and with employment so spread out geographically. Downtown lines get enough ridership but even Oakland is really tricky to do without transfers. The busways make a lot of sense because so many lines use them in the core congested areas and then branch out in all directions into the suburbs. PRT seems more favoring extending the trolly to Bellevue or Ross before Oakland and the airport but without more state or federal funds those extensions won’t happen fe atleast 15 years. All the near term projects are bus rapid transit with priority lanes on existing roadways. That might be all we get h less the population starts growing again. We get beat out on the federal funds competition by bigger and faster growing cities.

How do we… make this happen?

Is there anything an average person can do?

1000 Day Gouda

They have the pepperiest pecorino Romano I’ve ever had. So sharp, so nutty, so delicious.

most people just say penn

Bosco Tartufo and Beemster Extra Aged

Etorki (French) and Ewephoria (Holland)

Whats even more cost effective than building more busways is running DMUs on existing rail infrastructure that only run freight overnight… like the AVRR line to New Kensington that Port Authority wants to turn into a busway because they’re allergic to trains.

Ottawa started a similar line (mostly single tracked freight line with only overnight traffic) 20 years ago for $21 million. Adjust that for inflation, and triple that for shits and giggles, and you’re still looking at a much cheaper project with higher capacity, scalable, faster vehicles operating at 15 minute headways.

AVRR also owns the line running up the route 8 corridor. Just saying…

FRESH MOZZARELLA. They make it in-house.

Also, their tallegio, aged gouda, and manchego isn't bad either.

Do. Not. Sleep. On. The. Mozz.

Camero

One of my weird favorites is five county cheddar. I’m also a sucker for a good herbed brie or aged Gouda

Istara Ossau-Iraty!

You said the same thing to North Haverbrook!

Skybus was an attempted boondoggle, and the years spent over legal and political battles were a waste that ended up making the LRT and Busway plan more expensive and significantly less extensive that it should have been had they done it from the beginning. There’s a reason “people movers” don’t exist outside of airports and a handful of niche lines.

By “500 million.. to build the red line” I assume you mean the phase 1 plans, which I believe was mostly the downtown subway, along with the panhandle bridge conversion, the Mt. Lebo Tunnel, and the South Hills Village terminus? I’ve read that Brookline Connection article before but it’s been a minute.

LRT investment is expensive in the short term, but cost effective in the long term as long as ridership is decent (which it is, save the Library line). The tragedy of Port Authority’s Skybus obsession and anti-trolley bias is could have converted other old trolley lines, most notably the North Side and Oakland trunks, and made similar modifications as were made to the Beechview/Mt Lebonon and Overbrook Lines, and we’d be in clover right now. For decades, we had a great trolley system that was sorely missing a dedicated Downtown ROW… and now we’ve had several decades of a Downtown subway, but with trolleys only going to one area.

Piave, similar to parmesan, fruity, nutty, delicious.

Any blue cheese that I buy from there is awesome.

Habanero cheddar

Smoked provolone. Tied up.

Cabrales. A Spanish blue cheese.

Don’t get it confused with Valdeon. That shit is funky, which I like to but messes up my gut.