I swear Reddit is like the Monorail episode of the Simpsons. You think it solves all society's problems.

I saw someone suggest Robinson as a stop, makes sense right? Popular shopping destination, lots of traffic and parking...

Now think about it. Tell me where you'd like to put the one stop this train would make, then tell me how a person is meant to get to Ikea to do some shopping and Bravo for something to eat. It's a thing called The Last Mile, it's not hard to get a large group of people to one spot, the problem is then getting all those people to where they actually need to go. Nobody wants to take a train and then try to get an uber. They'd rather just drive. So they will, and you've got yourself a really expensive train nobody rides. Thought we already had that...

28X costs less than $3 and takes you to the airport. What are you trying to improve? Or do you just think trains are cool?

The part of greenfield that’s close to Murray av is very convenient for bussing to Oakland. If driving or biking, the commute over the greenfield bridge to get to CMU/pitt is fantastic and very fast.

Can’t speak for the slopes, but greenfield is a lovely place to live and there are a lot of grad students here (although many rent). Quiet, close to suburban-style shopping, and some parts are within easy walking distance of the squirrel hill business district. Also very good access to 376, which can get you a lot of places pretty fast.

>I just hope for better county executive leadership in the coming years that prioritizes transit investment (among other things) more so than the “leadership” we have today.

Most funding for any significant transit projects comes from the state and federal government. there is very little the county executive can do and mobs of suburban voters come out of the woodwork at any hint of property tax increases. It's not productive to attack democrat politicians as being "republican" when republican politicians wold be much less supportive of your ideas.

Edit: Rich Fitzgerald has been in county leadership too long and I won’t miss him. But credit is due for extended the trolly to the north shore and securing funding for the Oakland brt and those are not things republicans would have accomplished. You won’t get support for liberal ideas by alienating and denigrating moderate democrats and whether you like it or not property taxes are the single biggest county wide issue. Older voters are reliable there are a lot of them and property taxes are a large burden for them. You won’t get anything done without being strategic and building consensus and support from wide groups of people. I support mass transit and increased funding but I also know how to be strategic about it instead of whining like an entitled child in a chocolate factory when a democrat isn’t perfect enough for you

Everyone I know who's been there loves Apteka. I don't. It was all very underwhelming to me. I have no idea what everyone else sees that I don't.

I’m just imagining the Seinfeld episode where Elaine eats the poppy seed muffins and then is worried about testing positive for drugs.

It’s been looked at for many years but the capital costs and ridership ratio is not as appealing as you think it is. That’s why they went with north shore extension instead

Do I need to wear body armor like everyone is suggesting? I'll grab some around the corner after I'm done at the juice bar and shoe store.

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PRT wants to extend the west busway at both ends to speed up the 28x airport flyer which will also benefit from the Oakland BRT project that is building an additional bus only lane and traffic signal priority

A small detail is FTA limits heavy rail to 79mph unless it is completely grade separated in which case a diesel train can do 110 and that is caller higher speed rail while over 110 is high speed electrified heavy rail

I thought this debate was settled when they decided to tunnel to the north shore. PRT is also proposing to extend the west busway at its ends to speed up the 28x airport flyer while they wait another twenty years to get state and federal funding for the next phase of the trolly to Bellevue. I’ll be impressed if they get to the airport before 2050.

I just hope for better county executive leadership in the coming years that prioritizes transit investment (among other things) more so than the “leadership” we have today.

^Rich ^Fitzgerald ^is ^a ^republican.

Buses can meet high demand. They have lower capital cost but higher operating costs due to using more drivers. The bus only lane being added to Forbes has received federal funding and should help that corridor at a much lower cost than light rail. Unfortunately we are the 26th largest metro in the country so there are larger cities that throw their weight around to get federal funding. It also doesn’t help that the state republicans hate cities.

Except the parents aren't going to figure it out. They will just let them do as they please all hours of the day.

Yes, but I don’t know if they could do them regularly/ if they could reasonably achieve those speeds for a long period of time on any realistic track configuration. I think 45 is a more realistic top speed that we would see, especially considering the grade that they would need to cover on such a segment, but I could be misguided here

Fuck you you racist piece of shit

If it raises property taxes most people in the county won’t support it

But unfortunately since it actually makes sense and is practical it will never be done, at least with current PRT management.

Yes, but the issue is ridership that would unlock federal funding for the project. There is no hard and fast rule, but to be eligible for federal funds, there would need to be an absolute minimum of ~30-40,000 daily riders for a light rail expansion of this length to even be considered (and really a ridership of 50-75,000 to be seriously considered) against other projects.

The parkway currently sees a daily vehicle count of ~100,000 at the Fort Pitt Tunnel. Given the configuration of these communities (sparse suburbs), it would be nearly impossible to capture more than around ~10% of this traffic (because people cannot walk to stations and there are only so many parking spaces that can be made per station and when you are relying on people to already drive to a station it is a hard sell for them to then wait for a train when they could just drive at that point). This would equate to around 10-15,000 daily riders (at the high end), which is well short from the 30-40,000 that is for the most part needed to be considered for funding.

The only hope for this project ever getting off the ground would be if the Airport Authority were convinced it could substantially impact their operations (which might be likely given staffing concerns) and is necessary. The Authority has generated huge amounts of funds through its fracking agreements in the past decade (what is paying for the upcoming ~$1.5 billion renovation of the airport), and it could potentially have the funding needed to majorly fund a line like this in the future regardless of estimated ridership figures. This is a bit of a long shot but would be the only real way it could happen any time soon, and would likely be dependent on County Executive leadership in the future making it a priority.

The north shore extension was sold as a phased approach to the airport along the northern shore of the Ohio. It was also a way to use empty parking garages as commuter park and ride for downtown when there are no games at the stadiums. It was also intended as as an economic opportunity for more offices on the north shore which seems to have worked. I saw somewhere that the sports authority and casino contribute to operating costs. It was also described as costing a quarter of the price of an Oakland line

Can confirm that busing to Oakland from Greenfield isn't particularly easy - unless you live 1-2 blocks from Murray Ave. Bus #58 is NOT reliable.

In the two years I lived in Greenfield and worked in Oakland I biked to work (thru Schenley park) and bused home.

A small nitpick, but even the older Siemens units can do 65, and the newer CAF ones hit 70ish in testing the blue line before opening.

I agree all the other expenses will keep this from happening unless the city population booms and the airport becomes a major hub again, both of which I don’t see happening any time soon.

Your understanding is wrong. Buses are cheaper

Take the bus. We can’t afford to build modern style light or heavy rail to every neighborhood. Old street car networks were a totally different design that were replaced by buses which are superior in almost every way to old street cars

Young’s Oriental Market. There is a felony case pending.