Overview | |
---|---|
Line | |
Location | Pittsburgh |
Coordinates | 40°26′41″N80°00′22″W / 40.4446°N 80.006°W |
System | Pittsburgh Light Rail |
Crosses | Allegheny River |
Operation | |
Work begun | January 2008 [1] |
Opened | March 25, 2012 [1] |
Operator | Port Authority of Allegheny County |
Technical | |
Length | 2,240 feet (680 m) [2] |
Line length | 1.2 miles (1.9 km) [1] |
No. of tracks | 2 |
Track gauge | 5 ft 2+1⁄2 in (1,588 mm) |
The North Shore Connector tunnel is a twin-bore [1] tunnel under the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh that was built as part of the North Shore Connector expansion project for the Pittsburgh Light Rail system. It connects Downtown Pittsburgh with the North Shore neighborhood.
Downtown Pittsburgh, colloquially referred to as the Golden Triangle, and officially the Central Business District, is the urban downtown center of Pittsburgh. It is located at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River whose joining forms the Ohio River. The "triangle" is bounded by the two rivers. The area features offices for major corporations such as PNC Bank, U.S. Steel, PPG, Bank of New York Mellon, Heinz, Federated Investors and Alcoa. It is where the fortunes of such industrial barons as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, Henry J. Heinz, Andrew Mellon and George Westinghouse were made. It contains the site where the French fort, Fort Duquesne, once stood.
Pittsburgh Regional Transit is the second-largest public transit agency in Pennsylvania and the 20th-largest in the United States. The state-funded agency is based in Pittsburgh and is overseen by a CEO and a nine-member board of unpaid volunteer directors, five of whom are appointed by the county executive and approved by the county council; and one each by the majority and minority leaders by each political party. After operating as the Port Authority of Allegheny County for most of its history, the agency rebranded under its current name in June 2022. In 2021, the system had a ridership of 27,975,600.
The North Shore is a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's North Side. It has a zip code of 15212, and has representation on Pittsburgh City Council by both the council members for District 1 and 6. The neighborhood is home to Heinz Field, PNC Park, and The Andy Warhol Museum.
Pittsburgh, surrounded by rivers and hills, has a unique transportation infrastructure that includes roads, tunnels, bridges, railroads, inclines, bike paths, and stairways.
Brush Tunnel is a 914-foot (279 m) railroad tunnel located about 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Corriganville, Maryland.
The Pittsburgh Light Rail is a 26.2-mile (42.2 km) light rail system in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and surrounding suburbs. It operates as a deep-level subway in Downtown Pittsburgh, but runs mostly at-grade in the suburbs south of the city. The system is largely linear in a north-south direction, with one terminus just north of Pittsburgh's central business district and two termini in the South Hills. The system is owned and operated by Pittsburgh Regional Transit. It is the successor system to the streetcar network formerly operated by Pittsburgh Railways, the oldest portions of which date to 1903. The Pittsburgh light rail lines are vestigial from the city's streetcar days, and is one of only three light rail systems in the United States that continues to use the Pennsylvania Trolley (broad) gauge rail on its lines instead of 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge. Pittsburgh is one of the few North American cities that have continued to operate light rail systems in an uninterrupted evolution from the first-generation streetcar era, along with Boston, Cleveland, New Orleans, Newark, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Toronto. In 2021, the system had a ridership of 27,975,600.
The P&W Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation, the Allegheny Valley Railroad (AVR), and the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad (BPRR) in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The line runs from Rankin north through Pittsburgh to West Pittsburg along a former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line, once the Pittsburgh and Western Railroad.
The Red Line is a line on the Pittsburgh Light Rail system that runs between South Hills Village and Downtown Pittsburgh via the Beechview neighborhood. The companion route, the Blue Line, branches off north of Martin Villa – which closed in 2012 – and runs through Overbrook. In March 2007, the closure of the Palm Garden Bridge for refurbishment suspended the Red Line for five months; it resumed service in September.
Steel Plaza is a station on the Pittsburgh Regional Transit's light rail network, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It serves the city's Downtown district and is located at the intersection of Grant Street and Oliver Avenue. The station consists of an outbound (southbound) side platform and an inbound island platform, with one track for trains to Wood Street and the other for a disused branch line to Union Station. The station has rights to 4.25 acres underground Mellon Green and is accessible by means of a tunnel that connects BNY Mellon Center and the US Steel Tower.
Gateway is a station on Pittsburgh Regional Transit's light rail network, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Until October 30, 2009, it was the network's westernmost extent within downtown Pittsburgh. The Port Authority closed Gateway Center as part of construction work on the North Shore Connector project, and a new station opened in 2012. The former station entrance was demolished and a new station was built. Gateway station and North Side station lie at the southern and northern ends of the Allegheny River Tunnel, respectively.
The North Shore Connector is a light-rail extension opened in 2012 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The connector extends the Pittsburgh Light Rail system from its previous terminus at Gateway Center Station in the Central Business District to the new North Side Station and Allegheny Station on the North Shore by way of a tunnel under the Allegheny River. The Connector extends the light rail system's "Free Fare Zone", enabling passengers to ride to and from Pittsburgh's rapidly growing North Shore neighborhood for free.
The West Busway is a two-lane bus-only highway serving the western portions of the city of Pittsburgh and several western suburbs. The busway runs for 5.1 miles from the southern shore of the Ohio River near Downtown Pittsburgh to Carnegie, following former railroad right-of-way on the Panhandle Route. It broke ground on October 27, 1994 and is owned and maintained by the Port Authority of Allegheny County, the public transit provider for Allegheny County and the Pittsburgh region. The transit thoroughfare was opened in September 2000. Following the naming convention of each busway being designated by a color, bus routes that use the West Busway begin with a "G" for green.
The Borden Tunnel is a 957-foot long, formerly abandoned, railway tunnel located about 2.5 miles (4 km) north of Frostburg, Maryland. The tunnel is lit with a series of motion activated LED lights powered by a solar panel located just north of the tunnel. It is now part of the Great Allegheny Passage rail trail.
The Brown Line was a branch of the Pittsburgh Light Rail system that ran from South Hills Junction over Mount Washington and across the Monongahela River to downtown Pittsburgh, terminating at Gateway Center. It included the steepest grade of any section of the Pittsburgh light rail system, of approximately 10 percent.
North Side is a station on the Port Authority of Allegheny County's light rail network, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The stop serves the North Shore neighborhood and other adjacent neighborhoods. Among the locations within walking distance are: PNC Park, the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball stadium; the Andy Warhol Museum; the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh; the National Aviary; and Allegheny Center.
Allegheny is a station on the Port Authority of Allegheny County's Pittsburgh Light Rail network, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The stop serves the North Shore neighborhood and other adjacent neighborhoods. Among the locations within walking distance are: Acrisure Stadium, the Pittsburgh Steelers football stadium; Rivers Casino; the Stage AE amphitheater; Community College of Allegheny County's Allegheny Campus; and Carnegie Science Center.
The Blue Line is a Pittsburgh Light Rail line that runs between Downtown Pittsburgh via the Overbrook neighborhood to South Hills Village.
The Brilliant Branch, also known as the Brilliant Cutoff, is a railway line in Pittsburgh and Aspinwall, Pennsylvania. It connects the Pittsburgh Line to the Conemaugh Line and to Allegheny Valley Railroad's Allegheny Subdivision.