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When I first moved to Pittsburgh, I remember thinking, ‘Why does the T just go to the South Hills?’
The reason, as far as I can determine, is because those old trolley lines were still useable. With the Casino Extension set to open next year, the northern frontier will have been crossed.
Will it ever extend farther north, say, to where people live? East to Oakland and the East End? West to the airport?
If it does, it will have to ramp up the pace a little, not to mention signage and station calls.
Not having ridden from Downtown to Beechview, I sat today as the two little cars chugged right past my stop. The conductor didn’t call it out. What's with that?
How was I to know where Traymore was? There was no map in the car.
This seems like a vestige of the days when everyone knew where they were going in Pittsburgh, before tourism brought a lot of confused people in to get lost.
Before Sophie Masloff was mayor, the street signs were woeful and sometimes missing. Directional signage? Forget about it.
Signs are worlds better now, although the sign near the Point that reads “ZOO” with an arrow pointing north toward Commonwealth Place cracks me up.
Say you’re from out of tahn and you see that sign. You turn off the Boulevard of the Allies onto Commonwealth and go... where, exactly?
Other than the fact that the wait between trains is long, the T is pleasant, though very slow. It’s clean and, unfortunately, not so crowded during the day.
Next time my friends from New York visit, I’m going to take them on it.

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I've lived outside the area for the past 20+ years and have rode systems in San Fransisco, Sacramento, Charlotte and Denver. All of which are better designed in my oppinion.
The good part the "T" is that it at least services places that people want to go and from. Have seen some failed proposals elsewhere(ie: Cincinatti)that seem to lead to nowhere with no chance of being profitable.
The bad part about the "T" is that is't horribly slow. You can beat the train from Library to Pgh on an obsolete two lane roadway. Furthermore there are too many stops, why not spread them out a little and force people to use part and ride lots. After all its light rail, stop running it like a bus line with a stop at almost every block. Im sure there would be a significant reduce in wear and tear on the rolling stock by doing so.
In reality there isn't much appetite in SW Pa for a large capital public transportation endevour like this, so I really don't see any great expansion anytime soon.