The Blue Line is a
Pittsburgh Light Rail line that runs between
Downtown Pittsburgh
Downtown Pittsburgh, colloquially referred to as the Golden Triangle, and officially the Central Business District, is the urban downtown center of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located at the confluence of the Allegheny River an ...
via the
Overbrook neighborhood to
South Hills Village (formerly 47S South Hills Village via Overbrook).
History
The line from South Hills Junction to Castle Shannon (now called the Overbrook Line) was first constructed by the
Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad between 1872 and 1874. In 1905
Pittsburgh Railways
Pittsburgh Railways was one of the predecessors of Pittsburgh Regional Transit. It had 666 PCC streetcar, PCC cars, the third largest fleet in North America (after Toronto Transit Commission, Toronto (745) and Chicago Surface Lines, Chicago (683) ...
leased the route and between 1909 and 1910 converted it from narrow gauge to dual gauge and installed overhead power for trolleys.
Mid-20th century
PCC streetcar
The Presidents' Conference Committee (PCC) is a streetcar (tram) design that was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful domestically, and after World War II it was licensed for use elsewhere in the world where ...
s continued to operate on the Overbrook Line until 1993, when concerns about the safety of the line led PAT to suspend service there pending reconstruction. This former Pittsburgh Railways trolley line had never been updated to current light rail system requirements. After receiving federal funding for Stage Two of the light rail system development, the Overbrook line was reconstructed as a fully rebuilt
double-tracked line served by modern light rail vehicles, making this line a considerably faster commute.
The line was reopened on June 2, 2004, following major work which included doubling of the track and elimination of 22 traditional street level trolley stops in favor of eight new LRV style stations with platforms.
Route
The line starts at
Allegheny station on the North Shore, makes an additional stop at
North Side, then proceeds under the
Allegheny River
The Allegheny River ( ; ; ) is a tributary of the Ohio River that is located in western Pennsylvania and New York (state), New York in the United States. It runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border, nor ...
and continues underground to
Gateway,
Wood Street and
Steel Plaza. The line then surfaces at
First Avenue. Leaving downtown, it crosses the
Monongahela River
The Monongahela River ( , ), sometimes referred to locally as the Mon (), is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in nor ...
on the
Panhandle Bridge, stopping at
Station Square before running through the
Mount Washington Transit Tunnel. At
South Hills Junction the Library branch rejoins the Beechview line and the former
Brown Line, which ran over Mount Washington through the
Allentown neighborhood. The Blue Line continues south through Beltzhoover, Bon Air,
Carrick, Brookline, and
Overbrook. At
Bethel Park a transfer is provided to the
Red Line, which reaches the same location via
Beechview. Beyond
Washington Junction the line splits.
The
South Hills Village branch was created in 1987 to complement the
Red Line, which runs through
Beechview before reaching the same terminus. This line was originally operated using PCCs, most notably the
4000 series, because the new light rail cars were incompatible with the Overbrook line due to its age and condition. Service was suspended when the Overbrook Line closed in 1993, but was reinstated after that line was rebuilt and reopened in 2004.
On June 25, 2012, the Port Authority closed two stations on the South Hills Village Branch as part of a system-wide consolidation:
Santa Barbara and
Martin Villa.
Until February 2020 the line consisted of 36 stations including the Library branch which was later adopted exclusively by the
Silver Line.
Station list
The Pittsburgh Light Rail has three types of stations. They are low platform, high platform, and underground. High platform and underground stations are wheelchair accessible as the train doors are level with the platform. Low platform stations are not wheelchair accessible as they require passengers to climb stairs to board the light rail vehicle.
References
External links
Blue line schedule
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Line (Pittsburgh
Light rail in Pennsylvania
Electric railways in Pennsylvania
Port Authority of Allegheny County
Underground rapid transit in the United States
5 ft 2½ in gauge railways in the United States
Streetcars in Pennsylvania
Passenger rail transportation in Pennsylvania
Transportation in Pittsburgh
650 V DC railway electrification