Service will end at the Wood Street T Station in the interm. Shuttle buses will be provided for riders who want to continue their trips by transit instead of walking to and from the Gateway Center area.I one time took a T from Wood Street to Gateway Center and then laughed at myself for waiting to take a minute long ride. The distance between the two stations? 1421ft. And they're going to run a shuttle bus for a quarter mile? A bus that goes 3 blocks? Really? Might as well install a moving walkway like they have at Pittsburgh International Airport. Heck, remove one of the unused ones since they have to close a quarter of the gates. I just hope that if they do make a shuttle bus they expand it a bit, like the old 96A Golden Triangle free bus that circled downtown when people still shopped there.
And again, why does Port Authority still put Penn Station (Or maybe it's called Penn Park...) on some T maps? No trains ever run there, and even if they did they usually only ran twice a day. They did use the Penn Park station during the All-Star Game due to its proximity to the convention center. Wait a second, didn't the Port Authority try to connect the T to the Convention Center as part of the NSC only to cut it due to costs? Meet Glen Walsh, local transit advocate who proposed a plan to link the Penn Park station to both the Mellon Arena and Convention Center using elevated walkways. The City Paper even did a story on it, but the idea was rejected by the Port Authority. The station now just sits there, as does the starwell leading to "Track 3 Penn Park" in Steel Plaza. The far left side of that photo is the Penn Park platform that is now mothballed.
And putting a "future extension" arrow toward the airport when there's no funding or environmental impact plan or acquiring of right of way? Genius.
CORRECTION: The 96A was a reduced fare route, not a free route.
UPDATE 2/23: Full P-G story here. I'm still confused, how will cars transfer from inbound to outbound if the loop at Gateway Center is closed? Will they just reverse? Wait, that's not possible, like two cars in the same elevator shaft... right?
UPDATE again: Turns out I deleted the oh-so-clever map that I created to accompany this story. I'll try to get it back later.
There is a cross-over between the two lines between wood street and gateway. I would imagine they are going to crossover and reverse direction. They do that near washington junction all the time. I think the whole point of the shuttle is to help people who can't easily make it down to gateway. KDKA covered this whole thing in some detail.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the insight, I haven't ridden the T too much but that does make sense.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I understand that I was a bit harsh about the shuttle bus. Especially if elderly or disabled passengers now have to walk further. But I hope Port Authority uses it as an opportunity to link a T station with lower parts of Downtown (below Forbes) that are not served with a station west of the First Avenue one.
One thing I would love to see is the abolition of between 1/2 to 2/3 of the bus stops along the routes.
ReplyDeleteFor example, there is no reason a bus needs to stop at forbes & weightman, forbes & murdoch, and forbes & Schenley park. If everyone can walk one block farther, we the busses can stop less often, discharge/load more people per stop and help traffic flow better. Couple that with front pay-entry and rear exit and you can improve route times pretty quickly.
In India, for example, the bus stops are roughly 1/2 to 1 mile between, which helps the busses move better. Also, as crowded as they are, it makes for (slightly) easier loading/unloading.
Back to your post, considering the obesity crisis in this country, I think walking an extra block or two would be benificial to us all except perhaps the elderly/HC.