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I don't ride public transportation, but it's not that I wouldn't, but it's only due to my job. I wanted to ask why the Pittsburgh Port Authority can't seem to make ends meet? I just don't get it why other major cities can make public transportation work and we can't do it here in the burgh...........
irishchieftain Member # 1473
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No public transit agency can "make ends meet". They all run at a deficit. All has to do with how much funding the state gives them. SEPTA suffers as well as Port Authority Transit.
Remember the Pittsburgh PA used to run commuter rail?
ellenorigby Member # 9414
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OMG no I didn't know that, I can barely remember the trolleys.......I've only been in western PA since 1974 and around the burgh for about 15 years. Thanks for the great picture though!
irishchieftain Member # 1473
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Ah, OK. The trains stopped running around 1989. They went to Beaver Falls and McKeesport IIRC. The actual trains are still carrying passengers in revenue service, in Connecticut between New Haven and New London.
Pittsburgh has been a little too overzealous in their drive to build "busways". They've even converted former rail tunnels into busways (such as the Berry Street Tunnel, which Amtrak used to use until the late 70s when the train from New York to St. Louis was canceled; the Wabash Tunnel was converted into a specialized road for HOV traffic).
Lots of fighting going on in Harrisburg when it comes to rail funding. Governor Rendell is trying to get the state government to go along with tolling I-80; he continues to claim that the funding from this scheme will go to help public transportation, including rail. I've heard a lot of other things that contradict that. We shall see indeed; but Harrisburg's usual way has been cut, cut and cut some more.
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