Allentown residents want T to make stops on line

Trains are detouring on dormant rail line, but they don’t service the neighborhood

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The irony of this situation isn’t lost on Aaron Sukenik: As a result of last week’s train derailment near Station Square, the Port Authority has shifted its light-rail vehicles for the next three or four weeks to the dormant line that runs through Pittsburgh’s Allentown neighborhood, where they pass stops without picking up passengers.

That’s the same line Port Authority closed during budget-related service cuts in 2011, leaving the neighborhood without rail service into Downtown Pittsburgh, said Mr. Sukenik, executive director of the neighborhood advocacy group Hilltop Alliance, which includes Allentown.

“It’s just very awkward,” Mr. Sukenik said. “The trains come through all day and I see doors not opening for people. The line we hear from Port Authority is they don’t stop when they are passing through with emergency service.”

That’s something Mr. Sukenik and Ken Wolfe, president of the Allentown Community Development Corp., would like to see change. They are waiting for a meeting with Port Authority to discuss the situation.

“All they would have to do is send a memo to say, ‘Please stop in Allentown,’” Mr.Wolfe said.

Spokesman Adam Brandolph said the agency is willing to consider stopping in the neighborhood, but it would have to weigh the benefit for riders there against additional delays for riders from the South Hills. Using the Allentown line already is adding more than 15 minutes to each trip.

The authority reactivated the Allentown line after a Norfolk Southern train derailed Aug. 5 on the South Side, damaging light-rail tracks at Station Square. The Allentown line bypasses the damaged area.

“I can’t say we haven’t thought about [stopping in Allentown]. We have,” Mr. Brandolph said. “As far as current service goes, we want to make sure our current riders aren’t delayed any more.”