[George Woods]

Compared with the astronomical logistics and cost of these alignment ideas, sending the T out to Oakland, East Liberty, Wilkinsburg, and Swissvale along the East Busway would be nothing. The ROW has been in place, and in use, for decades. "Low-hanging fruit" would be an under-statement. When the T was built in the 80's, it was supposed to go there, but the suburbanites in the South Hills who were on the Port Authority board nixed that. If you look at the busway, you can clearly see that it was over-engineered to hold the weight of LRTs. The now-unused Penn Station is where the trains emerge from the tunnel beneath the Steel Building and start their trip down the busway. All they'd have to do is lay the tracks on it and run the wires. It already serves the burgeoning areas in the East End, its stations are well-established, and people already ride the FUCK out of it. When I worked Downtown, I'd have to let more than one bus pass me up at 6:00 AM because they were too full to accommodate even one more person. It took under TEN minutes to get from Shadyside to Downtown or vice versa in rush hour! It's the closest thing Pittsburgh has to honest-to-goodness, big-city mass-transit, and I never even hear anyone talk about it!