Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

he city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, once boasted one of the largest urban streetcard networks in the United States. Pittsburgh Railways, one of the largest predecessors to the current Port Authority of Allegheny County, had nearly 700 PCC streetcars operating on 68 routes — the third largest fleet in North America at the time. Most of those routes dated back to the turn of the 20th century; only three remain in use today by Pittburgh's light rail system. Pittsburgh Railways was formed in 1902, the product of numerous consolidations among private carriers. Its lease-and-operate business model proved difficult to maintain and the company declared bankruptcy twice, first in 1918 lasting for 6 years and then again in 1938 until 1951. In 1936, Pittsburgh Railways put into service the first PCC-style streetcar in the world.

In 1964, the private Pittsburgh Railways system was acquired by the Port Authority of Allegheny County (PAT), which rapidly converted most rail routes to bus service. By the early 1970s, only a handful of streetcar routes remained — most of which used the Mt. Washington Transit Tunnel just south of the Monongahela River to reach the South Hills area. Community pushback on a plan to scrap all remaining rail lines resulted in a new study on the future of the South Hills trolley lines, resolving to transform these valuable, high-density transit corridors into a modern light rail system. In late 1980, after receiving federal funding, the Port Authority began construction on the light rail service, dubbed the "T", which used a former Pittsburgh Railways trolley route to connect downtown Pittsburgh to the South Hills neighborhoods. Today, the T operates 3 routes, all terminating downtown, north of the Allegheny River, and all running south through Mount Washington to various stations in the southern region of the city.