Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad Complex

About this property

Station Square station is an intermodal transit station in the South Shore neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, located at the Station Square shopping and entertainment complex. It is served by the Red Line, Blue Line, and Silver Line of the Pittsburgh Light Rail network, and is the northern terminus of the South Busway. The station is near the Monongahela Incline. This station is named after the nearby Station Square shopping and entertainment complex. The station was not originally planned to be built; instead, the light rail system was to bypass the newly created development because officials felt that there would not be enough ridership demand to justify the station. Active lobbying by Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr., President of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, and developer of Station Square ensured that the station was constructed. Over three million tourists visit Station Square each year. Originally designed and built by Daniel Sifer, the station encompasses railings rescued by Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation from the Brady Street Bridge, which was demolished in 1978. In the late 1990s, DRS Architects renovated the station and provided architectural details in glass that reflected the design in the Brady Street Bridge railings. On August 5, 2018, a Norfolk Southern freight train running on the Mon Line derailed east of Station Square station and blocked the freight tracks, forcing service to be suspended. The derailed cars fell down the hillside and onto the light rail tracks and damaged 1,600 feet (490 m) of light rail tracks; 4,000 feet (1,200 m) of overhead electrical wires; and some concrete on the Panhandle Bridge. The derailment caused no injuries, as it occurred 2 minutes after a T light rail train departed the station. During cleanup and inspections of the area, the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel was closed and trains were rerouted via the former Brown Line through Allentown. The outbound tracks were opened on August 23, while inbound service resumed on August 25 after repairs were completed. A preliminary report by the Federal Railroad Administration's investigation team found that a fractured track caused the derailment. Norfolk Southern filed a lawsuit in December 2018 seeking $1.1 million in reimbursements from the city for the incident, claiming that they had neglected to maintain the hillside. Media related to Station Square (PAT station) at Wikimedia Commons

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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