PITTSBURGH (PTTP) – Pittsburgh’s famous Monongahela Incline reopened last Saturday (Feb.
10), after being closed for five weeks due to maintenance. The incline was built in 1870 and has
been popular among tourists and commuters since.
This closure was due to a malfunction with the mechanics. According to Adam Brandolph,
Director Of Public Relations for Pittsburgh Regional Transit, “So there’s devices underneath the
car of the incline and attached to the station, sort of tell the car …when it’s getting closer to the
station, so it can slow down…the switch did not activate. And so ultimately when it initially
happened, the car hit the station, [and] didn’t cause any damage. Nobody was injured or
anything, but obviously that shouldn’t happen.”
Brandolph went on to explain, that the five weeks that the Mon. Incline was closed were
dedicated to taking measures, including reinstalling and reprogramming equipment, to prevent
something like this from happening again.
Previously, the Mon. Incline was closed from August 2022 to March 2023 for an “eight million
dollar rehab,” which according to Brandolph, was aimed at making repairs and keeping the
154-year-old incline up to standards.
While the incline was closed, a shuttle system was in place that took people from the lower
station to the upper station. Since the incline has reopened, the shuttles are no longer in
operation.
“We do appreciate both the Hilltop communities, who are impacted, the businesses who are
impacted, and the people who, you know, they expect…to go up and down the incline without
any incidents, and we want to make sure that it continues to run for another 150 years,” said
Brandolph