BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Nice.

When Stu, JEG, and I went on the first outbound trip from the North Shore, a guy told us we were supposed to flip up the handicapped seats and place our bikes there (which Stu had never heard of)

Pierce, he told you right. This is technically what you're supposed to do, though I can't think of any situation where I've taken my bike on the T and those seats haven't already been occupied.

AFAIK the left doors only open at Mt. Lebanon and the two North Shore stops, though I'm only familiar with the Red Line. Anyone else know of other stops where they open?

I think those are the only left-side stops.

I've occasionally encountered operators who insist on the handicapped-seats position, but they're rare (and the rule is dumb -- lots of better places for bikes).

The new Gateway Center station is also an "center island platform" so trains would open on their left doors as well. So basically the last three stops of the T are all "island platforms" as well as two on the Red Line--Mount Lebanon and Castle Shannon.

Also, I'm always glad to hear stories like this. I firmly believe that Steve Bland is doing the best job he can at the Port Authority but is severely burdened by limited funding by the state, has his hands tied with the transit union contract (though it's set to expire in June) and has had to overcome oversight and incompetence by previous PAT leadership. And despite all those limitations he helped to spearhead the agency's Transportation Development Plan (TDP) which effectively streamlined PAT's system based on CURRENT (read: not 1960's) census and ridership data.

Being PAT's CEO has to be a truly exhausting job and I certainly don't envy him, but I still believe he's doing the best he can given these limited resources. I've resigned myself to the fact that yinzers will criticize PAT at every turn no matter WHAT they do.

^ this

Thanks for the corrections.

I agree Steve Bland's doing a good job, and that much of PAT's fate isn't in his hands.

A couple questions:

I vaguely remember reading somewhere (probably on the Port Authority website) that bikes can only be loaded and unloaded at above-ground stops. Is this true, or am I imagining it? If it is true, is it enforced?

My other question is not bike related, but I'll throw it out there. I've never ridden the T, but I ride the bus all the time and always get a monthly bus pass. Can you use your bus pass to ride the T, or do you have to pay separately?

Yes. One system, three modes of travel (bus, rail, incline), one fare does all.

Rail has a couple of oddities buses do not, like a fare surcharge if you DO use cash at rush hour. Beats the hell out of me why they still have that. Also there's a parking garage out at South Hills Village that you pay extra for (still a bargain).

As to boarding at a low platform, yeah, they probably restrict that because you're boarding through a very narrow door. That's understandable. Find a bazillion dollars to make EVERY stop a high platform, and we solve the bicycle problem and also make the entire system wheelchair friendly.

At low-platform stops, you can still use a folding bike, FWIW, but not a regular one. PAT's bike info page.

I've never seen anyone try to fit a regular bike through the small door and up the stairs, so I don't know if it's enforced. But it seems it wouldn't be entirely unlike trying to get a couch through a revolving door.

I've tried to take my bike off at a low platform and wasn't allowed to by the operator (engineer? conductor?). It doesn't look that much worse than carrying my bike through the stairwell of my apartment, but I guess I'll never know.

Thanks for the responses. I think I interpreted high-platform and low-platform to mean above-ground and under-ground. I still don't know what high-platform and low-platform means and why low-platforms and non-foldable bikes don't mix, but at least I can tell from the map which stops I can use.

In some locations, the T acts like a street car or trolly where it rides on tracks on the road. So you have a small set of stairs on one (narrow) door of the T to let you step off the car. It's very similar to older buses where there were steps leading down to the door. "High platform" refers to the regular train station situation where the tracks are in a pit several feet lower from where passengers stand.

Also note that the "high platform" stops are the only ones where you can board the rear cars during peak hours. (With a few oddball exceptions that no longer have fare booths, like Fallowfield.)

Basically, you can board at any stop on the T map that's also wheelchair-accessible.

Also note that the "high platform" stops are the only ones where you can board the rear cars during peak hours. (With a few oddball exceptions that no longer have fare booths, like Fallowfield.)

Almost the entire Overbrook section on the Blue line is one such exception. Only one of the seven stops between South Hills Junction and Willow opens the rear car, yet they're all high-platform (like all stops built in the last 2-3 decades, I think).

But it's a good rule for the older part of the system.

Another exception is West Library: high platform, but no fare booth. Willow/Overbrook Junction too.

Most of the remaining high platform fare booths got axed in the fall from what I remember.

Steven's post reminds me of the time I got verbally abused for taking my folder off at a low-platform stop. Got an apology from the supervisor on duty, sounded like the operator had had a bad day and forgot that his job was customer service as well as driving.

Unattended turnstiles work for most cities....why do we need to keep high platform stations staffed?

As far as I know, the only station to lose a fare booth in the last decade or so was Fallowfield (in 2009). The other high platform stations that lack fare booths today never had them.

The unattended turnstiles I've seen accept cards or tokens, not bills and coins. Maybe once the fare card system is in place, and they have vending machines to issue cards in exchange for cash, they could try turnstiles.

How do stations with turnstiles handle bikes? The ones I've seen have a locked gate with an attendant, like NYC, for anything that doesn't fit through the turnstile. And bikes don't fit through some turnstiles.

Hopefully they'll eventually have gates that take tickets at both ends, as in PATCO's fare system. I haven't had any bike or luggage issues there.

Steven, Some systems have extra wide turnstiles to accommodate wheelchairs, strollers, bikes, etc.