Pittsburgh Amtrak Station past, present and future

[chadamfleetrailfan]

I took my every-few-month trip on the Pennsylvanian earlier this morning and I saw that the construction has been completed on the station end of the platform. It's a stairway that heads down to ground level.



I'm unsure if that mens the platform can be publicly accessed outside of the internal station steps (I would think not really since Amtrak staff are pretty particular who goes to the platform) or if that just goes down to another maintenance area, but I'm glad to see all of those boards finally gone.

 

[PaTrainFan]

I took my every-few-month trip on the Pennsylvanian earlier this morning and I saw that the construction has been completed on the station end of the platform. It's a stairway that heads down to ground level.

View attachment 37727

I'm unsure if that mens the platform can be publicly accessed outside of the internal station steps (I would think not really since Amtrak staff are pretty particular who goes to the platform) or if that just goes down to another maintenance area, but I'm glad to see all of those boards finally gone.

I asked about this one time when I was there and the answer seemed to be this had nothing to do with passenger access. There were some structural issues that were addressed as well.

Much work is planned here and along the NS line to Harrisburg for the second Pennsylvanian but as near as I can tell nothing has begun. Eager to hear that timeline; I believe the goal was for service to begin in 2026.

 

[railiner]

I asked about this one time when I was there and the answer seemed to be this had nothing to do with passenger access. There were some structural issues that were addressed as well.

Much work is planned here and along the NS line to Harrisburg for the second Pennsylvanian but as near as I can tell nothing has begun. Eager to hear that timeline; I believe the goal was for service to begin in 2026.

It seems incredible that this station, which at its heyday hosted so many trains, now requires so long to just add one more…

 

[jpakala]

I have many fond memories of the PRR Pittsburgh station, though none from June 1944 when at 3 months I accompanied Mom, 2 siblings & a friend to SD. Mom had a first-class but straight chair wall seat in a club car, and after changing a diaper she was offered a gentleman's parlor car seat, so they switched as he said he'd be in the club car anyway. The parlor car was great with a big chair, lots of floor space & relative quiet. An attendant (possibly a train nurse) offered to heat a bottle of milk, but Mom declined as I was breastfed. My brother, sister, and the friend were in coach on a train that arrived in Chicago later than we did and Mom was taken aback at how dirty they looked (from coal dust). My brother told her about holding a paper cup out the open window and having it fill with cinders. They were all together on the C&NW train to SD and had berths I think (I know Mom did).