Digging deep in Pittsburgh for rail line

PITTSBURGH - Many sports-crazed fans who don't want to deal with traffic must walk or take the bus over the bridges of the Allegheny River to watch their Steelers or Pirates.

The city's 25-mile light rail system won't get them to the neighborhood that is home to Heinz Field, PNC Park, museums, and soon, a huge slots casino. It stops short of the river, in downtown Pittsburgh.

But now the commuter line is being extended 1.2 miles through a tunnel under the river in a $435 million project that will take rail users onto the North Shore.

While a certain convenience for sports fans, the project has drawn criticism for its high cost - and where it doesn't go.

The Port Authority of Allegheny County says the North Shore Connector, expected to be completed in 2011, is a sound investment in mass transit that will spur development.

But the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, a conservative think tank based in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, believes the project will pay off only if it is extended 15 miles to Pittsburgh International Airport.

"We look at things on the basis of their cost and benefits and on a cost-benefit basis, this doesn't come anywhere close," said Jake Haulk, the institute's president.

Port Authority officials say it's possible that one day the rail line, called the "T" by locals, would be extended.

But Haulk said that wouldn't happen in the next 20 years. "That's a pipe dream," he said.

About three-quarters of the extension, or just under a mile, will be underground. The project also includes revamping the current final stop downtown to link it to the extension.

The cost was originally put at $395 million. Eighty percent of the project is being funded with a federal grant, with 16.66 percent coming from the state, and the rest from local government.

That additional money could come from the authority's capital budget, which could mean delays on other authority projects, said Winston Simmonds, the port authority's rail operations and engineering officer.

He said the Federal Transit Administration approved the project before energy costs began to rise and a global demand for steel, concrete and other construction materials drove prices up beyond the 3.3 percent anticipated annual increase. The project was also to have included a link to the downtown David L. Lawrence Convention Center, but that was dropped because of budget constraints.

Costs are expected to increase even more, though the authority can't say by how much.

In Pittsburgh, about 676,000 people rode light rail in October, up more than 4 percent from about 675,000 passengers in October 2007. Ridership was also up in September and August.

About 27,000 people use light rail each day, and officials estimate that 14,300 people will use the North Shore Connector daily when it's completed.

The port authority estimates its per rider cost at $6, of which most riders pay $2.50, with the balance coming from state and local subsidies. But the Allegheny Institute believes the cost to the agency is even higher.

Kathleen Connolly, of Ben Avon, a suburb just west of Pittsburgh, questioned how many commuters would park on the North Shore and take light rail downtown.

"The T is nice, beautiful, easy and clean, but it serves the South Hills and Station Square," a shopping and entertainment complex to the west, just across the Monongahela River from downtown.

A better project, she said, would be extending light rail west to the airport or to the city's eastern suburbs.

"They're not hiding the fact that it's for entertainment," she said. "It's not for commuter ease."

Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato has said he would have preferred to expand the transportation system elsewhere, but supports the project because he did not want to lose federal funding.