Donald Bonk interviews Lucinda Beattie, who retired as Vice President of Transportation for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership in March, as part of the Pittsburgh Tomorrow podcast series. This interview was conducted before COVID-19. The transcript is shortened and edited for the sake of clarity.
View the episode archive here. View Lucinda Beattie’s profile here.
“By 2040 there should really be six trains a day in each direction (from Pittsburgh).” – Lucinda Beattie, retired vice president, transportation, Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership
Donald Bonk: I’m here with Lucinda Beattie, former vice president of transportation for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. She’ll share her backstory, and then we’ll move into some questions that are really fascinating for Pittsburgh’s future.
Lucinda Beattie: I moved here in 1985 after living in New England and the Midwest. My husband was a minister and I moved here with my family. Over the next 20 years, I went back to school, the Carnegie Mellon Heinz School of Public Order and Management, and graduated with a degree in public order. I realized that I wanted to focus on downtown Pittsburgh, which was at the time embroiled in a whole rethinking process: “What is the future for Pittsburgh?” It was in the mid-1990s.
I started the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership in 2000 and was fortunate to see all of the changes that have taken place over the past 20 years. At PDP, my title was Vice President, Transportation. Through my work as a representative of a so-called transport management association, I have concentrated on reducing traffic congestion and improving air quality.
Downtown Pittsburgh today is so immensely changed from when I first started when the convention center was just being built. There is a huge investment today. There are houses that weren’t there when I started. It was just the Allegheny County Jail where people lived downtown.
Bonk: What would make Pittsburgh one of the best cities in the world? What could take it to another higher level? What is the “ideal Pittsburgh”?
Beattie: The ideal Pittsburgh would be one where our future is not jeopardized by some issues related to the industries considered outside the city limits. We are no longer a city of elderly people. We are a city of younger people. And as people have said a lot in the past, millennials like public transportation. So I see us at a crossroads when it comes to maintaining what I believe to be a great forward momentum and facing some problems that need to be resolved with regard to our region.
The kind of investment we need to make in the city center and in the city as a whole really concerns public transport. It was the glue that allowed downtown Pittsburgh to stand up again. If our inner city relied on automobiles to get people to work, we wouldn’t have the companies, the industry, and the growth we’ve seen over the past 20 years because we can’t handle this volume of automobile traffic.
Local public transport has historically been an important factor in our region, bringing the majority of people to work every day. It is really the equivalent of the basic infrastructure for the city center, like the water and sewage system, like the thermal heating. It’s a rich and very vibrant part of downtown that needs to grow.
Bonk: When I think of the modes of transport, we have the T and we have a robust bus system into the city. Now we have Uber and Lyft showing people around. When you think of a next step, do you see a fast transit bus system that was talked about as a game changer in the near future?
Beattie: The fast bus service, especially the current system that allows fast transit traffic into Mon Valley and through Oakland, Highland Park, Oakland to Squirrel Hill, is an incredible step forward – a game changer.
Highland Park and Squirrel Hill already have a lot of service, but it will. Because of the frequency and because there will likely be fewer stops, more people will get on the buses. And I think it’s great. The bus routing system P1 and P2 are the main routes into the city center. They carry more people out of the East End than the light rail.
I honestly think the guidance system should be expanded. If I were to change anything I would extend the east bus to Murrysville where there is a lot of new development. Investing would move people away from the park, which is one of the main congestion issues.
The problem with the port authority is not the willingness to add new services. It is that PA Law 89 prevents them from adding new services. And there is the whole question of costs and transport financing that the legislature has not yet addressed.
I was just looking at a map of the Pittsburgh S-Bahn in 1942. If you lived here 60 years ago, you had better access to the S-Bahn. People were able to get from Newcastle to the city center by train on what is now Route 8. There was a pulsating rail network in the east. At one point in the 1960s, up to 12 trains drove in and out every day. And those were passenger trains from Pittsburgh.
Bonk: We currently only have one train per route. You can come to Pittsburgh from the east and arrive at 8 p.m. but you have to go east (east) again at 7:30 a.m.
Beattie: I’ve been working on getting a second move ready for about six or seven years. We are closer than ever. Norfolk Southern is conducting the in-house feasibility study they will need to conduct for the route. Again, the problem will be money as investments will have to be made to improve infrastructure along the Pennsylvanian.
When you compare transportation costs, people accept the idea that a stretch of road could cost $ 28 million. When you talk about passenger transportation and you say $ 28 million, people think that is an incredibly large number.
Bonk: Do you have any thoughts on a transformative, massive, moon shot idea for Pittsburgh?
Beattie: What could be done would be to invest heavily in rail. The group I belong to is called the Western Pennsylvanians for Passenger Rail. We have been campaigning for three trains a day in each direction for several years. By 2040 there should really be six trains a day in each direction. The stations along the route should be updated.
The problem for the people in our part of the state is that we have been cut off. Our ability to travel between cities in Pennsylvania has been severely limited for the past 50 years. The ease and affordability western Pennsylvanians have when traveling to Harrisburg or Philadelphia is limited.
Bonk: I understand that between Harrisburg and Philadelphia there are between 12 and 14 trains a day. And we have two going the other way. As a person who went to school at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia but is from western Pennsylvania, I would love to have the connectivity that has fueled the Harrisburg to Philadelphia neighborhood economically and in so many other dimensions because of this transit service.
Beattie: And the state has made significant investments in this service over the past 20 years. The rail infrastructure cost approximately $ 400 million. Since 2009, at least $ 200 million has been allocated to modernize the stations. People have to go from Altoona to Harrisburg, from Johnstown to Pittsburgh. With at least six trains a day, you could almost go back to a commuter network that enables economic development.
Bonk: As we’ve seen in Washington, DC wherever the subway went, the areas around those stops have become hugely prosperous and successful residential areas.
I wanted to ask one last question here. Do you have anything on your mind about things that we could do in the near future that would affect the city?
Beattie: I think the Port Authority focused on expanding the East Bus Way is a critical first step. I also think completing the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) is the best way to transit. We have to find the sources of funding locally. I actually think that we will need creative funding from the state. We should go to our congress delegation and get money.
Beattie (Addendum): As Vice President of Western Pennsylvanians for Passenger Rail (WPPR), I continue to work to ensure that our region receives additional passenger trains on the Pennsylvanian. Amtrak’s five-year plan now has a second train operating in fiscal 2024, and Norfolk Southern is currently conducting a feasibility study of the corridor to determine what investments may be required for a second passenger train.
Last September, I was a panelist speaking about sustainable transportation for the Virtual Jobs Showcase.
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