A "T" vehicle departs Station Square
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Overview | |||
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Owner | Port Authority of Allegheny County | ||
Locale | Pittsburgh | ||
Transit type | Subway/Light rail | ||
Number of stations | 53 | ||
Daily ridership | 27,700 (Q4 2014) | ||
Website | Port Authority of Allegheny County | ||
Operation | |||
Began operation | 1984 | ||
Operator(s) | Port Authority of Allegheny County | ||
Technical | |||
System length | 26.2-mile (42.2 km) | ||
Track gauge | 5 ft 2 1⁄2 in (1,588 mm) Pennsylvania trolley gauge | ||
Electrification | 650 V DC,Overhead lines | ||
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The Pittsburgh Light Rail (commonly known as The T) is a 26.2-mile (42.2 km)light rail system in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; it functions as a subway in Downtown Pittsburgh and largely as an at-grade light rail service in the suburbs south of the city. The system is largely linear in a north-south direction, with one terminus just north of Pittsburgh's central business district and two termini in the South Hills. The system is owned and operated by the Port Authority of Allegheny County. It is the successor system to the streetcar network formerly operated by Pittsburgh Railways, the oldest portions of which date to 1903. The Pittsburgh light rail lines are vestigial from the city's streetcar days, and is one of only three light rail systems in the United States that continues to use the Pennsylvania Trolley (broad) gauge rail on its lines instead of 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge. Pittsburgh is one of the few North American cities that have continued to operate light rail systems in an uninterrupted evolution from the first-generation streetcar era, along with Boston, Cleveland, New Orleans, Newark, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Toronto.