Pittsburgh Regional Transit took a major step forward in its plans to replace all 81 of its light rail trains by applying Tuesday for a $100 million federal grant to jump-start the project.
The agency included $1 million in its capital budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 for preliminary design work for the trains, which are expected to cost a total of more than $500 million.
Internally, staff has been working since then to decide what elements it wants to see in the new cars, such as designing all of them to allow direct entry from all stations without riders having to climb steps. Replacing the trains is expected to take six to eight years at a rate of about 10 a year.
In 2024, CEO Katharine Eagan Kelleman said, the agency expects to hire a consultant to begin designing a prototype, regardless of whether it gets the federal grant. The plan is to use that train for six months to a year to see if there are any modifications the agency wants to make before it orders the full contingent.
“It’s a very, very time-intensive process,” Kelleman said. “We get the prototype, test it to see if it’s really what we want, then place the order.”
Amy Silbermann, the agency’s acting chief development officer, said grant money is available under a special Rail Vehicle Replacement Program established under the Biden administration’s economic stimulus package. That program has $1.5 billion available through 2026 to help pay for 50% of the cost of replacement vehicles.
Under ordinary circumstances, the federal agency pays 80% for the cost of replacement buses once they reach their maximum age or mileage limits. There hasn’t been a similar program for rail vehicles.
PRT is under some pressure to move this project along as quickly as possible because of the age of the existing trains. Kelleman said the trains are in “very good shape” but some are so old that maintenance workers have to make replacement parts and the cost to take care of them is higher than it should be.
Fifty-three trains manufactured by the former Siemens AG when the system opened in the 1980s are more than 35 years old. Others manufactured by CAF are about 20 years old and will need major upgrades by the time the new trains are available, so Kelleman said they will be scheduled for replacement instead.
Even if federal help is available to help pay for building the new trains, Kelleman said, the agency is likely to borrow money to pay its share of the cost. The agency has a relatively small amount of long-term debt, and that will be paid off by 2029.
Likely more than $250 million, “That is not the kind of money we have just sitting around,” Kelleman said.
Ridership has been slow to come back to the light rail system after the pandemic, but the agency has determined it would be substantially more expensive and less efficient to abandon light rail and replace the service with more buses.
The grant application comes on the heels of this week’s announcement of more than $50 million in federal funds for replacement bridges and slope stabilization work on the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway as well as exclusive bus lanes on the shoulder of the inbound side of the Parkway East and a ramp from the highway onto the busway near the Edgewood-Swissvale border.
Kelleman said the agency expects to file for additional federal grants to help build a new regional bus maintenance garage and a replacement for its central maintenance facility in Manchester. It expects to acquire property for each facility, and construction is expected to cost as much as $200 million each.
The light rail maintenance facility near South Hills Village Mall can be refitted to maintain the new trains, Kelleman said.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.