Monongahela Incline still closed for third time in a year with mechanical issues

The Monongahela Incline is closed indefinitely for the third time in less than a year after the 150-year-old facility was shut down Tuesday evening when it had trouble slowing down and stopping at the upper and lower stations.

Pittsburgh Regional Transit said no one was injured in the incident, which occurred about 7 p.m. The funicular carries about 600,000 riders a year on tracks that transport cars on a pair of parallel tracks between Mount Washington and Station Square on Pittsburgh’s South Side.

Spokesman Adam Brandolph said the cars failed to stop and struck the stations at the top and bottom of the incline. There was no damage and no one was injured, but Brandolph didn’t know if anyone was on board when the incident occurred.

In a news release, the agency said a review of its incident recorder showed the problem occurred because “multiple electrical and mechanical components failed.”

The series of closures follows an $8.1 million upgrade last year to the incline’s mechanical system and restoration of the stations to their look when it opened in 1870.

“I know that some of these issues are related to the new system we had installed,” Brandolph said in an interview. “I think it’s not that the rehabilitation has been a failure, but parts installed as part of that rehabilitation aren’t performing as expected.”

The agency is working with general contractor Mosites Construction Co. to identify and correct the problems.

Brandolph said the issues aren’t uncommon operating a system that is more than 150 years old. In some cases, the agency makes parts and in others improvises to keep it operating, such as using a system such as grocery store doors to open and close the doors on the incline cars.

“It’s 153 years old,” he said. “It’s unique. There’s literally nothing like it.”

In August, it closed for about 10 days when condensation caused the emergency brake to activate incorrectly. In that incident, the cars stopped about 50 feet from stations and riders had to use emergency walkways to escape.

It was closed for another week in October when a door on the downriver car was damaged when it fell out of place.

The agency will operate shuttle buses between the stations until the problems are fixed as long as bus drivers agree to take voluntary overtime to provide the service.