Library is a station on

Pittsburgh Regional Transit Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT, formerly Port Authority of Allegheny County) is the second-largest public transit agency in Pennsylvania and the 20th-largest in the United States. The state-funded agency is based in Pittsburgh and is overseen ...

's light rail network, located in the

Library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

neighborhood of South Park, Pennsylvania. It is the southern terminus of the Silver Line (formerly the Library branch of the Blue Line). A 430 space park and ride lot is located on the premises, drawing travelers from both South Park and Pittsburgh's suburbs in Washington County, located just to the south. The station is named for the

neighborhood in which it resides, despite the name, no lending

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

is near the station.

History

The

Pittsburgh Railways Pittsburgh Railways was one of the predecessors of Pittsburgh Regional Transit. It had 666 PCC cars, the third largest fleet in North America (after Toronto (745) and Chicago (683)). It had 68 streetcar routes, of which only three (until April ...

interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 ...

line from Charleroi to Pittsburgh was opened through South Park on September 12, 1903, with passengers changing at Castle Shannon to continue their journey to Downtown via the

Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad The Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad was a narrow-gauge railroad in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Originally built in 1871, it may have been the first American common-carrier narrow-gauge railroad. It purchased a rail line called the Co ...

. At this time, the Simmons stop was established to serve Library. In 1953, the interurban line was abandoned and cut back to Library, with a turnaround loop built at Simmons for the single-ended PCC's that operated on the line. In the late 1980s, new light rail vehicles began to use the line. These new cars had larger, articulated bodies, and were thus unable to negotiate the loop. Moreover, these cars were double-ended, eliminating the need for such turn-around facilities. In 2004, the loop was removed and a new, larger station was built to better accommodate the light rail cars.

References

External links

Port Authority T Stations ListingsStation from Google Maps Street View
Port Authority of Allegheny County stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1953 Silver Line (Pittsburgh) {{Pennsylvania-railstation-stub