The Monongahela Incline will remain closed at least through Monday morning while Pittsburgh Regional Transit investigates why it malfunctioned Saturday afternoon, requiring PRT and city emergency crews to rescue 27 passengers who were stuck inside its cars.
In a statement, PRT spokesperson Adam Brandolph said the east and west cars of the 155-year-old funicular unexpectedly stopped moving in mid-trip, with each car about 40 feet short of its station. Brandolph said five passengers were aboard the car on the west track, and 22 others were riding in the car on the east track when the incline stopped working at 2:25 p.m.
PRT personnel tried for about an hour to restart the incline, Brandolph said. Rescue crews from the Pittsburgh Bureau of Emergency Medical Services then established staging areas at the top and bottom of the incline and used ropes to rescue the five passengers from the west car, which was closer to the upper station on Mount Washington, according to Public Safety Department spokesperson Eliza Durham.
Courtesy of the Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety.
Crews used ropes to rescue trapped passengers from a Monongahela Incline car after it shut down in mid-trip on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025.
Rescue crews also brought in a ladder truck from the city Fire Bureau at 5:30 p.m., which firefighters and paramedics deployed to reach and guide passengers from the east/lower car to safety, the spokespersons said. All passengers were out of the incline cars by 6 p.m., and none was injured, Brandolph said.
In the PRT statement, transit agency CEO Katharine Kelleman thanked the paramedics, firefighters and police officers who assisted with the rescue, as well as the incline passengers for remaining calm during the “high-stress situation.”
While PRT investigates the cause of the shutdown, the agency will use shuttle buses to carry passengers between the bus stop at Station Square and the upper station of the Mon Incline, Brandolph said.
Constructed in 1870, the Monongahela Incline is the oldest continuously operating funicular in the United States and a popular mode of transportation that connects the South Side with Mount Washington. It carries approximately 1,000 passengers each weekday.