The Monongahela Incline will be closed through at least Monday morning after the system malfunctioned Saturday afternoon and 27 passengers had to be rescued over 3½ hours.
Pittsburgh paramedics helped five passengers get out of the incline car and into the upper station through a motor room door. They also special rigging to help four of the 22 walk down the tracks backwards with a safety harness but firefighters arrived with an extension ladder to help the other 18 to safety.
No one was injured, and Adam Brandolph, spokesman for incline operator Pittsburgh Regional Transit, said most of the passengers were “in pretty good spirits” shortly after they were returned to the station.
Brandolph said Saturday evening the agency doesn’t know why the system stopped with the cars between stations. It will begin a formal investigation Sunday and the incline will remain closed until the cause is determined.
“Of course, rider safety is our No. 1 concern,” Brandolph said.
The incline, which opened in 1871, has had a series of problems in the past few years since an $8.2 million upgrade to the mechanical and electrical systems and aesthetic changes to restore the original look of the stations was finished in March 2023.
The problems shut down the incline a half dozen times in the first year with problems ranging from doors not operating properly to condensation in a computer room and an insufficient part that was installed on the brakes.
The agency brought in a consultant to review operation and maintenance procedures, but the review found no major issues and made some minor recommendations.
Brandolph stressed that the incline’s age and trying to operate it with modern technology always can be a challenge.
“We’ve been thankful there haven’t been any incidents lately,” he said. “The next problem can be right around the corner.”
Saturday’s incident began at 2:25 p.m. when the incline stopped unexpectedly with the upper car about 20 feet from the top and the bottom one about 50 feet from the station. Brandolph said incline staff tried several times to restart the system without success, then started efforts to help the passengers in the car near the top station.
It took about an hour with the help of paramedics to get the five passengers out of the car and into the station through the motor room. The first one out was an 81-year-old man from Arizona who Brandolph said was taking photos of the incident about 20 minutes later after his wife was safely evacuated.
Getting passengers out of the bottom car was more challenging because they were farther away from the station. Using techniques that paramedics had practiced in May 2024 after a similar malfunction stranded passengers, they set up special rigging to lower passengers to the bottom station.
It took until about 4:30 p.m. to set up and lowering passengers one at a time was ponderous. So after four were brought down that way, the fire department sent a ladder truck that extended high enough for passengers to get onto it and walk down to East Carson Street next to the station at the bottom.
All passengers were rescued by 6 p.m.
Brandolph had high praise for first responders and the training they had done on the incline.
“The training they did certainly helped,” he said. “They came and knew exactly what to do and how to do it because they were familiar with it.”
In September, the agency replaced the main cable used to haul the cars up and down the side of Mount Washington and the safety cable after inspectors found an “abnormality” with the safety cable. Brandolph said there is no reason to believe Saturday’s incident had anything to do with the cable replacement.
The agency will operate shuttle buses between the top station on Grandview Avenue on Mount Washington and the bottom station at Station Square on Pittsburgh’s South Side until the incline reopens.
State officials from the Department of Labor and Industry, which oversees the operation of the incline, were at Saturday’s incident. Brandolph said PRT doesn’t know yet whether the system will have to undergo an inspection by the state before it reopens.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he’s currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.