Business owners say repeated closure of Monongahela Incline hurts bottom line
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — For the fifth time in two months, the Monongahela Incline is shut down.
The latest closure comes after the cars would not slow down or come to a stop in the correct spots. It's out of service with no reopening date.
KDKA-TV's Meghan Schiller talked to some business owners who think it's time to get "critical" about the repeated maintenance issues.
Business owner Todd DiFiore set up shop in Mt. Washington for a reason.
"The first overlook, you look at the beautiful, grand city, all the beautiful buildings," said DiFiore, owner of DiFiore's Ice Cream Delite and Grand Brew Cafe. "You turn around and see a beautiful ice cream cone and beautiful coffee cup and you say, I want both of those."
But those tourists just are not coming with the unreliability of the Monongahela Incline, he says.
"It is their biggest attraction," DiFiore said. "It is their greatest asset of (Pittsburgh Regional Transit.) They need to embrace it and figure out what's going on with it."
DiFiore asks why the Duquesne Incline, just 1 mile up the road, isn't facing these maintenance issues and repeat shutdowns. PRT owns both but hasn't operated the Duquesne Incline since the mid-60s.
The latest shutdown at the Mon Incline is because of the new control system installed under the recent rehab project. When KDKA-TV asked about the discrepancy between the two inclines, PRT spokesperson Adam Brandolph said, "I can promise you that the Mon Incline still requires an operator for every trip."
Schiller: "Do you feel, as business owners up here on Mt. Washington, you're getting all the information that you want as to what's going on with the incline?"
DiFiore: "Not at all, not enough for me. We really need to worry about what's going to be long-term problems, not these short terms for the last two years. But long term, what's going to happen? It has to get fixed and it has to be reliable."
Across the street, Shiloh Gastro manager Manuel Banuelos looks at empty chairs, wishing things would change.
"There's a huge impact in all of our pockets when that's down," Banuelos said. "Like I said, less people coming up, less people coming in. We do depend a good amount on locals, but tourism does boost this part of the city."
PRT still cannot commit to a reopening date, so the tracks will remain empty for the foreseeable future. The one good thing KDKA-TV learned is that what's broken is under warranty, so that means no additional money will be needed to fix what's broken.
