Crews replace motor controller in Monongahela Incline, but it remains closed indefinitely

Pittsburgh Regional Transit has finished repairs on the Monongahela Incline after a breakdown trapped 27 people on Saturday, but the system will remain closed while the agency tries to figure out why the incident happened.

In a news release Monday, the agency said it has replaced a motor controller that failed Saturday afternoon, trapping five passengers in the upper car and 22 in the lower car. It took nearly 3½ hours to remove the passengers because the top car was about 20 feet from the upper station and the bottom car was about 50 feet from the bottom station on the 635-foot parallel tracks.

Now, the agency is trying to figure out why the motor controller failed and expects the funicular that runs between Station Square on East Carson Street on Pittsburgh’s South Side to Grandview Avenue on Mount Washington to remain closed at least through the end of the week. The agency is running shuttle buses between the stations every 15-20 minutes, or riders can take the 40 Mount Washington bus that runs about every 40 minutes.

In addition to determining the cause of the motor controller failure, the agency has to prepare a report on the incident for the state Department of Labor and Industry, which oversees the operation of the incline. The department also will inspect the incline before it resumes operation.

“They know what failed,” PRT spokesman Adam Brandolph said in an interview. “They don’t know yet why it failed.”

Brandolph said the motor controllers were replaced during an $8.1 million mechanical, electrical and aesthetic overhaul of the incline that was completed in March 2023.

Motor controllers — also known as drivers — regulate the speed, stopping and starting of the incline’s two motors. The motors rotate the pulleys that move the incline cables, pulling the cars up and down the side of the mountain.

Because motor controllers can take a long time to get, the agency generally has at least one spare in stock and on Monday replaced the motor controller that failed.

PRT staff and technicians likely will be running test trips the rest of the week to try to determine why the failure occurred.

“We want to make sure it’s safe to operate,” Brandolph said. “They are attempting to re-create the problem so we can make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

During the incident Saturday, Pittsburgh paramedics were able to get passengers out of the top car and into the upper station through a door to the motor room. Paramedics lowered four passengers to the lower station using a special harness system that had them walk backward down the tracks, but later the fire department brought an extension ladder that passengers used to climb down more quickly.

The incline opened in 1870 and is the longest continually running system in the country. It carries about 600,000 passengers a year, about half of them tourists.

The system has had a series of problems since the 2023 project was completed, including brake failures, doors that won’t open properly and a system shutdown caused by a buildup of condensation in a computer room.

A special consultant reviewed how PRT operates the system last year and found no serious problems. PRT attributes the problems to the age of the system and trying to run 1870s equipment with modern controls.