If all goes according to plan, Pittsburgh and Oakland could be in for major changes in mass… If all goes according to plan, Pittsburgh and Oakland could be in for major changes in mass transit, including nothing less than a light rail system connecting Oakland to Downtown.

The plan, unveiled last week by Allegheny County chief executive Dan Onorato, is based on the recommendations of the county’s Transportation Action Team and includes the construction of two new light rails.

“Our goal is linking our region’s three economic centers – Downtown, Oakland and the airport,” Onorato said in a press release.

The proposal includes the construction of two new rapid transit light rail systems to connect Oakland with other parts of the city.

Oakland and Downtown would be connected by one of the light rails, while the second light rail would connect Pitt’s campus to Carnegie Mellon, UPMC Shadyside and the Pittsburgh Technology Center on Second Avenue. This Oakland circulator would alleviate traffic congestion in Oakland, in addition to providing greater mobility for students who live on campus.

According to Kevin Evanto, spokesman for Dan Onorato, the proposed rapid transit is basically an extension of the T. The rapid transit system would be similar to the Port Authority’s T light rail that already connects the suburbs of the South Hills to Downtown.

According to Evanto, there are currently three proposed routes to connect Oakland with Downtown.

The first proposed route would run along Second Avenue.

A second option would follow the Martin Luther King Jr. busway, which runs through the Strip District, Polish Hill and Shadyside.

A third possible line would go through the Hill District, the most direct route from Oakland to Downtown.

But Evanto believes that a route along either Second Avenue or the busway would be most likely. “The public owns the land along the roads. It’s private land [in the Hill District], and we would have to purchase right-of-way,” he said.

“When you consider Downtown and Oakland, they are the second and third busiest commuter destinations in Pennsylvania, behind only downtown Philadelphia,” said Evanto. To put that in perspective, Evanto said that the neighborhood of Oakland alone “is busier than places like Erie, Scranton and Harrisburg.”

“We want to give Pitt, UPMC and Carnegie Mellon the opportunities to expand,” said Evanto. “There’s not that much land left in Oakland to develop,” he said, noting that “Pitt and CMU have had to start expanding elsewhere.”

The proposal has been welcomed by Pitt.

“The University is very interested in the transit system,” said Pitt’s vice chancellor of community relations, Reynolds Clark. “There is a need to move people more efficiently around Oakland.”

“Taking some of the automotive pressure of Oakland obviously would alleviate the traffic problem in Oakland,” he said.

Reynolds also said that a direct light rail system from Oakland to Downtown would greatly benefit the employees and commuters who must make the daily trek into Oakland.

“Right now a lot of employees ride the T to Downtown and then must take buses to Oakland,” Clark said.

“Port Authority has been expanding and updating,” Evanto said, adding that it’s important to “look towards the future and the next stage of expansion,” with regard to public transportation.

He pointed to similar transit systems in Miami, San Francisco and Vancouver as evidence of the success of rapid transit systems.

Evanto said that the Oakland circulator could possibly be elevated above the streets and sidewalks of Oakland.

“Chances are that it would be elevated,” he said. “Theoretically it could be built pretty quickly” and would be “much cheaper to build than to tunnel underground.”

Evanto also noted that the road closures and delays caused by tunneling underground would be unacceptable to most commuters.

However, one of the biggest obstacles to overcome is cost. While still in its earliest stages, such an ambitious project would likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Onorato has proposed a “public-private partnership” as a way to provide funding for the project.

“With increasingly tight budgets at the federal, state and local levels, we are looking toward public-private partnerships and innovative funding approaches to make these linkages a reality,” Onorato said.

While Clark believes this is “a concept that needs to be further investigated,” both he and Evanto believe that federal transportation money could go a long way towards financing the project.

Evanto realizes that “funding is the main limiting factor,” while Clark suggests that officials should “wait and see how much is left over” from federal transportation funding before settling on a specific plan.

But the benefits to Oakland and to Pitt students would be undeniable if the proposal becomes a reality.

“I believe it would have a very dramatic and positive impact on the lives of students,” Clark said.