Kelly Braden lives directly across from Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s Fallowfield Station light rail stop in the city’s Beechview neighborhood.
A recent detour sent the light rail system, better known as the T, through Allentown — dropping her off directly outside The Weeping Glass, the shop she owns.
It eased her commute to work, a perk for someone who shares a car and enjoys a convenient public transit alternative.
But that route through Allentown was not permanent, lasting less than a year.
Pittsburgh Regional Transit years ago discontinued consistent light rail service through Allentown, though it still sometimes detours the T through the neighborhood, as it did from February through December last year when the Mount Washington Tunnel closed for upgrades.
A recent, long-term detour took the T through the neighborhood while the transit authority rehabilitated the Mount Washington Tunnel.
That detour ended in December, again leaving Allentown — where Braden also owns a coffee shop called Grim Wizard — without light rail access.
Braden is among the local residents and business owners who want the route to return.
About 1,700 people have signed onto a Change.org petition calling on the transit authority to permanently add a T stop in Allentown.
Ben Prisbylla, who is responsible for commercial leasing and property management at the Allentown-based RE360 property management company, grew up in Castle Shannon, where the T “was just a way of life for me.”
“Working in Allentown, it kind of blew my mind that we had trolley tracks that were just unused,” he said.
When the T temporarily added a stop in the neighborhood, he said, it had real community benefits.
“There are so many people who live in Pittsburgh who don’t even know Allentown exists,” he said. “It was such a great thing to have more people come through and see it. I think this is such a great way to connect this amazing neighborhood to the rest of the city.”
It offered a faster, more direct route to Downtown, the South Hills, and other business districts, Prisbylla said, and was “a lot more reliable” than the buses that regularly offer public transit for the community.
“The trolley is just a whole different animal,” he said. “It was really, really convenient.”
Pittsburgh Regional Transit spokesman Adam Brandolph said existing bus routes connect Allentown residents with jobs, services and other destinations throughout the region.
“Public transit has long been an economic catalyst and a proven way to strengthen communities, so it’s understandable that many Allentown residents value the fast, efficient and affordable transit options Pittsburgh Regional Transit can provide,” he said in a written statement. “While light-rail service was temporarily routed through Allentown for much of 2025, restoring permanent, regular rail service is not a simple operational adjustment.”
To permanently bring the transportation system through the community would require “substantial infrastructure investment” to comply with handicap accessibility needs and modern safety standards, he said.
“While these requirements present real challenges, they’re not insurmountable,” Brandolph said.
What kind of upgrades would be needed to permanently bring rail service to Allentown again and how much that would cost will be contemplated as Pittsburgh Regional Transit conducts a systemwide rail study later this year, he said.
Braden, the owner of Grim Wizard and Weeping Glass, acknowledged there could be some challenges. The light rail cars have to navigate Allentown traffic — though they deal with similar issues in other areas, too, she said.
She also acknowledged their noise and vibrations irk some people. But as someone who lives directly across from a T station, she thinks people will get used to it.
“I don’t even hear it now,” she said. “It just becomes part of daily live, and you kind of become ear blind to it.”
For Braden, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. She said people from different parts of town patronized her businesses, sometimes commenting that they saw unique shops or restaurants while riding to work and decided to get off at the temporary Allentown stop.
“It piqued people’s interest and made them get off the T,” said Braden, who said one of her newest employees discovered Grim Wizard after riding by on the T. “This is introducing a lot of people to our neighborhood.”
Chris Copen owns Bottlerocket, an Allentown entertainment venue.
He initially discovered Allentown years ago because his commute to work on T took him through the neighborhood as he traveled from Dormont to Downtown.
He enjoyed watching others have the same experience during the recent detour that brought the T through the area again. Plus, it was a convenient way for people to safely get home after drinking at Bottlerocket.
Copen thinks regular light transit through Allentown is “common sense.”
“We have these train tracks already embedded in our community,” he said. “Why not use them?”
Copen said he felt officials at Pittsburgh Regional Transit have been “very responsive” to the points he and others are raising. He’s hopeful the T could come back to stay.
“It happened once,” he said. “Why can’t it happen again?”