Whether rolling down the busway on a Football Flyer or screeching beneath the Allegheny River on the T, riders say Pittsburgh’s free public transit has proved to be one of the real winners of the NFL draft.
Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s plan and free shuttles have generally held up under the crush of record crowds and wallet-walloping parking prices, allowing wary locals and out-of-town visitors easy access to the largest event in Pittsburgh history.
If there hadn’t been a convenient, free option to get into Pittsburgh for the NFL Draft, Isabel Papariella and her mother, Rose, might not have ventured out.
“We didn’t want to have to pay for parking, and with traffic, you never know what it’s going to be like,” Isabel said.
But the pair boarded a PRT bus at Monroeville Mall on Friday morning and took a 45-minute ride to the North Shore, ready to explore. They said it was an easy way to get into the city from their home in Wilkins Township.
Plenty of others decided to forgo the drive and parking fees, opting for the Football Flyer buses from the north, south, east and west suburbs. Spaces at park-and-ride lots tied to PRT bus stations across the region filled up Thursday, the first day of the draft, and again Friday, spokesman Adam Brandolph said.
The lots have a combined capacity of between 10,000 and 12,000. Overall, they were three-quarters full by 8 p.m. Thursday, when the draft started.
“Bus ridership has been very good, very healthy,” he said, adding that official numbers won’t be available until next week.
The buses arrived about every 15 minutes Friday, and will switch to every half hour on Saturday.
The transit routes were more than needed with the thousands of attendees. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced record draft crowds of 320,000 Thursday and 260,000 Friday.
David Covington blasted Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” from a handheld speaker as he descended the stairs Friday to the Gateway T station in Downtown Pittsburgh.
It was an apt song choice for the scenes he described aboard Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s light rail system during the 2026 NFL Draft.
Covington, 55, of Clairton said he stood shoulder to shoulder Thursday night with hundreds of others on a train car as he departed the North Shore. He said he was even briefly sandwiched in between the closing doors of the car.
“There was no room,” he said.
Packed trains and large crowds during the draft have turned the T into both a pressure point and a proving ground, as thousands of fans have relied on the system to commute.
The experience on the T wasn’t much different from departing a busy Steelers game except for the thousands more people awaiting the train, Covington said. He said it reminded him of New York City’s subway.
But that didn’t deter Covington from zipping back and forth between Point State Park and the North Shore again on Friday as he enjoyed the national spotlight on Pittsburgh.
“We’re going to do it again and again,” he said. “It’s our city, man.”
Brandolph said getting tens of thousands of fans back home Thursday evening was an obstacle — but not an unexpected one.
The North Side Station, the “epicenter” of Thursday’s crowds, was mostly cleared after about an hour, he said.
“For us, that was a success,” Brandolph said.
It typically takes about 45 minutes to clear the crowds after a Steelers game, he said.
In anticipation of the draft, he said PRT increased the frequency on the Red Line and Blue Line to every 15 minutes, meaning a train cycles through Downtown and the North Shore around every seven minutes.
The transit agency also coupled almost all of its trains to make them two cars, increasing capacity to about 432 riders per trip, Brandolph said.
Use of Pittsburgh’s light rail system also may have been bolstered because it comes at no cost to riders during the draft.
Sheetz announced last month it would provide free transit for the full length of all three T lines as well as the Monongahela Incline during the three-day draft, which wraps up Saturday. The T already is free between stops in Downtown Pittsburgh and the North Shore.
After the draft, Brad Naedele said he hopes more people will realize the utility of the light rail. Naedele lives in Indiana Township, but when he lived in Dormont, he said he was a frequent rider.
“I’ve always thought they should’ve expanded it to other parts of the city,” Naedele said.
He said the departing crowds Thursday were too much for him, and he ended up walking back to his car. But otherwise, Naedele said he was glad to see people using the T, especially a group of fellow Buffalo Bills fans.
“It was full, but people made it work,” he said.
Sandy Culligan of North Braddock jumped on a bus from Monroeville Mall around 10:45 a.m. Friday with sister-in-law Colleen Peacock of Level Green and friend Janet McCafferty of Swisshelm Park. All three women said they were thrilled to have the free option in their backyard.
“I think this is the best thing they did,” Culligan said.
The trio was excited to spend the day in the city and catch the bus back whenever they wanted, which sounded like it was would be pretty late. Buses stop running at 1 a.m.
The bus from Monroeville Mall stopped at these locations on the East Busway: Wilkinsburg, Homewood, East Liberty, Negley, Herron and Penn stations.
There was no one waiting at any of the stations to go to the draft Friday morning, though there were some in the afternoon. Continuing on, the bus stopped at Smithfield and Sixth streets and Market Square. Finally, the trip ended at Federal and West General Robinson streets at PNC Park.
Brandolph said employees were on hand at several of the stops handing out brochures with route information and making sure riders knew when service ended for the night.
Fans could also hop on the bus to get to different locations across Downtown and the North Shore.
By 2:30 p.m., the park-and-ride at Monroeville Mall appeared full and football fans were finding other places at the mall to leave their vehicles and catch a ride. There was still space at the Wilkinsburg park-and-ride.
Other buses departed from park-and-rides at 9700 McKnight Road in McCandless, 9000 University Boulevard in Moon and 219 Peters Creek Road in Jefferson Hills. They picked up fans at other park-and-ride locations on the way into town.
Brandolph said officials planned to have more organization at Federal and West General Robinson streets on the North Shore after the draft is over Friday and Saturday nights to help fans get on the appropriate bus.
“We are cautiously optimistic,” he said.