Mon Incline could reopen Wednesday after control panel fix

Pittsburgh Regional Transit believes it has identified and corrected the problem that caused the Monongahela Incline to stop and strand riders during a trip on Thursday, which could lead to the incline reopening on Wednesday.

Spokesman Adam Brandolph said in an interview Tuesday that maintenance workers found rust around an emergency stop button in the control panel in the station on Grandview Avenue on Mount Washington. The rust is an indication that moisture got into the control panel, but it isn't clear how it got there, Brandolph said.

The incline has been closed since it came to an unexpected stop at about 10:30 p.m. Thursday between Grandview and the lower station at Station Square. Two riders were trapped for about 90 minutes until Pittsburgh EMS rescued them.

PRT crews replaced the control panel and ran about 50 test trips through about noon Tuesday without any problems, Brandolph said. Inspectors from the state Department of Labor & Industry are scheduled to inspect the incline Wednesday morning and if there are no issues it could resume running by Wednesday afternoon.

The agency will continue running shuttle buses between the two stations until the incline resumes operation. The buses also could remain there for a few hours after the incline is back in operation as a precaution, Brandolph said.

Last week's incident was the second time in seven months that riders had to be rescued from the funicular. On Nov. 1, 27 people were trapped when a motor controller that regulates the speed, start and stop of the motor failed.

The incline, which opened in 1870 and is the longest operating system in North America, has had a series of mechanical problems since the agency completed an $8.1 million mechanical and aesthetic overhaul in March 2023. A consultant examined the system and had some recommendations but found no major problems with how crews were operating the incline.

"While we're happy to see this current issue resolved, we will continue assessing the long-term reliability of the system and determine what additional steps may be necessary to ensure safe, reliable service moving forward," Chief Maintenance Officer Don Rivetti said in a news release.

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This story was originally published May 12, 2026 at 11:16 PM.