Port Authority reopens Allentown Light Rail Line

After being closed for nearly three weeks due to snow blocking the tracks, Port Authority's Allentown Light Rail Line will reopen in time for the evening rush hour, officials said.

Snow and ice piles at the side of the road had not left enough clearance for trains on the 52 Allentown route to go up and over Mt. Washington along tracks in Arlington and Warrington avenues since the first snowstorm three weeks ago, said Port Authority spokesman Jim Ritchie.

Clearing the road was the city's responsibility, but Port Authority sent its own maintenance vehicles to clear the lingering, frozen-solid piles of snow Thursday afternoon, Ritchie said. The city had started to remove some of the snow last night, and when authority line inspectors noticed that some of the "wall" of snow had been broken they dispatched their own vehicles to finish the job, Ritchie said.

The Allentown Line usually only runs during the morning and evening, except when problems with the Mt. Washington Transit Tunnel prevent trains from going directly between Station Square and South Hills Junction.