"A third option is emerging to link Downtown and Oakland, the two largest economic centers in Western Pennsylvania." You guessed it, a bus lane. That's.... "A third option is emerging to link Downtown and Oakland, the two largest economic centers in Western Pennsylvania."

You guessed it, a bus lane. That's the way it happens here. Proposal after proposal suggests creating vital links connecting the city by rail and then we study it, decide buses are cheaper but fail to consider that they are not popular.

"Squelchers."

After-all, mass transit is for people who can't afford cars, therefore the least-expensive option is chosen and the rest of us who would like a real option choose instead to stay in our cars.

We have the airport busway that doesn't go to the airport. We have the East Busway that follows a rail line and in a town where new ideas are as few as sunny days and as welcomed as cold sores, we'll likely soon be able to ride a bus to Oakland.

While two of these options did involve rail, the most obvious and beneficial idea has not been suggested. We've got maglev, self-propelled diesel trains and now the ever-exciting busway. Yet no one has suggested extending the EXISTING LIGHT RAIL SYSTEM to Oakland.