The Feel-Good Transportation Story of the Year Comes From the Last Place You Might Expect

"Pittsburgh International opened in the 1950s, but in 1992, it underwent a transformation. Pittsburgh was a bit more than a decade removed from the collapse of the steel industry, which immediately began to drain the city's population. As the airport was getting its big renovation in the early 1990s, the New York Times called it "the airport of the future," a label that adorned signage in the airport for decades afterward."

"The airport was to be a driver and symbol of the whole region's evolution. "Planners hope the terminal, with its vaulted ceilings and driverless underground trains, will complete an image transformation begun decades ago," the Times story said. "Once known as a gritty old steel town of blue-collar workers, Pittsburgh has become a commercial center of office towers and high-technology industries.""

Pittsburgh International Airport opened a new all-in-one terminal to improve infrastructure, accessibility, and passenger experience, addressing inconvenient parking and lengthy curb-to-gate journeys. The 1992 terminal had been designed as a symbol of regional reinvention after the steel industry collapse, featuring vaulted ceilings and driverless underground trains and earning the label "the airport of the future." The region's economic shift toward technology, robotics, and health care continued, but population decline left the previous terminal as a reminder of losses. The new terminal aims to restore civic pride and move the airport beyond a history tied closely to a dominant carrier, US Airways, and corporate betrayal.

Read at Slate Magazine