Hardy bedbugs lurking in the cracks of the Duquesne Incline’s wooden seats forced the shutdown of the cable railway for the second time this week Wednesday.
An unread email over the weekend led to a delayed response to a bedbug infestation that left some customers badly bitten, officials said. The Society for the Preservation of the Duquesne Incline, which operates the Port Authority owned system, had an exterminator in Monday and thought the problem was solved, but it wasn’t. The blood-sucking crawlers were still alive and biting.
“Now what am I going to do,” said Jim Brown, a 56-year-old local electrician from Mount Washington. “I’m an old guy with bad knees.”
Mr. Brown had just gotten off a Port Authority bus Wednesday afternoon outside the Duquesne Incline when he saw the “closed” sign outside the front steps to the funicular. He hadn’t heard about the infestation.
“Them things are hard to get rid of,” Mr. Brown said. “That’s not good to have. They get all in your bed and clothes. It’s a real chore to get rid of them.” He said he was disappointed, but looking forward to it reopening. He called his sister to give him an emergency ride home from the incline, which is located near Pittsburgh’s South Side and Mount Washington on West Carson Street,
Despite initial reports of bedbugs from Port Authority customers as early as Friday and social media postings Saturday, the transit remained open until the brief closure Monday night.
U.S. Army Capt. Lauren Warrender said she and a friend who was visiting were bitten more than 100 times by the pests Friday evening during a round-trip ride on the Duquesne Incline. She said she immediately contacted the Port Authority after realizing the source of the bites.
“They said they would get in contact with the nonprofit and look into it,” she said. “I just feel bad, because everyone takes the incline.” Other Port Authority customers commented on Facebook that they’d also been bitten by the insects, and witnessed the critters crawling between the seats.
Port Authority spokesman Adam Brandolph said the Port Authority communicated with a customer via social media about the issue on Saturday. The Port Authority notified the Duquesne Incline’s nonprofit operations department by email Saturday around 9:40 p.m. about the customer’s concern.
“I’m not aware of any steps on their part other than a visual inspection at the Duquesne Incline on Monday morning that confirmed the presence of bedbugs and a similar inspection of the Mon Incline that confirmed the opposite,” Mr. Brandolph said in an emailed statement Wednesday. Throngs of Steelers fans use the incline on game days, so the bedbug problem was going on during the Monday night Steelers victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.
The nonprofit society’s secretary, Elizabeth McCall, confirmed on Wednesday that the Port Authority had emailed Saturday night, but noted that the Duquesne Incline office is closed on weekends.
“No one would have seen the email until Monday morning,” Ms. McCall said in an emailed statement.
She said this is the first time the Duquesne Incline has suffered a bedbug infestation, which was initially found in one car. As soon as the manager confirmed there was a problem, he called an exterminating company, she said.
“We had professional exterminators come out and spray [late Monday],” said Mark McNally, executive director the Society for the Preservation of the Duquesne Incline. “What I learned in the last 38 hours is bedbugs can live anywhere. It doesn’t have to be a bed or soft cloth or clothing. We have no cloth on the seats and they are made of wood.”
The second closure was prompted when officials realized there was still an infestation. Transit officials said they will reopen the incline at 5:30 a.m. for normal business hours on Friday — following fumigation of both cars and the Monongahela station.
Mr. McNally said Incline officials plan to spray “more regularly” for bedbugs and other pests.
The Incline isn’t the only spot in the region with this problem.
The Steel Valley School District closed all of its schools after bedbugs were discovered at its middle and high schools in the past week.
The district announced Tuesday that its four schools would be closed Wednesday “in order to treat and clean all of our buildings after our recent cases of bedbugs,” officials said in a statement to parents.
The district said the middle and high schools were treated by exterminators on Tuesday but because students at those schools have siblings who attend the elementary schools, administrators decided to treat Park Elementary in Munhall and Barrett Elementary in Homestead as well.
Bedbugs were found Monday in a high school classroom and on Tuesday on a middle school student’s backpack, according to Superintendent Edward Wehrer.
Mr. Wehrer issued a letter to the communities asking families of students to “strip the bedding off each of the beds in your house/apartment and look for bed bugs.” If they are detected, he said, families should alert the principals at any buildings in which their children study.
He also asked that the community support the three families in the district known to be dealing with bedbugs.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, bedbugs can hide around beds, near piping, seams and tags of mattresses and box springs, and even in the cracks of the bed frames and headboards.
Until the Duquesne Incline — which began operations in 1877 — is reopened, Port Authority will operate a shuttle bus from the upper station on Grandview Avenue to the lower station on West Carson Street.
In 2018, 609,616 commuters and tourists rode the Incline, Ms. McCall said. In 1963, 80% of the passengers were commuters. Now more than 80% of the passengers are visitors to Pittsburgh, she added.
“The Duquesne Incline operates every day of the year,” she said. “A temporary shutdown is an inconvenience to the community and the businesses of Duquesne Heights and Mount Washington.”
Lacretia Wimbley: lwimbley@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1510 or on Twitter @Wimbleyjourno.
First Published: October 2, 2019, 7:04 p.m.
