David Covington blasted Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” from a handheld speaker as he descended the stairs Friday to the Gateway T station in Downtown Pittsburgh.
It was an apt song choice for the scenes he described aboard Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s light rail system during the 2026 NFL Draft.
Covington, 55, of Clairton said he stood shoulder to shoulder Thursday night with hundreds of others on a train car as he departed the North Shore. He said he was even briefly sandwiched in between the closing doors of the car.
“There was no room,” he said.
Packed trains and large crowds during the draft have turned the T into both a pressure point and a proving ground, as thousands of fans have relied on the system to commute.
The experience on the T wasn’t much different from departing a busy Steelers game except for the thousands more people awaiting the train, Covington said. He said it reminded him of New York City’s subway.
But that didn’t deter Covington from zipping back and forth beneath the Allegheny River again on Friday as he enjoyed the national spotlight on Pittsburgh.
“We’re going to do it again and again,” he said. “It’s our city, man.”
PRT spokesman Adam Brandolph said getting tens of thousands of fans back home Thursday evening was an obstacle — but not an unexpected one.
The North Side Station, the “epicenter” of Thursday’s crowds, was mostly cleared after about an hour, he said.
“For us, that was a success,” Brandolph said.
It typically takes about 45 minutes to clear the crowds after a Steelers game, he said.
In anticipation of the draft, he said PRT increased the frequency on the Red Line and Blue Line to every 15 minutes, meaning a train cycles through Downtown and the North Shore around every seven minutes.
The transit agency also coupled almost all of its trains to make them two cars, increasing capacity to about 432 riders per trip, Brandolph said.
Use of Pittsburgh’s light rail system also may have been bolstered because it comes at no cost to riders during the draft.
Sheetz announced last month it would provide free transit for the full length of all three T lines as well as the Monongahela Incline during the three-day draft, which wraps up Saturday. The T already is free between stops in Downtown Pittsburgh and the North Shore.
Kelsie Sparks, 30, rode the T to the North Shore on Friday morning with her friend, Lucas Lejeune, 22, an Indianapolis Colts fan from the Netherlands.
Although trains were busy Thursday evening, Sparks, who lives in the Indianapolis suburbs, said the T was mostly calm throughout the first day of the draft.
Indianapolis has a large bus system, but it does not have rail transit services, something Sparks said she was thankful for in Pittsburgh.
“It’s been convenient and easy,” she said.
Lejeune, who was named the Colts’ International Fan of the Year for 2026, said the T was comparable to a Dutch tram and better than most public transit in the United States.
Alex Wright didn’t have as much positivity after taking the T from the North Shore to South Hills Village on Thursday evening,
“It was a mess,” he said.
Wright, 23, of Columbus, Ohio, said he was shoved from behind by a crowd onto a packed train and saw people banging on the windows in an effort to step aboard.
Still, he returned to the T on Friday morning, talking to TribLive as he exited the same North Side station he had embarked from Thursday night.
“It’s part of the experience, I guess,” Wright said.
The T is familiar territory for Larry Laurello, an Ashtabula, Ohio-based railroad contractor who said he helped lay the rail for the North Shore section of the system in the early 2010s.
Laurello claimed he and longtime friend Scott Radwancky buried a Bernie Kosar jersey beneath the railway. Kosar was the Cleveland Browns quarterback who in 1989 led his team to a 51-0 victory over the Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium.
Radwancky, known as Scotty Rad, died of cancer soon after, Laurello said.
The T, Laurello said, is a “vital” part of the draft.
“The T is the only thing that makes it possible to move all these people around,” he said.
After the draft, Brad Naedele said he hopes more people will realize the utility of the light rail. Naedele lives in Indiana Township, but when he lived in Dormont, he said he was a frequent rider.
“I’ve always thought they should’ve expanded it to other parts of the city,” Naedele said.
He said the departing crowds Thursday were too much for him, and he ended up walking back to his car. But otherwise, Naedele said he was glad to see people using the T, especially a group of fellow Buffalo Bills fans.
“It was full, but people made it work,” he said.
Brandolph said riders can expect much of the same Friday and Saturday — increased service and a busy exodus after events conclude.
Like Naedele, however, he said he hopes the draft will drive more people to incorporate the T into their commutes and daily lives.
“We are cautiously optimistic for the next two days,” he said.
