As David Covington descended the stairs to the Gateway T station in Downtown Pittsburgh, he blasted Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” from a handheld speaker.

It was an apt song choice for the scenes he described aboard Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s light rail system during the NFL draft.

Covington, 55, of Clairton said he stood shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of others on a train car as he departed the North Shore Thursday night. 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 turned the T into both a pressure point and a proving ground during the NFL Draft, as thousands of fans relied on the system to commute.

The experience wasn’t much different from departing a busy Steelers game on the T except for the thousands more people awaiting the train, Covington said. He said it reminded him of New York City’s subway, by far the nation’s busiest.

But that didn’t deter Covington from zipping back and forth beneath the Allegheny River again on Friday as he enjoyed the brief 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 each, meaning a train cycles through downtown and the North Shore around every 7 minutes.

Brandolph said the transit agency also coupled almost all of its trains to make them two cars, making capacity about 432 per trip.

Use of Pittsburgh’s light rail system may have also been bolstered because it comes at no cost to riders.

That’s because Sheetz announced last month it would provide free transit for the full length of all three T lines as well as the Monongahela Incline. The T is already free between stops in Downtown Pittsburgh and the North Shore.

Kelsie Sparks, 30, rode the T to the North Shore Saturday morning with her friend Lucas Lejeune, 22, a Colts fan from the Netherlands.

Though trains were busy in the evening, Sparks, from the suburbs of Indianapolis, said the T was mostly calm throughout the day.

Indianapolis has a large bus system, but it does not have any 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 come out of the experience with quite as much positivity, after taking the T from the North Shore to South Hills Village Thursday evening,

“It was a mess,” he said.

Wright, 23, of Columbus, Ohio said he was shoved from behind by the crowd onto a packed train and saw people banging on the windows in an effort to step aboard.

Still, he returned to the T Saturday 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 helped lay the rail for the North Shore section of the transit system in the early 2010s.

Beneath the railway, he said he and longtime friend Scott Radwancky buried the jersey of Bernie Kosar, the Cleveland quarterback who once led the Browns in a 51-0 victory over the Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium.

Radwancky, known as Scotty Rad, died from cancer soon after, he 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 now 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 Bills fans.

“It was full, but people made it work,” he said.

Brandolph, the PRT spokesman, said riders can expect much of the same Friday and Saturday — increased service and a busy “mass 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.

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