Pittsburgh

Back after a break with a system in Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh is practically overrun with train tracks, yet contains only two rail lines today with mostly shared rights-of-way other than the underground downtown section, plus two funicular railroads. I've presented four new regional lines to unify the system (seven if you count branches) and connect to Pittsburgh's Amtrak station, providing service to Chicago, New York / Philadelphia, Washington, and intermediate stations.

Lines

• Yellow
• First branch: 50 miles, 22 stations
• Second branch: 47 miles, 21 stations
• Green:
• First branch: 20 miles, 10 stations
• Second branch: 20 miles, 8 stations
• Cyan: 
• First branch: 23 miles, 10 stations
• Second branch: 9 miles, 7 stations
• Purple: 50 miles: 19 stations

Albany

The "Capital Region" surrounding Albany includes several additional cities which are small metros in the their own right: Troy, Schenectady, and Saratoga Springs for instance. This imagined system has connections to four Amtrak stations serving points north (Montreal), south (New York), east (Boston), and west (Buffalo, Chicago). While downtown Schenectady is served, the rail lines don't get within walking distance capitol buildings in Albany, so I've introduced two BRT shuttles from Albany-Rensselaer station (also serving Amtrak) and the new Ten Broeck Junction.

Winnipeg

Our first (and only) venture into Canada brings us to Winnipeg, Manitoba's capital and largest city, located at the convergence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. Our routes provide us connections to intercity trains and the international airport. I've added a light rail line along Main St and Broadway to connect to the capitol buildings and a new northern rail terminal at Chinatown.

Hartford

Connecticut's capital is on the verge of getting real life commuter rail. The NHHS Rail, or New Haven - Hartford - Springfield line, will connect to Metro North in the south on the Long Island Sound and stretch all the way into Massachusetts when it opens in 2018. While it essentially duplicates the Amtrak shuttle train, it includes a few additional stops and nearly quadruples frequency.  This map adds three additional lines, with numerous connections to Amtrak, Metro North, and Bradley Airport.

St Louis

St Louis is not the capital of Missouri, but as a metro area is home to half the state's population. Its two existing light rail lines serve both its airport and its downtown Amtrak station (which has been experiencing substantial growth in ridership in recent years). The new rail lines serve this central station, as well as the westerly Kirkwood. Both the light rail and the new lines cross the Mississippi river into Illinois.

Buffalo

Buffalo was at one point a colossal American city, making the top ten by population in the country for two decades a century ago. But since then it has declined: both in a relative sense to to 45th place, and in an absolute sense losing over half its city population since 1950 and falling as a metro region since too since 1970. The rapid transit system also disintegrated, with rail routes disappearing from the '30s to 1950, though a single light rail system made its debut in the '80s.

This transit map focuses many of the routes along the river/lake to connect with the light rail line downtown at Exchange St. I've also added a new light rail station at Parkside to intersect the new Green Line. The system provides connections to Amtrak at three stations, and gets close enough for a workable transfer to both of the region's airports.

Columbus

This system of half a dozen lines contributes to the dreamed-of mobility of Ohio's capital and largest city. The convergence of lines downtown misses the core central business district by a few blocks, but does hit several redeveloping locations along the riverfront. There aren't many long-distance connections here, since the lines don't get close enough to the main commercial airport and there's no regional rail system in the city (apparently, Columbus is the 3rd largest U.S. city without Amtrak).