Pittsburgh Regional Transit will provide another year of free light rail rides between Downtown Pittsburgh and the city’s North Shore, but it likely will pay for the service itself.
The agency’s finance committee recommended Thursday that the full board extend the agreement with the stadium authority to continue free rides through March 2025 at a cost of $265,000. The payment only is triggered if the use of the North Shore garages and lots reaches 85% for three consecutive months, which hasn’t happened since before the pandemic, said Mike Cetra, PRT’s chief legal officer.
Instead, PRT uses federal stimulus money to cover the cost.
The Pittsburgh Steelers, who have many fans who park Downtown for home football games at Acrisure Stadium, initially paid for the free rides, but that shifted to the Stadium Authority in recent years.
Before the pandemic, Cetra said, North Shore parking facilities regularly were completely full. That hasn’t happened since, he said, and figures he saw recently showed they were only 40% full for the first quarter of this year.
CEO Katharine Eagan Kelleman said PRT likely will have to do a cost-benefit analysis to determine if free rides should continue once the extra federal money is spent in about three years.
“When we don’t have that [federal money] is when we have that conversation,” Kelleman said. “How much would we spend for fare collection and enforcement? It’s a conversation we will need to have.”
Kelleman stressed that PRT is not a profit-making business, so it also would consider the economic and social benefit from parking cars on the North Shore rather than in the Downtown area.
The PRT board will vote on the agreement when it meets next Friday. The Stadium Authority is expected to vote at its next quarterly meeting.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.