Pittsburgh Regional Transit has gotten so much feedback from last fall’s proposed redesign of its bus routes that it is adding six weeks to continue gathering comments from transit users and others.
Derek Dauphin, the agency’s director of planning and service development, told the board’s Planning and Stakeholder Relations Committee last week the initial proposal to redesign the agency’s 95 bus routes for the first time in more than a decade has drawn a lot of positive and negative comments. As a result, the agency has extended the comment period to Feb. 15 so it can hold more public meetings to gather comments.
“There are definitely changes people are excited about,” Dauphin said in an interview. “We’ve heard some pretty passionate pleas not to make changes in certain areas, too.”
Dauphin said the agency has had 76 in-person meetings, about 200,000 views of its website and 9,175 comments left on its website about the redesign.
Advocacy group Pittsburghers for Public Transit says that’s because there are too many changes coming at once for riders to sort out. The group has created its own online tools to help riders figure out how the changes will affect their commutes.
The group is encouraging riders to attend Friday’s PRT board meeting to express their concerns about the proposal.
PRT’s goal through the redesign is to adjust service to meet changing needs for riders after the COVID-19 pandemic. That includes demand for routes to new areas, reduced demand for midday rides between the suburbs and Downtown Pittsburgh, and growing needs for weekend and late-night service.
Overall, the initial proposal would make changes to about 60% of routes and reduce the number of routes to 77. That includes major expansion or service reduction on some routes and minor changes to relocate a stop or two on others.
The plan would add 19 completely new routes, including direct connections between West Mifflin and Carnegie and Millvale and Pittsburgh’s East End. It also would establish 20 transit hubs throughout the county to make it easier for riders to get to neighboring communities with a short transfer rather than passing through Downtown Pittsburgh.
“There will be some substantial changes,” Dauphin said.
The key problem, according to Executive Director Laura Wiens of Pittsburghers for Public Transit, is that “the scope of this change is so grand.” That’s because the agency is trying to change the entire system without increasing its operating costs, which often means that for anything to be added, something has to be taken away.
The proposal includes plans if the agency gets a 20% increase in funds, but there is no guarantee that will happen.
“I’m sympathetic. They’re trying to do a lot,” Wiens said. “They’re working very hard to engage the community. We’d say don’t fix what’s not broken.”
Wiens said she believes the agency can make adjustments to meet changing needs without disrupting the whole system and “achieve an outcome that benefits everyone.”
“We’re in a situation now where everything is completely thrown into the air,” she said. “We’re not quibbling with reducing routes where the ridership has gone way down. But I don’t think that means everything has to change.”
One area where PRT and the advocates agree is the need for increased transit funding. The state’s transportation funding bill, which includes transit funding, hasn’t been changed in more than 10 years, and the Legislature refused to take action last year despite strong pushes from Gov. Josh Shapiro, transit agencies and the advocates.
With Shapiro’s annual budget proposal due early next month, the local advocacy group has joined with colleagues across the state to push the governor to make transit funding his top budget priority. Pittsburgh Regional CEO Katharine Eagan Kelleman is expected to be in Harrisburg Monday to begin an all-out push to increase the state’s funding subsidy.
The two biggest transit agencies in the state, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority that serves the Philadelphia area and PRT, have been warning the state for several years of serious financial problems when special federal funding awarded during the pandemic expires. SEPTA reached that point last year, and Shapiro shifted $153.4 million in road and bridge funds to the agency to temporarily prevent serious service cuts, and PRT has said it will begin planning cuts this year if it doesn’t receive more state funding.
“I think it’s safe to say the funding we’ve been getting is no longer sufficient,” Kelleman said last week. “We’re not talking couch-cushion cuts. You can’t cut your way out of [large funding gaps].”
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.