Crisis averted: The Waterfront, PRT reach deal to continue bus stops

Apparently as a result of bad publicity and the involvement of elected officials, the proposed closure of bus stops at two stores at The Waterfront complex has been averted.

The Pittsburgh Regional Transit stops scheduled to be eliminated Oct. 19 will remain in front of the stores for now, but in the near future they will move to the sides. That will eliminate concerns from complex owner M&J Wilkow Ltd., which recently ordered the stops removed from the private roadway because it said buses bunched in front of the stores and created a potentially dangerous situation with patrons crossing the street between buses to get to parking lots.

“I’m optimistic,” Carey Kann, general manager of the shopping complex, said Monday. “We’ve come up with an agreement on the same thing we had an agreement on months ago only to have one party pull out.”

Kann declined to identify who pulled out but said they reached out to him Friday and said they would reconsider their position. That led to Monday’s deal.

Kann had said Friday the complex had been trying to move the bus stops for about four years with PRT, store owners and the municipalities to avoid a serious crash at points where stopped buses, moving cars and pedestrians come together on the property along the Monongahela River in West Homestead, Homestead and Munhall. With no agreement in place, the owner ordered the stops to be removed, shifting more than 400 daily bus riders more than 1,000 feet to a public stop across a busy intersection at Amity Street.

If nothing had changed, The Waterfront was going to install a path this week to a new stop near McDonald’s restaurant, which transit riders could get to by riding motorized shopping carts from the stores rather than carrying packages and groceries. That plan now is canceled.

The proposed closure caused a firestorm of criticism from riders, transit advocates and elected officials. Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato announced the agreement in principle in a news release Monday afternoon.

Other elected officials who favored keeping the stops included U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, and state Sen. Nick Pisciottano, D-West Mifflin and a former PRT board member.

“I want to thank all the parties involved for their willingness to come to the table,” Innamorato said. “We have an agreement in principle to find a long-term solution to keep PRT service inside The Waterfront, and in the interim, there will be continued service to existing stops.”

PRT said last week the stops are among the busiest it has in the Monongahela Valley corridor. Riders — especially the elderly and those with physical problems — say they like the convenience of being able to get off the bus, shop and get back on the bus without walking a great distance.

If the stops are relocated as planned, Kann said, they will be about 20 yards away from the current stops. From the property owner’s point of view, that will be substantially safer because buses will use public roads to pick up and drop off riders at the sides of the stores, leaving the front clear for customers going to and from parking lots.

PRT said in a statement it is pleased with the decision.

“On behalf of the more than 400 weekday riders who rely on these stops — and the many community members who spoke out in support of preserving them — Pittsburgh Regional Transit welcomes M&J Wilkow’s decision to reverse course on these bus stops. We are grateful to County Executive Innamorato, Sen. Pisciottano, and all those who advocated alongside us for a solution that puts riders first.”