PA: Riders urge Pittsburgh Regional Transit to reconsider bus service changes

After more than 2½ years of study and one complete shift in its goal, Pittsburgh Regional Transit is still getting some harsh feedback on efforts to reshape its bus service.

The PRT board heard from around 20 riders and advocates Friday who have concerns about the agency’s continuing attempts to change bus service. The comments at the board meeting followed a news conference by Pittsburghers for Public Transit outside PRT headquarters on Sixth Avenue in Downtown.

Laura Wiens, executive director of the advocacy group, called on the agency to hold off on service changes until it can obtain reliable state funding to pay for improvements rather than perusing cost-neutral changes. She also encouraged PRT to do more rider satisfaction surveys, service reliability studies and discussion with bus operators before making changes.

Without more funding, Wiens said, the agency can only improve service in one area “at the expense of others who need it.”

Shaler Councilman Josh Fleitman said at the news conference that eliminating service on Mount Royal Boulevard would be “devastating” to his community. That road is “the spine of our community” and provides service to a women’s shelter and a low-income housing community.

“I’m urging PRT to not just hear us but listen to us,” he said. “We have got to have this.”

Individual riders also spoke of how service changes would be difficult for them.

Damitra Penny-Harris, an Allentown resident who uses a wheelchair, said she would lose direct service to Oakland and have to transfer at least once for medical appointments, adding that nighttime care givers could have trouble getting to her and her mother.

“I try to keep my life as simple as possible,” she said. “Having to transfer doesn’t make my life simpler. We live active lives and rely on public transit to do it.”

After the board meeting, PRT CEO Katharine Kelleman said she wants to keep hearing from riders as the agency considers changes.

“Obviously, people feel strongly about this,” she said. “It’s the balancing act we have to do all the time to provide the best service we can provide.”

Earlier this year, the agency announced it was shifting away from a planned “redesign” of its bus system that started in 2023. That effort proposed reducing service in some less-busy areas and providing new service to some areas of Allegheny County.

Instead, the agency said in February it would switch to a “refresh” of service, which would still eliminate some little-used routes but also concentrate on increasing ridership on its busiest routes by providing more frequent service. The belief is that showing an increase in ridership would help with efforts to increase the state subsidy for transit agencies.

The agency hasn’t released its revised recommendations yet, but Pittsburghers for Public Transit held Friday’s event to focus on changes PRT has unveiled in more than 40 community meetings. The advocacy group claims as many as 27 communities would lose most or all of their current service because the goal is to change service without increasing the overall cost.

Not all of the changes would be negative. Seventeen areas would receive service in new areas while others would have extended hours and expanded routes.

Kelleman said the plan is to finish proposed changes by the end of July and hold hearings on the recommendations in August and September. The PRT board likely would vote on the changes in November with implementation to start next year.

Kelleman said she sees no reason for the types of studies advocates want because the community meetings held over the past 2 ½ years “are exactly that.”

The agency hasn’t decided whether the changes would be made all at once or in phases.

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