PA: Widespread use of public transit during the draft the 'biggest surprise' for event planners

When they began developing plans two years ago for Pittsburgh to host the NFL Draft, organizers quickly realized they faced a serious hurdle, Jared Bachar, president and CEO of VisitPittsburgh, said Monday.

With upward of 700,000 people expected to attend, Pittsburgh’s small business district likely wouldn’t be able to handle the crush of traffic and parking needs if a high percentage of attendees decided to drive into the city for the three-day event, he said.

“We approached Pittsburgh Regional Transit because we knew PRT was going to have to be a primary partner,” Mr. Bachar said. “We knew driving and parking wasn’t going to be enough to accommodate that many people.

“We went to them with a problem; they came back with a solution.”

By most accounts, the solution — setting up special bus and light rail service at least every 15 minutes from suburban park-and-ride lots in all four compass directions to move riders to draft events at Acrisure Stadium on the North Shore and Point State Park in Downtown — was a huge success.

Pittsburgh set an attendance record of 805,000 visitors over three days, according to the NFL, and many of those arrived and left via public transit. PRT won’t have official ridership numbers for a couple of weeks, but spokesman Adam Brandolph said ridership was extremely busy on Thursday and very steady Friday and Saturday.

“That was the biggest surprise: how many people used public transit,” Mr. Bachar said. “We were at the draft headquarters, and every time I looked at the traffic board, the lights [showing traffic movement Downtown and on the North Side] were green.

“People took advantage of taking public transit. It was easy to see because traffic was always moving.”

The push to persuade draft visitors to use transit was obvious. Planners held a news conference a month before the event to promote the express buses, known as Football Flyers, followed by the announcements of sponsors to make rides free on the light rail system and then on the flyers.

People pack in a PRT Football flyer bus leaving the NFL Draft at Acrisure Stadium on Thursday, April 23, 2026, on the North Shore. ( Justin Guido/Post-Gazette)

All hotels in the region also were sent information to pass out to guests with details about the park-and-ride lots.

It worked. On the first day of the draft, parking lots at Monroeville Mall were full by 8:30 a.m. even though service wasn’t scheduled to start until 10 a.m.

For the most part, the service worked “safely and efficiently,” Mr. Bachar said.

There was one hiccup Thursday night when thousands of fans leaving the North Shore as the draft ended made boarding buses difficult from the narrow sidewalk outside of SoHo Pittsburgh restaurant on Federal Street. The next day, PRT worked with city and county police and public works officials to set up queuing lines so riders would know exactly where to get on the correct bus, and that helped alleviate the problems, Mr. Brandolph said.

The overall system worked because of solid planning and adaptability when needed, Mr. Brandolph said.

Two key elements were reducing regular service to the Saturday schedule to provide enough vehicles for special draft service and the cooperation of members of Local 85 of the Amalgamated Transit Union.

The agency and the union signed a special agreement for the draft that paid workers time and a half for working regular hours and double time if they worked overtime, boosting pay for some to as much as $90 an hour.

As a result, Mr. Brandolph said, there were very few call-offs, and when the swell of riders required additional vehicles, many drivers who were at the end of their regular shifts willingly shifted to the Football Flyer routes to handle the crowds.

“Every 15 minutes wasn’t going to cut it to get people home,” he said. “The jobs our operators did to switch over to [Football Flyers] when their regular shifts were done was just incredible.

“There was a lot asked of us. By most, if not all, accounts, we performed really, really well.”

Mr. Brandolph said it’s too early to say whether the kudos that PRT has received for service during the draft will be any help as it lobbies legislators in Harrisburg to increase state funding for transit.

PRT and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority are struggling financially and would have had severe cuts this year without special state permission to use capital funding for the next two years to help cover operating costs.

“I think [draft success] was valuable, but I don’t know if it makes the case for more money to provide service for daily riders,” he said. “It’s too early to say.”

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