Pittsburgh Transit cuts

Dangerous bus stop on Liberty Avenue near the Strip District, Pittsburgh

From "Getting Around: 10 bus and 2 T routes carry 37 percent of transit riders," in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Elsewhere in today's PG ["Full house expected for first transit hearings"], I wrote an article about the overwhelming public reaction to changes and how the proposals might be modified before the authority's county-appointed, nine-member board votes on a plan in March. At the end of the article, instead of writing about the worst performing bus routes, I compiled a list of the Top 10 based on November ridership results.

Then it hit me. Average weekday ridership for the Top 10 bus routes was 64,790. Then I looked at light-rail, where the average weekday ridership for the two main routes was 24,092. That came to 88,882 rides, or 37.1 percent of 239,405 total rides a day.

Wow! If only 10 bus and two light-rail routes can provide 37 percent of all ridership, why is the Port Authority keeping the other 206 routes? Besides, the Top 10 bus routes serve some of the poorest neighborhoods and communities while the T serves Downtown, Station Square and the South Hills.

I took the notion a step further. If every rider paid a flat, one-way $2 fare, as has been proposed, the authority would collect $46.2 million a year from weekday ridership alone. With 50 percent matching state money, weekend service could be free and the Port Authority would be solvent. Allegheny County could pocket its $25 million annual subsidy to the authority and use the single largest item in its budget for other purposes.
Pittsburgh bus on the "Move."

I know what you're thinking. Has Mr. Know-it-all gone completely out of his mind? Is he off his rocker? Over the hill? The numbers are enlightening, if for no other reason than they suggest how poorly many of the other 206 routes are performing by comparison.

Tomorrow's first two of nine public hearings on the Port Authority's route-gutting proposals gets under way at 10 a.m. at the Pittsburgh Hilton Hotel. You're more than welcome to listen in. But come by bus, trolley, incline or paratransit.

Kiosk ad promoting bus service in Oakland, Pittsburgh.

Index Keywords: transit