Transit ridership locally continues to trend behind national figures, but Pittsburgh Regional Transit officials say they are encouraged by the most recent figures for April.
Spokesman Adam Brandolph said overall weekday ridership increased 5% in April over March and 15% over April 2022. That includes a 4% increase in bus riders and 8% in rail, where recovery from the pandemic has been slower to improve.
“Ridership certainly is heading in the right direction,” he said. “I don’t want to jinx it, but it looks like it is growing a little faster than we anticipated.”
Overall, weekday ridership is about 60% of what it was before the pandemic began in March 2020. Weekends have been much stronger at 75% of pre-pandemic ridership levels.
For April, weekend bus ridership was up 35% over March and rail ridership increased by 17%. Brandolph said the weekend increases continue to show the agency’s different ridership patterns after the pandemic.
Ridership on the Monongahela Incline doubled from March to April, which is normal as weather improves and tourism in the Pittsburgh area increases.
Nationally, CEO Paul Skoutelas of the American Public Transportation Association said in Pittsburgh last week that the average ridership recovery has been about 75% across the country. That should continue to increase, he predicted.
If the agency follows traditional patterns, Brandolph said, ridership likely will dip in June, July and August before rebounding when colleges and public schools resume classes in September, which is usually the agency’s best month for ridership.
Predicting the agency’s ridership level is important at this time of year, when it adopts a budget with passenger revenue projections for the new fiscal year that begins July 1. The budget projects a 15% increase in ridership for the new year.
The agency gets just more than 20% of its revenue from fares paid by riders.
The PRT board is scheduled to vote Friday on the new spending plan of $535.3 million recommended by its Finance Committee last week. That’s up $1 million over the preliminary budget last month and includes spending $69.5 million in federal stimulus funds, a decrease of just over $2 million from last month.
That change mostly was due to the expected increase in passenger revenue, Controller Pete Schenk said.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.