Some riders renew concerns about bus cuts in Oakland

Last fall, Pittsburgh Regional Transit changed four routes to have them end in Oakland rather than continue to Downtown Pittsburgh. 

When it shortened the 61D and 71A, C and D routes, the agency said it was necessary because of the start of construction of the Bus Rapid Transit system Downtown. Keeping those routes could cause extreme congestion, officials said, and the agency also was short of operators.

Besides, the agency believed the service was redundant and could be provided by the remaining buses that use the corridor.

Ordinarily when PRT makes service changes, the agency hears complaints from riders for the first few weeks, then things settle down as riders get used to the new routine.

Not true with the changes in Oakland. 

On Friday, more riders told the authority’s board that they continue to have problems with service in the Uptown area, which no longer gets service from the four routes.

Helen Perilloux told the board Friday she moved to Uptown more than 15 years ago because of the strong transit service. Unfortunately, she said, the service has only been reduced over the years.

With her children old enough last fall, she wanted them to take public transit to school, but with the changes they would have had to transfer and pay two full fares each way ($5.50 each) rather than use the direct single-fare route they would have had before ($2.75 each) because they don’t have cellphones for mobile payment.

“It has made it unaffordable for our kids to use the bus,” she said, so she and her husband went back to driving them to school.

Perilloux told the board that neighbors also were disappointed that it became more difficult to get to activities such as the laundromat and bingo games.

“This is the opposite of the effect public transit is supposed to have,” she said.

Perilloux feels the transit system has let her down, first by not following through with initial plans with the BRT system, then by cutting service even before the new system was in place.

Initial plans called for the project to rebuild Forbes and Fifth avenues from the sidewalks out, including rebuilding the roadway from the base up. Those ideas were dropped to reduce costs.

“There’s no reason to be in Uptown except that you can get somewhere else,” she said after the meeting, noting the neighborhood doesn’t have a grocery or other common amenities.

Alisa Grishman, who uses a wheelchair, expressed similar frustration with the changes. She said she recently missed a long-scheduled doctor appointment when no buses arrived for 45 minutes on a rainy day, then four arrived one after the other.

She called that “an insult” and called on the agency to “bring back our buses.”

After the meeting, CEO Katharine Eagan Kelleman defended the changes, saying that more buses Downtown during construction would have had a “cataclysmic” effect on the system by creating gridlock Downtown.

“We’re always going to hear from people when we make changes. It could be a handful, it could be a few  more,” she said. “We’re sorry we couldn’t reach all of those people [who are not satisfied with the changes].”

Chief Development Officer Amy Silbermann said the agency is making adjustments with its October service changes to add more trips on other buses through the corridor that are experiencing crowded conditions. The agency also will stagger the schedules for the 61D and 71B so riders can make better connections if they have to transfer.

The first phase of construction for the $291 million BRT, known as the University Line, should finish Downtown by early next year. The second phase, in Uptown and Oakland, will start shortly after that and should be finished in 2027.