‘This is a crisis’: Pittsburgh Regional Transit forecasts 35% cut in service, an increase to $3 basic fare

For months, Pittsburgh Regional Transit has warned riders and elected officials it would have to make “devastating” service cuts and increase fares next year unless it receives more state funding.

The agency outlined those cuts Thursday, and they may be even more impactful than expected. Faced with a $100 million deficit for the year that begins July 1, the agency is calling for a 35% reduction in service and a 25-cent increase in the base fare to $3, which would make it the fifth highest in the country.

The proposed changes would:

• Eliminate 40 of its 95 bus routes and reduce service by at least 30% on 33 others.

• Discontinue service to 19 municipalities and the Banksville, Ridgemont and Swisshelm Park neighborhoods in Pittsburgh.

• Stop service on the light rail system’s Silver Line to Library, which only has regular 400 riders.

• End service at 11 p.m. every day.

• Quit providing extra service for special events such as Pittsburgh Steelers football games, stadium concerts and next year’s NFL draft.

• Shrink the guaranteed service area for Access, the van service that provides transit to elderly and handicapped residents.

• Change the 28X Airport Flyer to go from Pittsburgh International Airport only to the West Busway in Carnegie, where riders can transfer, rather than Downtown Pittsburgh and Oakland.

• Close two of the agency’s four maintenance garages, Ross and Collier, at a time when it has been looking for a location to add a garage so it could expand service.

CEO Katharine Eagan Kelleman told the board’s Planning & Stakeholder Relations Committee the funding shortfall is “not new, not unique, but it is critical.” She urged residents to contact their legislators to lobby for additional funding for public transit.

“If you haven’t heard us before, our voices are raised now,” she said.

She said the agency used $58 million of its reserve of funds to balance this year’s budget and the deficit would continue to grow in future years it doesn’t make changes now.

The committee voted unanimously to recommend the full board begin a formal public comment period on the proposed cuts. If the board approves, the agency expects to hold a series of public hearings between now and June.

Spokesman Adam Brandolph rejected the suggestion the agency was presenting the most dire cuts to create a crisis to push legislators to approve more money.

“I don’t think we’re creating a crisis,” he said. “This is a crisis.”

Amy Silbermann, the agency’s chief development officer, said staff switched several months ago from planning a redesign of bus routes to expand service to new areas to planning what service would look like next year if the agency doesn’t get more funding.

Staff proposed the most serious cuts in areas with the fewest riders and tried to preserve as much service as possible on the busiest routes, Silbermann said. That is tricky because with any major changes agency must show federal officials that the changes were not made in a discriminatory manner.

Silbermann acknowledged the changes would have a particularly strong impact on hospitals, the hospitality industry and shift workers who rely on late-night service to get to and from work. She noted the latest changes would be in addition to cuts of about 36% in the past 25 years.

Chief Finance Officer Donminika Brown said the changes are based on stabilizing the agency over the next 10 years. If some state funding comes through, plans can be adjusted reduce the cuts, she said.

“We’re looking at the long-term horizon,” she said. “We’re looking at service with the subsidy [as it is now] over the next 10 years.”

Although the agency hasn’t had formal talks with the Amalgamated Transit Workers Union yet, Kelleman said it would be a “unique challenge” to make such substantial changes without reducing the work force.

Ross Nicotero, the union’s business agent, said he would expect management to have reductions, too. He declined additional comment because he had just heard details of the service cuts.

The agency has been warning for several years that it would face a financial crisis by 2027 if it didn’t receive an increase in its state subsidy. It used $58 million in reserve funds to balance the current budget that expires June 30.

For now, with limited support for the subsidy increase from the Republican-controlled state Senate, PRT is laying the groundwork for service cuts and a rate increase to begin in February. Spokesman Adam Brandolph said earlier this week the agency has talked with its unions but isn’t moving forward with layoffs yet.

Transit agencies are in a similar situation across the state — and the country — because emergency federal funds awarded during the pandemic are running out while ridership remains substantially below pre-pandemic levels in many cities. The last increase in state funds, expected to last 10 years, occurred in 2013.

Last year, Gov. Josh Shapiro recommended a five-year increase in funding that would have provided $282.2 million statewide, but the Senate never voted on the proposal. He has essentially made the same proposal this year, but it would only provide about $42 million more for PRT.