Joan Monroe grew up in Trafford, a borough of about 3,300 people that straddles the border of Allegheny and Westmoreland counties along Route 130 just east of Monroeville.
She moved away, then returned as a senior citizen about 10 years ago to find some changes, but many things the same. The town still has a small business district of its own, but for a major grocery, pharmacy, beer warehouse or Dollar General, many residents go to nearby Haymaker Village, across the bridge in Monroeville.
For many seniors at Trafford Manor and others, that means taking the 69 Trafford bus. Some businesses in town such as the barber shop have customers or employees that rely on bus service to get there.
That’s why Monroe, a volunteer with Pittsburghers for Public Transit, said she has been hearing nothing but concerns from residents since Pittsburgh Regional Transit announced Thursday that major service cutbacks would occur in February unless state officials do something to eliminate a projected $100 million deficit in its budget that begins July 1.
For the 69 Trafford, that means not only a major reduction in trips each day but also shortening its route so that it ends several miles away in Wilmerding instead of serving Trafford. Trafford would be among 19 municipalities and three Pittsburgh neighborhoods left without transit service if the cuts occur.
Monroe, who has been collecting signatures on petitions to oppose the change, said many people who have signed express the same theme.
She said, “The common comment I keep hearing is, ‘Everyone deserves transit.’”
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Katharine Eagan Kelleman has built her career of more than 25 years in the transit industry in multiple cities through planning and expanding service for riders. That’s why it was clearly difficult last week for the CEO of Pittsburgh Regional Transit to outline cutbacks of 35% in service that will eliminate 40 bus routes and one light rail line, end daily service at 11 p.m. and reduce the service area for Access paratransit service for senior citizens and adults with special needs.
But that’s what will have to happen without dedicated state funding for transit, she said, because the agency’s deficit will grow from $100 million this year to $1.8 billion over the next 10 years. And once those cuts start, riders who have options will quit using transit, beginning a “death spiral” where less money is committed to the system so it declines further, stranding those who don’t have another way to get to the places they want and need to go.
“We have a very healthy reserve fund [about $430 million],” she said. “We don’t have [$1.8 billion] in the bank, and it will not be there. It is a big, big hole.
“We need to avert … generational damage to this network. Without additional funding, we’re talking catastrophic service changes, we’re talking two-thirds contraction in our paratransit Access service,” which is “life saving, life raising and life making.”
Kelleman said the agency has struggled as best it can to get by for many years, noting that service has dropped 36% over the past 25 years. Through aggressive budgeting, she said, the agency’s ridership has dropped by one-third since the pandemic but service has only dropped by one-sixth.
The proposed changes also would come with a 25-cent increase in the agency’s $2.75 base fare, moving from the 10th highest to the fifth highest in the country.
In interviews after the announcement, Kelleman stressed that every agency across the state is facing the same funding shortfall in various stages as emergency money awarded during the pandemic runs out. They are making the same pleas as PRT for reliable, dedicated funding rather than being paid for through the state’s general fund.
She also acknowledged that ending service at 11 p.m. every day would be difficult for business operators, hospitals and workers at places that operate 24 hours a day.
“We deserve better,” she said.
She encouraged riders to lobby legislators to dedicate more money to public transit.
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Karen Smith, 59, of Carnegie uses Access occasionally but regularly relies on bus service to get around because she uses a motorized wheelchair.
The 31 Bridgeville, the primary bus route she uses and that her husband takes 2 miles to get to work, is facing a major reduction in service in February.
“If they cut the buses, it will be devastating for a lot of people,” she said. “Not just me, but all those people who use the bus are affected because they can’t get to the doctor or the grocery store.”
Smith said she has tried to ride to the nearest grocery in her chair, but that isn’t easy.
“Sometimes the sidewalks are so bad I have to go on the roadway,” she said, “but that isn’t safe.”
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Government leaders always struggle when they need to find additional money to support services, but the need for more money for transit and transportation in general has come at a time when the state already is making tough choices because it is facing a deficit of several billion dollars.
What, if anything, the state can do for transit is an open question in the Legislature.
Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has proposed drawing down more money from the state’s sales tax revenue specifically for transit, which would be the first increase in more than 10 years. The same proposal failed last year, and even if it were approved it would only provide PRT with about $42 million, less than half what it says is needed this year and less than that in future years.
“For the second year in a row, the governor has proposed a historic investment in mass transit – the largest increase in state funding for transit in more than a decade – but in order to deliver that funding, the Legislature needs pass it,” Manuel Bonder, a spokesman for Shapiro, said in a statement.
“The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has passed the governor’s proposal multiple times, but the Senate has repeatedly failed to act. Gov. Shapiro will continue his work to bring legislators together to secure meaningful investments in mass transit.”
Sen. Judy Ward, R-Blair County and chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee, countered that transit and transportation aren’t the only issues facing the state. Although every county has some sort of public transit, Senate Republicans from rural areas have been reluctant to support more transit money because 87% of it goes to the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas.
“Decreased ridership and increased costs have created financial pressures being experienced by Pittsburgh Regional Transit and transit agencies across the state,” she said in a statement. “Any discussion about increased state funds needs to be had in the context of a multibillion-dollar structural deficit.”
State Sen. Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills and Senate minority leader, said he agrees the proposed cuts would be “devastating.” Agencies such as PRT “have done what they need to do” to control costs, and now it’s time for the state to do its part, he said.
“There’s more that we’ve got to do,” he said.
Costa said proposals such as legalizing marijuana and small games of chance in bars and restaurants remain possible funding sources, and he believes there is plenty of time to pass bills to allow them before the state’s budget deadline June 30.
If that fails, he recommended Shapiro repeat the action he took in November, when he switched money from road and bridge projects that were several years away from starting to give the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority around Philadelphia $153.4 million to avoid service cuts and a fare increase through the current budget cycle.
Transit for All PA, a coalition of transit advocacy groups across the state, has a different, not new, idea. Laura Wiens, executive director of Pittsburghers for Public Transit, said the group favors the program proposed by a bipartisan blue-ribbon committee appointed by then-Gov. Tom Wolf: generating transportation revenue from fees for package deliveries and rides with sharing services such as Lyft and Uber.
The group is pushing for $540 million statewide beginning in 2026 that would restore ridership to 2019 levels in the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas, plus 10% more ridership for smaller counties that in many cases have had sharper ridership declines.
“What is being proposed here is devastating, and it’s just true everywhere across the state,” she said. “The work has been done already [by Wolf’s committee]. Let’s use that.”
Since Thursday, Wiens said, the group has generated more than 1,000 letters of support for transit funding.
State Sen. Devlin Robinson, R-Bridgeville and vice chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, sits in a unique position.
On the one hand, many of his constituents use PRT and visitors from other counties ride public transit when they visit Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. On the other, his GOP colleagues have been reluctant to provide more funding without a larger share for their areas.
Devlin said he knew PRT had serious needs but he was “a little blindsided” the agency announced the proposed cuts now. He said he will make the issue his top priority because transit funding is a problem across the state, and he believes a compromise can be reached that could involve more state money and some more belt-tightening by the agencies.
“I think everybody needs to do more,” he said. “We just can’t keep throwing money at the problem. But I know there are stakeholders across the state in the same situation.”
Devlin said he isn’t sure where the money would come from. Small games of chance may have better chance of approval than legalizing marijuana, but neither would be easy, he said.
“The budget season is always a street brawl,” he said. “I want to help PRT. I’m going to do everything I can to get as much money back here as I can.”
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It doesn’t take much to get Alisa Grishman riled up about proposed cuts in public transit because without it, she is stranded.
Grishman, 43, lives in Pittsburgh’s Uptown neighborhood and has used a power wheelchair for eight years due to multiple sclerosis. Her neighborhood still has good service, but options such as the 71 series of routes have been shortened or eliminated in advance of the University Line being under construction between Oakland and Downtown Pittsburgh.
She fears what could happen next.
“There’s this notion that if we’re disabled all we need is the absolute minimum,” she said. “That’s just B.S. I’m still a whole human being.
“I want to go out to the movies. I want to go to the museums and visit my family. I feel like they are trying to take that away from me.”
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.