New quarterly adjustments bring an ever-so-slight increase in service levels. Overall Service remains below pre-pandemic levels.

Four times every year, the Port Authority adjusts its transit schedules and routes to account for construction, road closures, rider’s requests, ridership shifts, and/or all of the other unexpected changes that might affect Pittsburgh roads. 

These quarterly adjustments were dialed back because of the pandemic, but they seem to be back on track. PPT has been publishing these blogs since 2019 with the @PGH_Bus_Info Hotline to give a rider’s perspective on what these adjustments mean for our service. Some quarters bring great changes (like Q4 2020 where we won weekend service on 95% of Local routes) some quarters are lackluster.

Typically we try to get these explanations out before the changes go into effect… but this quarter we’re a little behind. The changes in this blog into effect on Sunday, June 20th, 2021. You can check Port Authority’s website to follow these quarterly service changes. Check out the upcoming changes below

About the @PGH_Bus_Info Hotline

The @PGH_Bus_Info Hotline is a volunteer-run twitter account that gives riders updates on Port Authority’s daily happenings. The Hotline has no official connection to the Port Authority (again, it is a volunteer-run twitter account) but the updates they provide are helpful nonetheless. The Hotline is a big supporter of PPT, and an enormous advocate for public transit. We’re thankful for their support and happy to collab on these rider resources. Follow @PGH_Bus_Info Hotline on twitter for more grassroots transit updates.

The @PGH_Bus_Info Hotline commentary on these changes will be italicized like this below the Port Authority’s description of each change

Rundown of Q2 2021 Service adjustments, with takeaways from the @PGH_Bus_Info Hotline – See Port Authority’s Official Update Here

Its us @PGH_Bus_Info Hotline and we’re back with some more commentary on Port Authority’s latest round of changes. Here are my top-line takeaways:

– You’ll see “service added” on many of these changes… but unfortunately that typically only translates to one or two extra runs per day. We want to be excited about these improvements, but we need to be realistic that this isn’t any large increase in service.

– Overall, our system is still down 10% from our pre-pandemic service levels

The following changes went into effect on June 20th, 2021

1-Freeport Rd – A new Saturday trip has been added to help reduce crowding.

an addition of one trip…… its a small change, but we gotta count our wins where we can.

2-Mount Royal – Weekday schedules have been adjusted and some trip times have changed. Weekend schedules have also been adjusted and some trip times have changed to incorporate the long-term detour for the downtown outdoor dining initiative in place until further notice. Buses will continue operating via 11th Street, Ft. Duquesne Blvd., 7th Street and Liberty Avenue.

4-Troy Hill – Sunday service has been added and will run approximately every 70 minutes from 10am-6pm.

The 4 was one of the few local routes that did not receive full 7-day service when Port Authority made that major change back in December of 2020 – thanks much in part to PPT”s advocacy! So its great to see that Sunday service is now being added!. That said….it would be really nice to see later service on all days.

7-Spring Garden – Schedules have been adjusted and some trip times have changed; schedules have been updated to incorporate the long-term detour for the downtown outdoor dining initiative in place until further notice. Outbound buses will continue to operate via Stanwix Street.

So the 7 was also one of the few that was ignored when 7-day service was implemented last December. We need to see this route get the 7-day service these riders deserve.

….also buses being detoured and slowed to enable an outdoor dining initiatve? Doesn’t sound like transit equity to us….

13-Bellevue – Weekday and weekend schedules have been adjusted and some trip times have changed to incorporate the long-term detour for the downtown outdoor dining initiative in place until further notice. Outbound buses will continue to operate via Stanwix Street.

15-Charles – Weekday and weekend schedules have been adjusted, and some trip times have changed to incorporate the long-term detour routing for the downtown outdoor dining initiative in place until further notice. Outbound buses will continue to operate via Stanwix Street.

16-Brighton – Weekday and weekend schedules have been adjusted, and some trip times have changed to incorporate the long-term detour for the downtown outdoor dining initiative in place until further notice. Outbound buses will continue to operate via Stanwix Street.

17-Shadeland – Weekday and weekend schedules have been adjusted, and some trip times have changed to incorporate the long-term detour for the downtown outdoor dining initiative in place until further notice. Outbound buses will continue to operate via Stanwix Street.

Routes 15-16-17-13 have been updated for the downtown re-routes however it is slightly disappointing to see no extra stops temporary or otherwise in lieu of the one that’s cut

again with detouring downtown buses so that people can dine outdoors.

29-Robinson – Weekday and weekend schedules have been adjusted and some trip times have changed to reflect new routing to accommodate the downtown dining initiative in place until further notice. Buses will use Liberty Avenue in both directions and will no longer serve stops on Penn Avenue. The downtown terminus will change from Penn Avenue at Garrison Place to Penn Station.

31-Bridgeville – Weekday and weekend schedules have been adjusted, and some trip times have changed to reflect new routing to accommodate the downtown dining initiative in place until further notice. Buses will use Liberty Avenue in both directions and will no longer serve stops on Penn Avenue. The downtown terminus will change from Penn Avenue at Garrison Place to Penn Station.

G31-Bridgeville Flyer – Schedules have been adjusted and some trip times have changed to reflect new routing to accommodate the downtown dining initiative in place until further notice. Buses will use Liberty Avenue in both directions and will no longer serve stops on Penn Avenue. The downtown terminus will change from Penn Avenue at Garrison Place to Penn Station.

We like this change. Routes 31-29-G31 being rerouted to serve Penn Park Station on the bottom of the East Busway is nice in our opinion, helps with East-West or West-East connections and adds some options for movement in town which we have used and has been a small godsend.

36-Banksville – Weekend schedules have been adjusted and some trip times have changed.

Nothing noteworthy here, Route still continues to end service too early 

51-Carrick – Weekday and weekend trips have been added to reduce crowding.

59-Mon Valley – Weekday schedules have been adjusted and some trip times have changed. Weekend trips have been added to reduce crowding.

When you look at the details here, we’re really not impressed. The new adjustments actually revoke some of the trips that were added in past quarters. These were badly needed. Also, the weekend trips that are “added” are miniscule aside from 1-2 hours of boosted afternoon service. And Sunday service still ends too early.

60-Walnut-Crawford Village – Weekday schedules have been adjusted and some trip times have changed.

61D-Murray – Trips have been added to Saturday schedules to reduce crowding.

Would like to see more service throuh the rest of the day on Saturday, and Sunday service additions would be great too.

67-Monroeville – Weekday schedules have been adjusted and some trip times have changed. Trips have been added to weekday schedules to accommodate riders of the 69-Trafford traveling between Wilkinsburg and downtown.

Changes don’t go far enough in addressing the loss of the 69 to Point Breeze and Squirrel Hill riders. Because of those changes, riders are forced to transfer. Furthermore the spacing on several trips is awkward at best and as a gesture of goodwill trips should be added on Weekends too.

69-Trafford – The layover location at Viaduct Way in Trafford Borough (Westmoreland County) has been removed. With the removal of the layover location, buses will operate between Trafford (5th St. at Cavit) and Wilkinsburg (Wilkinsburg Station) only, and will no longer serve Downtown Pittsburgh. Riders can transfer at Wilkinsburg Station on the East Busway to continue downtown, or transfer to the 67-Monroeville in Wilkinsburg. Trips have been added to the 67-Monroeville to accommodate riders. 

We continues to join the very vocal and heated opposition to this blatant service cut and reduction. Especially because this change forces riders to transfer buses, and potentially pay another fare, without a system-wide free-tranfer policy for all riders.

Almost everything is wrong with the service cut save the fact that it establishes 7 day direct service into Haymaker Village Shopping Center unfortunately that is the 1 lone small positive in a mostly shameful decision.

P69-Trafford Flyer – Due to the removal of the layover location at Viaduct Way in Trafford Borough (Westmoreland County), the inbound and outbound Viaduct Way at Terminal stops, and inbound Brinton Ave at 5th St. NS stop, will be discontinued. Service will continue to operate to Downtown Pittsburgh.

With the 69 basically being told to kiss off, we remain disapointed that the P69 can’t be expanded to run 7 day all day. At this point, why not fully replace all 69 service and use Penn Park Station in town for layovers or simply be set up similar to the 77 P78 and P68 now that operator reliefs and logistics behind the scenes have shifted? It would be viable to have drivers do a full round P69 via Haymaker then go on break or lunch or what have you.

74-Homewood-Squirrel Hill – Weekday schedules have been adjusted and some trip times have changed.

75-Ellsworth – Trips have been added to Saturday schedules to reduce crowding.

81-Oak Hill – Weekday and weekend schedules have been adjusted and some trip times have changed to incorporate the recent long-term detour in Oakland. Inbound buses will continue to operate on Bellefield Avenue and will no longer operate on Bigelow Blvd.

82-Lincoln – Trips have been added to Saturday schedules to reduce crowding.

83-Bedford Hill – Weekday and weekend schedules have been adjusted and some trip times have changed to incorporate the recent long-term detour in Oakland. Inbound buses will continue to operate on Bellefield Avenue and will no longer operate on Bigelow Blvd. Weekday and Saturday trips have been added to reduce crowding.

86-Liberty – Weekday and weekend schedules have been adjusted and some trip times have changed to incorporate the long-term detour for the downtown outdoor dining initiative in place until further notice. Buses will continue operating via 11th Street, Ft. Duquesne Blvd., 7th Street and Liberty Avenue.

Not much to report. Still waiting on 24/7 service on this route.

87-Friendship – Weekday and weekend schedules have been adjusted and some trip times have changed to incorporate the long-term detour for the downtown outdoor dining initiative in place until further notice. Buses will continue operating via 11th Street, Ft. Duquesne Blvd., 7th Street and Liberty Avenue.

88-Penn – Weekday and weekend schedules have been adjusted and some trip times have changed to incorporate the long-term detour for the downtown outdoor dining initiative in place until further notice. Buses will continue operating via 11th Street, Ft. Duquesne Blvd., 7th Street and Liberty Avenue.

Not much to report. Still waiting on 24/7 service on this route and an extension to live up to its namesake 

91-Butler Street – Weekday and weekend schedules have been adjusted and some trip times have changed to incorporate the long-term detour for the downtown outdoor dining initiative in place until further notice. Buses will continue operating via 11th Street, Ft. Duquesne Blvd., 7th Street and Liberty Avenue.

Not much to report. Still waiting for 24/7 service too.

P2-East Busway Short – To help address bus bunching in Downtown Pittsburgh, all P2 service will end at Penn Station. During this pilot, riders traveling into downtown will need to take a P1 from the start of their trip or transfer at Penn Station onto any other inbound bus route.

This P2 “Test Pilot” or “Study” is another thing that we have concerns about. We doubt that the P2 has much effect on bus bunching downtown, especially when one of the most bunched corridors is Smithfield southbound at the superstop and the P2 doesn’t use any of those lanes. In our opinion, the better solution is clearly to revert back to the old P2 route through downtown when it used to be called the EBS (the East Busway Short) – Penn Station > left on Grant > right on Fifth > right on Liberty back to Penn Station.

O5-Thompson Run Flyer – The outbound timepoint at Nelson Run Road at Nelson Run Ramp has been removed. The bus stop will be discontinued effective June 20, 2021 due to the lack of safe pedestrian access.

When a bus stop lack safe pedestrian access, the answer is to improve safety, not cut the stop. Slow cars down, build a sidewalk, add more pedestrian protection. Port Authoirty needs a program to tackle this, and the County needs to support them. It’s also still disappointing to see this route continues to have such limited service and no reverse commutes.

“Laura Wiens of Pittsburghers for Public Transit applauded the incremental progress the Port Authority has seen in winning the $500,000 grant for the agency’s first electric bus, but said there are multiple funding sources available that could help build a large scale fleet of electric buses. She mentioned that Pennsylvania is receiving about $118 million in a settlement from auto manufacturer Volkswagen. Wiens said some of that money could go to purchasing electric buses.

“Transit can dramatically reduce our carbon footprint,” said Wiens. “We hope to see a more robust effort.”

— Ryan Deto in the City Paper. Read the entire article here!

Thanks to all the hard work of the Don’t Criminalize Transit Riders Campaign over this past year, the Port Authority has walked back their initial proposal of having armed police check fare payment on the T!

Over the last year, we’ve had dozens of people testify at the Port Authority, more than 30 organizations and neighborhood groups sign onto a letter opposing criminalization of transit riders. The Pittsburgh School Board sent a separate letter talking about the impact to youth. We had hundreds of postcards that we delivered to Rep Dom Costa’s office and thousands of petition signatures. We had lots of immigrant transit riders say that they would no longer take the T, because it would become an immigration checkpoint rather than a safe and effective way for them to live their lives.

Going forward, there will continue to be work to do around this issue, because the severe criminal consequences for fare evasion remain in place, even if they are rarely enacted. Our coalition will continue to push the Port Authority to ensure that riders and drivers are at the table to advocate for changing the laws on the books to create a more humane civil fare enforcement policy in the future.

Pittsburghers gathered outside the City’s and Heinz Endowment’s “P4 Conference” to highlight the hypocrisy of talking about inclusion, equity, and a city for all while offering billions on incentives to attract Amazon HQ2 to the city.

Amazon HQ2 stands against everything the P4 says it supports and against the interests of the hundreds of thousands of residents that call Pittsburgh home now.

A couple of hundred tech jobs moving to East Liberty caused massive displacement.
If we call what happened in East Liberty a tragedy, then bringing Amazon here is a crime.

We got to the heart of why we do what we do at PPT and the ways in which transit connects to almost every other aspect of people’s lives. Bus Lines are Life Lines, and the fight for transit justice is such a critical part of of the fight for a better, a more equitable, a more just society.

We are constantly fed a narrative of scarcity– we are left in a position of scrambling for crumbs from giant development needs or mitigating some of the harm that those deals will inflict, all the while told that these are the two options we have: crumbs or nothing.

But these deals are made with our money, our land, our cities. What if we used these resources to actually meet the needs of our communities? What if we actually used our resources so communities could have clean water, healthy food, clean air, affordable housing?

If we expect to have a livable future in Pittsburgh, we’ve got to believe that we deserve better. In this case, it means keeping Amazon out.

Our resources are our land, our taxes, our infrastructure and roads, our beautiful housing stock, our working-class mythology and culture. Not only are the corporations coming here to take that from us, our elected officials are giving it to them. And then we’ll not be able to live here anymore.

– Laura Wiens

There was an excellent panel this weekend hosted by the Community Power Movement and the Human Rights City Alliance to talk about the impacts of large corporations on public institutions, resources, and democratic processes. The panel was moderated by Michelle King, and the panelists were Kelauni Cook from Black Tech Nation, Rich Lord from the Post-Gazette, Chris Potter from City Paper, and PPT’s very own Laura Wiens!

Check out the video shared by Public Source shared by Public Source to see the excellent discussion.

Some excerpts from Laura Wiens:

“There is a silver bullet narrative that goes along with [autonomous vehicle (AV)] technologies. To hear the companies tell it, AVs will eliminate congestion and air pollutants, provide faster and better transit access for underserved communities, eliminate parking lots and provide more available housing space and generate higher tax revenue from land use, increase safety, reduce operational costs, and give us new leisure time as we transition into our LED lit AI future.

But I’m going to paint a more realistic scenario, absent some pretty serious regulatory sticks. In 5 years, rich people in Fox Chapel are going to buy their own autonomous vehicles, have their cars drive them downtown and drop them off at work, then have the cars go home to park in the garage and wait to pick them up, driverless, at the end of the day. That’s double the emissions, double the congestion, in gas-powered vehicles…. Where they don’t operate, on the other hand, are Penn Hills, Duquesne, North Versailles, East Pittsburgh, and Braddock, and if folks from these communities can’t now afford to do their daily commute by Uber, they sure as hell won’t be able to afford an autonomous ride in a more expensive car in 5 years.

Maybe most importantly, the leisure time that AVs will usher in is that special timelessness of unemployment, and the inability to do wage work to care for your family and your basic needs. 1 out of every 15 workers in the US works in the trucking industry. In 39 out of 50 states, truck driving employs more people than ANY OTHER JOB. And add to that all taxi and Uber and Lyft and Access, and bus driver and delivery and sanitation driver jobs, and you’ve got one hell of an unemployment problem. Which is also a tax problem. We’re been promised 400 jobs from an Argo plant producing AV vehicle parts here in Pittsburgh. 400! How many of those tens of thousands of 55 year old truck drivers with a high school degree are going to become machinists? It’s hard to understand why the City of Pittsburgh insists not only in running headlong over the same cliff that we fell over in the late 70s and early 80s, but insisting on being the first to do so as well.”

…The problem is not Uber or Amazon, per se. Capitalism will do capitalism, and it’s the nature of these companies to disguise their harms in order to maximize profits. I lay the blame squarely at the feet of our elected officials and our public agencies who that are doing this work for them. Our City in January hosted a “Mobility Showcase” that was basically a several hour-long advertisement for AVs and other tech. Can’t those companies rent the convention center themselves?

At last week’s Port Authority meeting, Port Authority CEO Katherine Kelleman announced that Port Authority will most likely be walking back the proposal to have armed police officers checking for fare payment. PPT and the Don’t Criminalize Transit Riders Coalition is glad to hear this news- this policy would endanger the lives of thousands of riders of color, immigrant riders, disabled riders, youth riders, and low-income riders who use this service everyday. No to armed fare enforcers! No to $300 fines! No to the criminalization of transit riders! The official announcement about the policy change will come at the end of April. Check out PPT’s DCTR Campaign Page to see all the work that’s been done around this proposal!

The tremendous amount of work that the BRT campaign has put in has changed the conversation in the city and highlighted the importance of equity in transit decisions. We’ve gotten tons of support and media coverage the past several months, and the the community response has made the Port Authority reconsider its initial proposal.

They have announced that a series of public meetings will take place in the next couple of months, during which they will present their modifications to the service proposal and hear feedback from the community. The first meeting will be on April 12th at 6pm at the Rankin Christian Center.

Please come out if you can! And keep an eye out for the full schedule of meetings that will be released soon. If you have any questions, please email chandana@pittsburghforpublictransit.org

Residents of Hilltop Parkview Manor in Duquesne have been without a bus for too long. This fall, they fought to have service restored so that they would not have to face a long walk on dimly-lit, steep, and dangerous streets to their nearest bus stop. Check out the Post-Gazette article from the testimony at the board that quotes Debra Green, one of the resident leaders of the campaign: “Deb Watson of Duquesne and her neighbors in the Hilltop Parkview Manor Apartments don’t think it’s too much to ask that Port Authority route a bus to the complex. The alternative for the 600 residents is a hilly, mile-long walk on busy streets with no sidewalks and limited streetlights. Ms. Watson, who uses a cane, and several other residents with a variety of mobility issues lobbied the Port Authority board Friday to return direct service to their complex on Duquesne Place Drive. Right now, the nearest bus stop is either on Hoffman Boulevard or Route 837.“It’s terrible,” Ms. Watson said. “We have to walk in the middle of the street in the winter. We really need a bus.” And now, thanks to their efforts, they have one! The Port Authority has announced that the 59bus will now stop at the apartments and will start service there in June of this year. When we fight, we win!

At this month’s Port Authority Board meeting, PPT presented a final list of organizations and individuals that have signed on to the demands letter around the BRT. PPT has been working closely with Just Harvest around this campaign for the past several months. Here is the letter in full with the signees listed at the bottom of the page:

   BRT ORGANIZATIONAL SIGN-ON LETTER

To the URA, the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, and the Port Authority of Allegheny County:

        We the undersigned organizations, institutions, social service agencies, businesses, managers, and elected leaders are deeply troubled about the impact of Pittsburgh’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plan on our communities. In its current design, bus riders of the 61 A, B, and C routes will see a 45% reduction in frequency of service, and riders of the 61 A, B, and C will be facing the additional financial and physical burden of mandatory transfers in Oakland to travel to Uptown or Downtown.  Bus lines are lifelines. For many of our residents in the East End and Mon Valley, the halving of their vital transit service frequency will be the difference between keeping and losing their jobs, and keeping or losing childcare. Riders in these communities are disproportionately transit-dependent, and many riders are the service workers and customers that are the economic engines of Pittsburgh’s largest employers. Paying an additional $2.00 for CONNECT card users or $5.50 for cash users each trip in additional transfer fees is prohibitively expensive for most households and will also have devastating impacts on residents’ access to basic services and needs, including food, healthcare, connections to family and places of worship. Finally, this is further disinvestment in communities like Rankin, Braddock, Duquesne and McKeesport, which have been hardest-hit by deindustrialization. Access to transit is essential for stimulating business development and resettlement, and this plan threatens progress that has been made in this region.

        The community engagement and meetings in the lead-up to the federal BRT grant submission lacked survey data and meeting input from riders and residents of Mon Valley communities who would be hurt by the BRT. There must be greater efforts to evaluate transit service alternatives for Braddock, Duquesne and McKeesport residents. We also insist on further robust public engagement with residents of the Mon Valley in any BRT service modifications that will impact their transit. The improvement of transit in the Oakland-Downtown corridor should not happen on the backs of residents in the Mon Valley, who are disproportionately of the low-income, minority, senior, and disabled communities, as well as those that do not have access to a car. Port Authority needs to follow their own equity mandate in their service guidelines and their obligations under federal law, and not invest significant capital money in creating greater hardships for protected classes and low-income riders.  The BRT should instead be used as an opportunity to reconsider how our transit network can better serve the needs of all our county residents.

We insist on the following:

1. That there be no cuts to frequency on the 61 A, B, C lines, nor changes to early morning/late evening service.
2. There must be direct, all-day service to downtown from all impacted communities.
3. Any newly-created transfers from 61 or 71 routes to BRT lines must be free.
4. Additional CONNECT card vendors and kiosks should be added in the Mon Valley to address gaps in access.
5. Capital money should be allocated towards expansion of the MLK East Busway into Braddock into Monroeville or McKeesport.

We look forward to on-going discussions how the BRT project can be a catalyst towards improving transit connectivity and access to vital services for all, without any communities left behind.

Sincerely,

Wilkinsburg Borough Council

Rankin Borough Council

East Pittsburgh Borough Council

North Braddock Borough Council

Swissvale Borough Council

Duquesne City Council

North Braddock Cares

Swissvale Economic Development Corporation

Swissvale Community Action Committee

Woodland Hills School Board

Nickole Nesby, Mayor of Duquesne

Mayor Betty Esper of Homestead

Mayor Thomas Whyel of North Braddock

Mayor Marita Garrett of Wilkinsburg

Fawn Walker-Montgomery, McKeesport Councilwoman

Braddock Carnegie Library Board of Trustees

Director Kate Grannemann Coluccio of Swissvale Library

Pittsburgh Human Rights City Alliance

Pitt Human Rights Initiative

NAMI Keystone Pennsylvania

Howard Levin Clubhouse

Metro Community Health Center

Pittsburghers for Public Transit

Just Harvest

ACCESS Mob

Aunt Cheryl’s Cafe in Braddock, PA

Carl’s Cafe in Rankin, PA

Women’s Law Project, Western PA Office

One Pennsylvania

350 Pittsburgh Climate Action

The Thomas Merton Center

Sequal Consulting

Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network

Women and Girls Foundation

Casa San Jose

The Alliance for Police Accountability

Planned Parenthood of Western PA

Dave Swanson, Pastor of Pittsburgh Mennonite Church