Image Description: PPT members on a Bus Stop Audit stand in front of a pink, green, yellow and red mural of two women’s faces with the word “Allentown” above them, on Beltzhoover Ave.

DEADLINE: September 22, 2025 11:59pm EST
No matter what place you call home, everyone in Allegheny County deserves safe, accessible, affordable, and reliable public transportation. However, a lack of investment in our public transit, environmental crises, increases in the costs of housing, and social inequity have led to many of our friends, families, and neighbors struggling to get to the places they want to go and disconnecting our communities rather than bringing them together. 

But we can take action to reverse it! That is why Pittsburghers for Public Transit (PPT) will launch a paid fellowship program for transit riders who live in communities located in the South Hilltop October 2025-March 2026. 

About the Fellowship

Fellows will explore public transit access, infrastructure, financial barriers, and equitable development. Examples of these topics include: the opportunities and need for more bus shelters and safe, accessible sidewalks to transit, improved service through Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT’s) Bus Line redesign process, winning and enrolling South Hilltop residents into Allegheny Go, and the zoning/land use relationship connecting access to housing and quality transit. 

The fellowship will consist of weekly modules based on current PPT transit justice campaigns, within classroom learning and field work. The fellowship will begin in October 2025 and end in early March 2026.

Fellows will receive compensation for participating in the program for five hours per week for 12-15 weeks until completion in March 2026, with breaks for Thanksgiving and winter holiday periods. 

The Hilltop region this fellowship will work with includes all of Mt. Oliver Borough and the City of PIttsburgh neighborhoods of South Side Slopes, Mt. Washington, Beltzhoover, Bon Air, Carrick, Knoxville, Mt. Oliver, Allentown, Arlington, Arlington Heights, and Hays.

Timeline Overview of the South Hilltop Organizing Fellowship 

• September 22nd: Application deadline
• September 29th: Fellows are confirmed
• Week of October 6th: Program begins
• Classes 1-2: Transit Service
• Classes 3-4: Bus Stops and Shelters
• Classes 5-6: Allegheny Go
• Classes 7-8: Land Use and Development
• Class 9: State Funding
• Share-out Meetings with Government Reps
• Graduation Party

Classes will include a break for the Thanksgiving Holiday November 23–30 and a winter holiday break December 14 – January 4.

How to Apply

Do you live in the South Hilltop and want to improve public transit for your community? 

Apply today!

DEADLINE: September 22, 2025 11:59pm EST

Questions? Contact Nicole Gallagher at nicole@pittsburghforpublictransit.org

Image Description: 3 PPT members smile at the camera on a Bus Stop Audit in Beltzhoover. In the background there is a trolley passing by and a colorful mural.

Image Description: PPT member and staff, one in a pink shirt and one in yellow, high five while smiling at the annual PPT summer party.

Last Wednesday, 100 PPT members and friends gathered at the lovely Olympia park to enjoy yummy food, excellent music, and–most importantly–the company of some of the best organizers, friends, and neighbors Pittsburgh has to offer. 

Our annual summer party is always a chance to pause and affirm the things that make our movement sweet. This year, the party had a special meaning, coming in the middle of a long, critical organizing fight for transit funding at the state level. (In fact, the day before, the PA Senate passed a bill that claimed to fund transit while actually diverting funds from the Public Transit Trust Fund to highways, roads, and bridges! While that bill has since been voted down by the House, it still meant that we were in extra need of a moment of positivity and connection.) 

Lucky for us, that’s exactly what PPT does best. 

We’ve always felt that organizing for our community’s rights and dignity is easiest when we bake in opportunities for joy and authentic reconnection. Our party was a night of dancing, laughter, and taking stock of the incredible progress we’ve made over the last year. 

Progress like: 

• Hosting two paid organizing fellowships focusing on Mon Valley residents and transit workers (like the amazing Kristen Greene and Tom Conroy, who both shared a bit about their experience) 
• Launching a new paid organizing fellowship in the Hilltop community (stay tuned for the application, and please apply if you’re a Hilltop community member!) 
• Incredible growth in our statewide campaign, to the tune of over 25,000 new supporters (yes, our statewide campaign manager Amtrak-ed in from Philly to party with us!) 
• A new membership definition that aligns better with our values and brings our total number of members to a stunning 1,500
• And much more!

Here’s an awesome video our member Joe Coniff made recapping the event:

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A post shared by Pittsburghers 4 Public Transit (@pgh4publictransit)

Check out our gallery of pictures below, and our Flickr album if you want to see more pictures from the event. Major thanks to member Marcelese Cooper for documenting the event!

This year, PPT has grown and changed in ways we are thrilled and challenged by: we’ve conducted multiple paid organizing fellowships developing talent in our community, we’ve hired new staff, and we’ve brought over 25,000 new contacts into our universe (!!!), partially through the massive upscaling of our statewide campaign. 

When we take stock of all these changes, we feel humbled and awestruck by the strength of our community. What we’ve accomplished in such a short time is stunning. In the course of doing this work, we’ve cultivated connections across Pittsburgh and beyond: old friends we’ve deepened relationships with, new friends we’ve brought into the fold, and organizations we’ve come to partner with. 

It’s not an overstatement to say that none of this would be possible without our members. PPT members volunteer at phone banks, they chant and cheer with us at rallies, they tell us the needs of their communities, and they steer our organizations in crucial ways.

What is a PPT member?

PPT members hold the crucial privilege and responsibility of co-drafting our Strategic Plan and electing our Board of Directors. Members are also the only ones who are able to run for positions on our Board. These are vitally important functions, helping guide our organization into the future, shaping our campaigns and the way we do our work.

Until now, the official definition of a PPT “member” has been anyone who supports the Transit Bill of Rights, and contributes $2.75 or more–the cost of a PRT standard bus fare–to PPT in a given year. We intentionally kept this financial cost low to minimize barriers to participation. 

But there are many folks in our community who play crucial roles in shaping our work, who don’t have the ability to contribute financially. PPT is a community, it’s a union, and it’s a democratic movement–and we never want to exclude people based on their financial situation.

That’s why we’ve decided to enact a change to the way we define membership at PPT. 

New PPT membership definition

Beginning now, there are two ways someone could be considered a member of PPT: 

1. Someone could contribute $2.75 or more in a given year. Membership dues are a critical way we fuel our work, so we wanted to maintain this option. Folks who make this contribution will be called dues-paying members. Dues-paying members help us pay staff, run campaigns, throw events and direct actions, and generally keep the lights on with their financial contributions.
2. Someone who supports our work by taking action with us in a given year–filling out an advocacy form, volunteering, attending a rally–AND attending at least one event (virtual or in person) will now be considered a member as well. This allows our membership count to more accurately reflect the many, many people who build our movement without contributing financially. Folks in this group will be simply called members. 

Both groups of members will still need to sign on to the Transit Bill of Rights, our guiding statement that affirms our beliefs and theory of change. 

So, how many members does PPT have?!

When we add up the number of people who have taken action with us and attended a meeting OR donated $2.75+ in the last year, we get the big, shiny, inspiring, fabulous new membership number:

Image Description: A sparkly black, white, and gold handmade sign reads “We are 1500 PPT members strong!”, as photographed through a fisheye lens. Sign lovingly made by Dan Yablonsky and Jess Cox, and photographed by Marcelese Cooper.

1,500! 

If you’re a member, thank you for being part of this movement. When we started making good trouble for transit back in 2010, a movement this big and strong was our wildest dream. 

If you’re not yet a member, it’s never been easier to join! Check out our events calendar for upcoming ways to plug in, and scroll through our campaign updates blog for opportunities to take action. (We’d recommend starting by taking action to support statewide transit funding!) 

With solidarity and appreciation–

Pittsburghers for Public Transit staff and board

Image Description: “Press Statement” in black text above logos of Transit for All PA!, Transit Forward Philadelphia, and Pittsburghers for Public Transit. Below is a picture of transit advocates and legislators holding colorful “Transit for All PA!” signs.

Note: This was also posted on the Transit for All PA! Campaign Updates page.

Transit Riders Denounce Senate Republicans for Passing a Bill that Would Deepen Transit Crisis

This week, the PA Senate leadership approved a bill that raids the capital budget of the Public Transportation Trust Fund – which is already woefully underfunded for current transit maintenance and capital needs – and diverts that funding to both roads and bridges and transit operations. 

The Transit for All PA coalition denounces this transparent, rushed and cynical effort by Senate Republicans to feign action and run down the clock to service cuts. Today marks 43 days since the budget deadline and only 2 days before SEPTA’s cuts are locked in; we see how the Senate majority party has failed to act in good faith and instead remained in recess until this 11th hour, only now producing this appalling legislation. 

Rather than solving the transit funding crisis through the many reasonable funding proposals passed through the PA House, Senate Republicans instead passed a bill today that would make public transit substantially worse. Their bill would not generate new state revenue to ensure that our agencies maintain the service that riders rely on, but would make our transit systems more insolvent by taking $419 million over two years from the existing Public Transportation Trust Fund to fund roads and bridges instead. 

We need transit capital funding as much as we need transit operating funding; that is why the Public Transportation Trust Fund provides both. By cannibalizing transit capital funding for transit operations, riders will face unreliable service from equipment malfunction, lack of available vehicles, and accessibility outages. SEPTA, Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) and other agencies across the Commonwealth already have billions of dollars worth of deferred maintenance needs, and this funding theft will put further out of reach station accessibility upgrades, SEPTA Trolley Modernization, the new bus networks, and the very fare gate improvements PA Senate Republican leadership claims to desire. 

The Senate bill additionally requires an increased local government 5% match for state transit funding without enabling local capital or operating revenue options to raise those funds. This strains the ability of municipalities to even access the funds that the state should provide to support transit. 

Finally, this bill mandates a fare increase every two years tied to inflation, regardless of the current fare pricing structure of each agency or the capacity of riders to afford those fare increases. Increasing fares decreases ridership, so any revenue benefit from increased fare costs could likely be offset by having fewer riders.

We demand our state senators pass real transit funding solutions, and will be mobilizing riders at the ballot box to ensure that all PA communities have the transit service – and the elected representation – that they deserve. Transit riders can take action now by calling and sending a letter to their state senator, and following Transit for All PA for upcoming actions in their communities.

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Transit for All PA is a statewide coalition representing more than 20,000 transit riders, transit workers and stakeholders in big cities and small communities across the Commonwealth. Together, we are organizing to expand Pennsylvania’s public transit systems to grow our economy and connect more Pennsylvanians to jobs, healthcare, and essential needs. 

Transit Forward Philadelphia is a coalition of Philadelphia-based organizations fighting to improve public transit in Southeast Pennsylvania.

Pittsburghers for Public Transit is a grassroots union of transit riders, workers and neighbors. Together we organize for an expanded, affordable and accessible public transit system that meets all needs, with no communities left behind.

Multi-talented PPT member Marcelese Cooper, a film professor and artist, recently made an informative–and gorgeous–animated video describing what the transit crisis means for Pittsburgh and the state. They also include important action steps to take to prevent these cuts from happening.

Check out the video below to learn more about the state of transit funding in PA, and what you can do about it (plus, enjoy some beautiful animation and music)!

En el contexto actual de intensificación de los ataques contra las personas marginadas y los bienes públicos, Pittsburghers for Public Transit se solidariza con nuestras comunidades de inmigrantes y refugiados, muchos de los cuales dependen del transporte público como medio principal para ir al trabajo, asistir a la escuela, comprar alimentos, acceder a la atención médica y asistir a sus lugares de culto. Nos organizamos para oponernos a la intimidación, las detenciones crueles e ilegales, las desapariciones y las acciones discriminatorias contra nuestros amigos y vecinos que buscan, y merecen, seguridad y refugio.

Para fortalecer el conocimiento y la comunidad, compartimos un recurso de una de nuestras organizaciones asociadas, la Campaña Nacional por la Justicia en el Transporte, sobre qué hacer si se encuentra con agentes de inmigración al usar el transporte público. Por favor, comparta ampliamente estos recursos. El texto a continuación también está disponible como PDF descargable.

Si agentes de inmigración abordan su tren o autobús, usted tiene el derecho a: 

• Guardar silencio
• Rehusarse a que revisen sus pertenencias, diciendo “No les doy permiso de revisar mis cosas”, o en inglés, “I do not consent to a search”.
• Preguntarle a los agentes de inmigración por qué lo están parando
• Grabar video
• Informar a otros sobre sus derechos
• Si tiene documentos de inmigración válidos, puede enseñarlos. Pero nunca enseñe documentos falsos. 

NO es necesario:

• Contestar preguntas sobre su ciudadanía o su estatus migratorio, y no firme ningún papel, sin hablar con un abogado.

Toda información que le dé a los agentes de inmigración puede ser utilizada en su contra para deportarlo.

In our current climate of intensifying attacks on marginalized people and public goods, Pittsburghers for Public Transit stands in solidarity with our immigrant and refugee communities, many of whom rely on public transit as a primary means to go to work, attend schools, buy groceries, access healthcare and attend places of worship. We are organized in opposition to intimidation, cruel and unlawful detainment and disappearances, and the discriminatory actions taken against our friends and neighbors who are seeking – and deserve – safety and refuge. 

To build community knowledge and strength, we are sharing a resource from one of our partner organizations, the National Campaign for Transit Justice, on what to do if you encounter immigration agents while using public transit services. Please share these resources widely. The below text is also available as a downloadable PDF.

If immigration agents board your bus or train or are patrolling a transit station, you have the right to:

• Remain silent
• Refuse a search of your belongings by saying, “I do not consent to a search”. 
• Ask agents why they are stopping you
• Record video
• Inform others of their rights
• Provide valid immigration papers if you have them (never provide false documents)

You do NOT need to:

• Answer any questions about your citizenship or immigration status, or sign any documents, without the advice of a lawyer

Any information you volunteer to immigration agents can and will be used against you to deport you.

It’s been a huge year for our movement for transit justice. Celebrate our wins, plan our next moves, and (most importantly) have fun with neighbors and friends!

Wednesday, August 13, 5:30pm-8:30pm
Olympia Park Shelter House
1010 Virginia Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15211
Pay What You Can – No One Turned Away For Lack of Funds!

The event will be a casual indoor/outdoor, mid-year celebration of the transit victories by PPT members in 2025! This is our movement’s biggest, most important year to date–we’ve massively scaled up our statewide campaign, deepened the ties in our local community, and won some big wins. It’s time to kick back, relax, and enjoy each other’s company for a night!

This is a free event, but your optional paid contribution will help us feed the crowd, hire a DJ, and (of course) continue our work to win expanded, equitable transit service for everyone!

What to expect: 

The picnic will be on August 13 at the indoor facility at Olympia Park in Mount Washington, from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. It is a casual and fun family friendly event, with indoor and outdoor activities for kids and adults. Olympia Park has a playground and we will provide art supplies and games. We’ll also have activities indoors that include party games, fun campaign strategy activities, a DJ with great tunes, and dancing. Attendees should not feel obligated to attend the entire event.

Food:

Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options will be available, along with water and non-alcoholic drinks. While the food is complimentary with registration, please RSVP so that we can have a count of how many people to expect.

Getting there:

The party will be held at the City’s “Olympia Park Indoor Shelter House”. Address: 1010 Virginia Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15211. The 40 Mount Washington-Duquesne Heights bus stop is a quarter mile, or about 5 minute walk. The Duquesne Incline is a 10-15 minute walk or roll. Entrance for parking is on Virginia Ave, turn into the park across from Olympia Street. There are reserved handicap parking spots closer to the shelter, and there is other parking available on Hallock St. If you need help with transportation, you can try to find another PPT Member who can help by posting in the PPT Facebook Group

Volunteer!

This is a community event, and we need volunteers to help make it a success! Can you help us by signing up for a volunteer shift? There are lots of different roles available, and don’t worry–you’ll still be able to eat dinner, dance, and hang out if you take on a shift.

Accessibility: 

The distance from the 40 Mount Washington Bus stop the Olympia Park facility is about a quarter mile on a slight grade. Take care when using a manual mobility device. Some games and activities will take place outside of the building in grass. The bathrooms are indoors and have an accessible stall, but do not have an access button. There will be a DJ playing music inside the facility, which could be loud, but we will do our best to play it at a volume that is comfortable for all attendees. Attendees should be ready for variable mid-August weather and lighting. There will be interpretation in both ASL and Spanish, upon request.

COVID procedures:

Our event will be indoors with areas to socialize outdoors and areas surrounding it. The health and safety of our members is important to us. Masks are not required, but will be provided to everyone. We encourage everyone to take an at-home COVID rapid test before arriving. Please stay home if you are feeling sick or have come into contact with someone who has COVID-19.

Join us for a statewide all-hands call to learn what’s happening with the PA budget, and how we can win Transit for All PA! Tuesday, 7/29, 5:30-7 on Zoom

We know that public transit is a lifeline for everyone in Pennsylvania, no matter if they live in small towns, big cities, suburbs, or rural areas. But funding for transit is in peril in all 67 counties of our state.

Legislators have once again missed the state budget deadline of June 30th, so it’s time to put the pressure on. We’re running a campaign telling Harrisburg: no budget without transit! We need a budget that prevents transit system collapse across the state.

Join our meeting to connect with transit advocates across the state, and learn:

• What’s happened in Harrisburg so far regarding the transit budget
• How our movement has grown, adapted, and driven this fight
• What’s next for our movement, and how we can win expanded, equitable transit for all 67 counties

The fight for transit that truly meets our needs–whether we live in Pittsburgh or Pottstown, Altoona or Allentown–is far from over. Though we’re past the deadline, we expect PA to pass a budget soon, and we know we’re in for a long fight for transit restoration and expansion. Join our statewide all-call for an update on where our fight goes from here!

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Accessibility

• This event meets ADA standards
• ASL interpretation
• Live captioning
• Audio descriptions for video
• Notes from the organizer: This virtual event will offer live captioning, alongside ASL interpretation.
• Have accessibility questions? Reply to your registration email to confirm your requirements or request more information.

Pittsburgh Regional Transit and ACCESS Riders are facing catastrophic service cuts and fare increases starting Feb 2026, and our state legislature has still not passed a budget that includes transit funding.

And so, while we continue to put pressure on our state legislature to do their job, we are demanding the following actions from Pittsburgh Regional Transit now: 

• DELAY THE SERVICE CUTS. Pittsburgh Regional Transit has the ability to use some of their reserves to delay the proposed February 2026 service cuts until October 2026. Although using PRT’s limited reserve funding is not a long-term or sustainable solution, it is currently necessary to give the agency, PA legislators and riders the time to ensure that the Governor’s budget proposal for transit passes, and to give us the ability to fight for more transit funding next year. The harms of the proposed 35% fixed route transit and 62% ACCESS service cuts will be catastrophic to our communities and very hard or impossible to reverse. 

• STOP FARE INCREASES. There seems to be some push from the state legislature to increase transit fare costs even if state funding comes through. Pittsburgh Regional Transit currently has the 10th highest fares in the country, and increasing from $2.75 to $3 fares would make our transit more expensive than the MTA in New York City. The cost of living is already going through the roof for working and low-income people, and this would be an additional hardship. We also know that increasing fares decreases ridership, and so any revenue benefit from increased fare costs will likely be offset by having fewer riders. 

• MAKE ALLEGHENY GO A ZERO FARE PROGRAM. Now is the time for transit cost relief for low-income families. For the last 8 years, we have been clear that we are organizing for a fully zero fare low-income fare program that is funded by the County Department of Human Services (DHS). The County Executive and DHS have publicly supported this goal. The permanent low-income fare program we won last year, Allegheny Go, is currently only a half-fare program. Now is the time to transition Allegheny Go from a half-fare to fully zero fare program (particularly if fares are proposed to be raised further), and utilizing DHS funding will help us do this even if we do not win additional funding from Harrisburg. We are calling on PRT to provide the cost estimate and implementation plan for the County Department of Human Services to transition Allegheny Go to a fully zero fare program. 

RSVP to join us and give testimonhy on 7/25. Read on Below to Understand the Latest and For Talking Points for the PRT Board Meeting. 

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What’s Going On with the State Budget and Proposed PRT Cuts

Pittsburgh Regional Transit projects that in coming years their expenses will be higher than their income, because the level of state funding for transit has not increased in over a decade. They- like other transit agencies across the state including Philadelphia’s SEPTA system and Allentown’s LANTA system– are projecting the need for big service cuts next year to account for that. The service cuts PRT are proposing to implement starting February next year are huge and terrible- 35% service cuts to fixed route transit (the complete elimination of 40 bus lines and the Silver line), 62% cuts to ACCESS services (severely limiting where people can take ACCESS to and from), no transit after 11 pm, and significant fare increases to $3.00 for fixed route transit and increases of between 14-24% for ACCESS fares.

Our Pennsylvania state legislators were supposed to pass a budget by the deadline of June 30th. However, they have missed their deadline and to date have not passed a budget. 

There is a proposal that Pennsylvania legislators are considering based on Governor Shapiro’s budget proposal. The Governor’s proposal would increase the allocation of the existing sales tax to transit by 1.75% – and while that is better than nothing, it would only provide Pittsburgh Regional Transit $40 million of the anticipated $100 million they need next year to maintain existing levels of service. We also know that existing levels of service are themselves not meeting our needs. 

So although the Governor’s proposal is important to pass right now – as a band aid solution – we (as Transit for All PA!) will continue to organize for a bigger, dedicated pot of money in the coming year that allows PRT (and all PA transit agencies) to not just maintain existing levels of service but restore the 20% of service that has been cut over the last 5 years of the pandemic.

Our organizing is working! Pennsylvania legislators have been hearing our demands loud and clear that they cannot pass a budget without transit funding, AND that maintaining our transit service status quo is not enough. That is why there are proposals at the negotiating table – including our Transit for All PA funding package – that would enable agencies all around the Commonwealth to restore and expand transit to fully meet our needs.

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Need help writing your testimony for the PRT Board? Use these talking points below to help uplift the demands listed at the start of this blog:

• Talk about the impacts of the proposed Pittsburgh Regional Transit fixed bus/rail service cuts and ACCESS cuts to you/your community. You can find a summary here (scroll to bottom to see eliminated bus lines. It is useful to say how your life would be impacted even if the cuts were temporary.

• Talk about all the advocacy you have done to fight for state funding – signing petitions, meeting with legislators, rallying in Harrisburg, canvassing/petitioning, phonebanking riders in other communities, speaking up at the PRT service hearings, or developing transit funding solutions and transit communications in the PPT research or comms committees. We want to highlight how we are doing our part, and will continue to fight for funding, but PRT needs to do theirs by providing PA legislators and riders with more time to negotiate a full transit funding solution. 

• Talk about the impacts of proposed fare increases on you/your community. Share stories about the high cost of living and the high cost of transit fares, and why we both need to prevent further fare increases AND transition Allegheny GO into a fare free program for low-income riders. Talk about the benefit of that to you and your communities.