Beginning Sunday, March 25, transit routes across the Pittsburgh region may experience adjustments.
Heather Pharo of the Port Authority Transit (PAT) of Allegheny County said these are standard tweaks that occur even without the huge budget deficit the Authority faces come the new fiscal year July 1.
"There are quite a few routes that are going to be adjusted on Sunday but … this is a routine adjustment, this isn't like what we propose to do in September," Pharo said. "What we're seeing on Sunday is things like adjustment of trip times, frequency tweaks, things of that nature."
There is no specific region that will have the most changes to transit routes.
"It's pretty much across the board in terms of adjustments. People from all over the city should be sure to look and see if their schedule has changed at all because it could affect the time they get their bus in the morning, for example," Pharo said.
The best way to determine if a route will experience time or frequency changes or is to log on to the Port Authority's website and click on the service changes box under the trip planner. Pharo said schedules are available at the downtown T stations that will reflect the new changes.
The adjustments coincide with the opening of the North Shore Connector station that links the North Shore to downtown. Pharo said the 14 Ohio Valley and 18 Manchester bus routes will no longer enter downtown, but drop off passengers at the North Shore Connector where they can transfer for free to any of four downtown stations.
The changes come six months before Port Authority's plans to eliminate 40 of its 102 routes and scale back service on the remaining ones to help offset a $64 million budget deficit.
