Pittsburgh Regional Transit riders and members of the public have until Feb. 1 to comment on potential route and service changes to the city’s Bus Rapid Transit project.
The BRT has been in the works for years. It will establish bus-only lanes in Downtown Pittsburgh, Uptown and Oakland, which officials hope will lead to better connections between economic centers and faster travel times.
Dan Yablonsky, the director of communications for Pittsburghers for Public Transit, said the organization is urging riders to weigh in on the plan before submissions close.
“This does impact the core of our transit system from Oakland to Downtown. So, chances are that your bus or a bus that you transfer to will be impacted,” he said.
Five existing bus routes — the 61A, 61B, 61C, 71B, and P3 — will become BRT routes with “upgraded service from Oakland heading west to Downtown Pittsburgh,” according to the transit agency.
Bus routes including the 61D, 71A, 71C and 71D will have “shortened service” and will terminate in Oakland rather than stretching into Uptown or Downtown, as they do currently. Service for the P3 route will go only as far west as Wilkinsburg Station along the Martin Luther King, Jr. East Busway, so Swissvale and Rankin residents would face an extended commute into Oakland or Downtown.
Yablonsky called the changes a “double-edge sword.” Under the proposed plan, bus rides for some people would become easier and shorter.
“If you have straight lines that are more efficient for carrying buses, you can hypothetically carry more people along these lines and with a relatively short transfer time,” he said.
But for others, the changes will mean longer transit times with less direct routes. And for people who need to transfer buses but use cash to pay fares instead of a Connect card, the change would incur more expenses: They’d have to pay $2.75 more for each transfer.
“While some of the BRT changes look promising, the decision to cut off the P3 from communities around Hamnett, Roslyn and Swissvale stations — when it already provides such reliable and efficient service — doesn’t make sense to me,” Wilkinsburg resident Nicole McCaffrey said in a statement shared by Pittsburghers for Public Transit.
“Students, health care workers and service workers who study and work in Oakland stand to be affected, myself included. Expecting us to adapt by taking some other bus to Wilkinsburg Station and then transferring means we would have to leave earlier, wait longer and take an additional bus for only a couple more stops, when we already have a route that works well,” McCaffrey added.
“Making matters worse, classmates I’ve spoken to haven’t even been aware of these upcoming changes,” she said. “We’re social work students whose job it is to stay engaged in our communities — so I have to wonder who else hasn’t been reached.”
PRT did not respond to a request for comment.
To submit written comments online, visit rideprt.org/brtcomments. Written comments can be sent by mail or delivered to Pittsburgh Regional Transit, Attn: BRT Service Changes, Heinz 57 Center, 345 Sixth Avenue, Third Floor, Pittsburgh PA 15222. Oral comments can be submitted by calling 412-566-5335 and leaving a message.
