Port Authority Plans To Eliminate Bus Stops To Speed Up Service

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – The Port Authority is looking at eliminating some bus stops in Pittsburgh.

The thought is reducing stops will speed up service.

It seems the Port Authority is in the process of a major make-over. Fare changes go into effect January 1, and now another overhaul -- a complete review of every single bus stop with the intent to get rid of unused stops.

In 2013, more than 400 bus stops were eliminated in Allegheny County, a hardship felt by some riders.

"My mother, she's disabled," James Wilson of Hazelwood said. "She used to be able to catch the bus. But now she can't go to the bus stop in her wheelchair because they're so far away."

But the Port Authority says they have more stops than necessary, clogging the system and making it sluggish.

"Right now, we have more than 7,000 transit stops county-wide, and that's just way too many," Port Authority of Allegheny County spokesperson Jim Ritchie said.

"You stop at pretty much every corner just to pick someone up," one rider noted.

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It's going to be a process, not a random selection. Ritchie says they'll take into account several things, like riders with disabilities and the geography along that route during a review and survey process that will take more than a year, with the initial cuts not happening, most likely, until 2018.

"When it comes to eliminating stops, it's more about efficiency," Ritchie said. "It's about vehicle movement. It's about passengers, more passengers using the stops that are available to them without creating a hardship."

He says some stops may just be shifted to accommodate previously eliminated stops or ones with few people. Right now, it's unknown what the bus routes will look like, only that there will be more eliminations with this process than in 2013.

"We don't have a target number in mind," Ritchie said. "We want to go through route by route and figure out what makes sense for each one of those routes."

Ritchie says that this will be an open process and that public input will be a component of the decision making.

Those changes are still more than a year away, but Port Authority has some other changes coming up soon. Last week, the Port Authority's board of directors adopted the agency's new budgets for the 2017 fiscal year. It includes fare policy changes and expanded service on three routes – 79 East Hills, 89 Garfield Commons and P17 Lincoln Park Flyer.