Public transit service cuts reversed in Pittsburgh

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(The Center Square) - Though Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority has taken center stage in the battle for more state funding, it isn’t the only metro area which relies on that support to get its commuters to work every day.

Pittsburgh Regional Transit, or PRT, also found itself forced to make tough decisions, and ultimately borrow from the state’s capital fund, to maintain service. The agency’s board voted Friday to reverse what would have amounted to a 35% cut in service and 9% increase in fares.

Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-Pittsburgh, serves on the PRT board. She has been an outspoken advocate for mass transit funding, which supports service in all 67 counties in Pennsylvania with Philadelphia and Allegheny being the largest.

Williams issued a statement celebrating the board’s decision but emphasizing that neither the reversal nor capital funding are a long-term solution to the commonwealth’s transportation problems.

“Since I joined the PRT Board earlier this year, we have been in crisis mode as we have worked to stop PRT from entering a death spiral,” said Williams. “Following today’s vote, I am looking forward to working strategically to build better public transit for all, and for advocating for what my constituents say they need.”

The senator noted that she hopes to restore service to her district to operating levels from 2019, before the pandemic changed the face of public transit globally. For systems that primarily relied on fares for funding, the loss of ridership struck a huge blow to still essential services.

Like Williams, the board issued a statement emphasizing the temporary nature of the fix.

“Using capital funding to support our operations allows us to maintain service and protect riders, but it strains our ability to maintain our system in the short-term and invest in our long-term future,” said Chief Executive Officer Katharine Kelleman. “We will continue to advocate in Harrisburg for the long-term funding that our system needs and our riders and region deserve.”

The House has passed several different funding proposals to resolve the situation, none of which have been taken up by the Senate. The upper chamber did pass a bill that would have used capital funding, but it was dead on arrival in the House, where Democrats said that taking money dedicated to other infrastructure improvement projects deepens the deficit without offering any recurring revenue and does nothing to help the rest of the state.

That SEPTA and PRT were both ultimately forced to borrow from the funds created a brief window of hope that the two chambers would be able to come to a compromise on the wider budget, but progress remains stalled.