PRTX Cuts
Pittsburgers for Public Transit is always looking for volunteers to help with their initiatives to limit the PRT's future service cuts and expand its service to a visionary service plan.
UPDATE
The Pennsylvania State Legislature just passed a budget with $80 million for transit funding.
This is a huge win for transit riders across PA, however the work of providing every Pennsylvanian with functioning transit is far from over.
What can you do now?
Write a letter thanking your state representatives and senators for their support of funding transit.
Advocate for more transit riders to be placed on the PRT (and other agencies') boards.
Advocate for transit justice where ever and whenever you can.
Sign the TransitForAllPA! petitions, and keep up to date with their events etc.
From October 1st without an end in sight, the PRT, aka Pittsburgh Regional Transit, formerly called the Port Authority of Allegheny County, is cutting the 61D, 71A, 71C, & 71D at Oakland, instead of continuing through Uptown to Downtown Pittsburgh.
This removes the direct connection for many riders, so that if someone is paying a cash fare, they now have to pay double for their normal ride.
- Riders who normally take the 61D should take the 61C.
- Those who normally take the 71A should take the 71B, an East Busway route, the 82 via the Hill, or the 87 via the Strip, depending on where they are on the route.
- Those who normally take the 71C should take an East Busway route, the 67, or 69.
- Those who normally take the 71D should take an East Busway route, the 71B, 67, or 69.
I would still recommend checking with your navigation app. Transit, Moovit, Google Maps, and Apple Maps are all updated with these service changes.
As the 61 series and 71 series are redundant, it is expected to take longer to travel from Oakland to Uptown and Downtown, simply because of the lower frequency.
As a result, the PRT is increasing service on the 61B, 61C, 71B, 82, 87, P1, P3, and P7.
All of this is being done to bring Bus Rapid Transit to Uptown and Oakland, called The University Line. This BRT will be similar to the MBTA’s Silver Line 4 & 5 routes in Boston. It will have proper stations for bus stops as well as bus only lanes for the whole route. The goal is to eventually have faster service on all these routes, but that will not be the case for a long time.
Even if you are not directly affected by these service cuts, please sign Pittsburghers for Public Transit’s petition. They got enough voices to stop P3 service cuts before, so let’s try here!
