Pittsburgh Regional Transit is forging ahead with a sweeping redesign of its network, even as the agency stares down a deficit next year that threatens to significantly cut service starting as early as 2028.
The proposal aims to increase reliability and boost ridership after a half-decade of stagnating revenues by eliminating routes and shifting service away from Downtown. The agency’s leadership hopes that in addition to streamlining the system, the proposal can help sway state legislators to secure funding next year to stave off potential cuts, including the elimination of weekend rail service and the Silver Line.
“I see this as part of the long-term building of credibility in Harrisburg that we are a transit agency that is growing,” said PRT Board member state Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-West View. “At the end of the day, the system needs investment from Harrisburg … We can’t run the system off ridership rates alone. It’s too expensive.”
20 routes cut, 14 additions
PRT’s final redesign plan aims to reconfigure the network to increase rider satisfaction and boost ridership that has been slow to rebound from pandemic-era lows. Released in mid-August, it builds on two earlier proposals from 2023 and 2026.
The proposal’s public comment period runs until September 30. The agency hosted a public hearing about the plan in August, with another set for Sept. 10. The board will vote in November, and if approved, the plan will move ahead late 2027.
How to comment:
- Email BusLineRefresh@RidePRT.org.
- Call PRT at (412) 566-5525 and leave a voicemail.
- Mail PRT a comment form.
- Attend the Sept. 10 public hearing.
The plan would eliminate 20 routes across the agency’s 95-route footprint, with White Oak and parts of Penn Hills losing service completely. It would add 14 routes and modify 56.
Eliminated Routes
The 20 eliminated routes include:
- 2 Mount Royal
- 15 Charles
- 17 Shadeland
- 18 Manchester
- 20 Kennedy
- 43 Bailey
- 51L Carrick Limited
- 53L Homestead Park Limited
- 65 Squirrel Hill
- 71 Edgewood Town Center
- G31 Bridgeville Flyer
- O5 Thompson Run Flyer
- P7 McKeesport Flyer
- P17 Lincoln Park Flyer
- P67 Monroeville Flyer
- P69 Trafford Flyer
- P71 Swissvale Flyer
- Y1 Large Flyer
- Y45 Baldwin Manor Flyer
- Y47 Curry Flyer
New Routes
The 14 new routes include:
- 3 Natrona Heights-New Kensington
- 5 Aspinwall
- 9 McCandless-Oakland
- 17 Avalon-McKnight
- 18 Wexford
- 25 Robinson
- 34 Carnegie-Brentwood
- 45 Carrick-Oakland-East Liberty
- 63 Renzie Park-Olympia
- 66 Homestead-McKeesport
- 70 Wilkins
- 84 Wylie
- 89 Penn Hills-CCAC Boyce
- 92 Stanton Heights
Under the plan, 99.4% of PRT’s ridership would have transit access within a quarter-mile of their existing stops, according to the agency.
The cuts and modifications primarily impact older riders, according to a Pittsburghers for Public Transit analysis, which also found it would bring service gains to lower-income and more transit-dependent communities across the agency’s footprint.
Greenfield resident Ray Gerard said he is one of those impacted by the redesign’s route modifications. A contractor, some days Gerard rides the 58 Greenfield to work on a property in Oakland. Other days, he transfers to the 64 Lawrenceville-Waterfront.
Gerard said that the proposed changes to the 58, which would eliminate some stops along Greenfield Avenue, could extend his commute time.
“They’re making it impossible for me to get to and from work,” he said. “My body’s beat up. I got old sports injuries … They accumulate over the years and your body wants to shut down after eight or nine hours. That’s it. If you add onto the commute time, it’s a 12-hour day.”
Routes were slated for elimination partially based on use, with the goal of shifting service toward higher-demand areas like Oakland and the East End. The P7 McKeesport Flyer, for instance, went from serving nearly 700 daily weekday riders in 2019 to less than half that level last year, according to PRT data. The plan would eliminate the route.
It comes amid budget and ridership struggles that have become particularly acute over the last half-decade. Overall PRT traffic cratered since the pandemic, falling from a high of around 65 million rides in fiscal year 2019 to about 37 million in fiscal year 2025, according to a PRT annual report.
The agency’s ridership shows subtle signs of a rebound. It recorded the highest ridership since the pandemic last fiscal year, marking just over 39 million rides across its bus, incline and light rail holdings. That’s up from a historic low of around 22 million in fiscal year 2021. June alone saw an 11.3% increase in weekday bus ridership from the preceding year.
On Monday the federal Department of Transportation awarded PRT $82.8 million to purchase 45 new 170-foot light rail vehicles, which will replace the agency’s existing stock, according to a news release. That funding won’t directly address the structural deficit in the operating budget.
Which stops could see changes?
(Map by Max Chis/Pittsburghers for Public Transit)
As budget crisis looms, PRT banks on the refresh
On top of boosting ridership, PRT leadership is banking on the refresh to build credibility with state legislators, who could be the agency’s only hope to avoid sweeping cuts to its network potentially starting in 2028. That’s because a temporary 2025 financing maneuver to avoid a $100 million shortfall expires next June, around the same time the refresh would be implemented.
In 2025, PRT faced a budget deficit that would’ve caused the largest service cut in decades, including the elimination of 41 routes. Years of stagnating revenues, coupled with the expiration of a landmark transportation funding bill and rising maintenance costs, had left the agency with a $100 million budget hole.
The funding crisis was temporarily averted later that year when the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation gave PRT a waiver to use up to $106.7 million in state capital funds to cover operating expenses for the next two fiscal years, postponing some non-critical infrastructure improvements.
PRT’s temporary maneuver expires next June, at the end of the fiscal year. The agency approved a nearly $596 million budget in May, propping up projected ridership revenues of $67.4 million with a mix of state capital funds and reserves, plus the remaining $41.2 million in state capital waiver funds.
“We’re managing decline at this point.”
Laura Chu Wiens, Pittsburghers for Public Transit
At the May board meeting, PRT CEO Katharine Kelleman warned of “substantive deficits” for the agency in the coming years and the need for a sustainable funding solution.
“We are seeing a transit system that kind of continues to rob Peter to pay Paul,” said Williams, in an interview.
If a funding fix isn’t found, riders could begin to see service cuts as early as 2028, PRT spokesperson Adam Brandolph said in a statement. Planning for the cuts would start in late 2027, or around the same time as the refresh plan’s implementation.
The state’s recently-passed $50.8 billion budget includes no new transit funding.
Kelleman said cuts, which would be rolled out from 2028 to 2029, would include:
- The elimination of the Silver Line, one of the three PRT-operated light rail routes that connects the North Shore to the South Hills
- Scaling back of bus service, including no bus service past 11:00 p.m.
- No weekend rail service
- The elimination of special PRT services, like those that ran through the 2026 NFL Draft.
Some state lawmakers have been hesitant to fund the state’s transit agencies, arguing that it’s better to invest in the state’s highways and roads. Williams hopes that any refresh-induced ridership growth could show state legislators that the agency is worth investing in.
Kelleman said PRT wants to show taxpayers and their representatives that the state’s previous investment, which allowed the agency to use capital funding, was worth it.
PRT doesn’t have an estimate for revenues that the refresh proposal could generate, according to Brandolph.
“This is resource-neutral for us,” Kelleman said. “To tell folks you can’t have these improvements in your service because we’re not certain what’s going to happen down the line — I don’t think that’s responsible.”
For some the proposal isn’t enough. Laura Chu Wiens, executive director of transit advocacy organization Pittsburghers for Public Transit, said the agency should propose a “visionary” proposal outlining what the agency could do with increased funding. During the 2023 redesign round, PRT floated a proposal highlighting what the agency could do with 20% more funding, such as creating new direct connections to the airport from the North and South Hills and improving overall service frequency.
“We’re managing decline at this point,” she said.
Gains for Millvale; losses for northern, eastern and southern suburbs
The refresh would shift bus service away from Downtown as a transportation hub, which Kelleman said was a response to pandemic-era economic changes that have altered commute patterns. Part of the refresh plan is to “right size” toward higher-demand areas, like Oakland, and encourage neighborhood-to-neighborhood service.
PRT hasn’t substantively updated its network since 1964, according to Kelleman, and in the past 20 years the agency has taken around 35% of its service off the street.
“The Route 91 – Butler runs the same as a horse-drawn trolley from 1858, which is super cool and vintage, but folks don’t live where they used to,” Kelleman said.
Communities that would see the biggest gains include Millvale, which gets a new bus service into East Liberty, and communities along the McKnight Road corridor, including Wexford, which gets a new direct route to Downtown Pittsburgh, according to Chu-Wiens.
At the August public hearing, Millvale resident Andrew Noonan lauded the new 9 McCandless-Oakland route, which connects Pittsburgh’s far-flung northern suburbs to Oakland, saying that the new direct route would cut his travel time in half.
PRT’s planned re-work would also increase weekend service and add 41 new connections between neighborhoods and destinations. The new 34 Carnegie-Brentwood, for instance, would connect two South Hills communities.
Other communities with low ridership could see their services cut completely, including White Oak and Kennedy. Communities such as Ross, Monroeville, Baldwin Borough and South Park would partially lose service.
“We don’t want to be having conversations about winning and losing. Why are we losing? Why are communities losing? Nobody can afford to lose more,” Chu-Wiens said.
Lucas Dufalla is the Southern Communities reporter at Pittsburgh’s Public Source and can be reached at lucas@publicsource.org.
This story was fact-checked by Octavia Liku.
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