Pittsburgh Regional Transit avoided eliminating 40 bus routes Friday by slashing its infrastructure budget by two-thirds, a move that will keep routes running through 2027 by delaying vehicle replacements and safety upgrades as the agency stares down total collapse by 2030.
The PRT board voted to transfer $110 million from capital projects to operations, leaving $57.9 million for infrastructure, less than a third of what the agency typically spends on its aging system.
Many improvements postponed or cancelled
PRT CEO Katharine Kelleman was blunt about the trade-offs at Friday’s board meeting: “It’s not new money, it’s money coming away. Every dollar that comes away from capital is a project that isn’t completed.”
Kelleman compared the transfer to “covering your mortgage with your car payment, or covering utilities with grocery money,” warning that while it avoids “catastrophic cuts to service,” it creates new problems: “Bus repairs, bus shelters – it’s a Band-aid and we have another wound.”
The transfer means postponing or canceling:
- New bus purchases to replace aging diesel vehicles with cleaner, more fuel-efficient models
- Bus shelters to protect riders from weather
- Mon Valley corridor improvements including bus lanes and signal priority to speed 61C commutes
- Station repairs and maintenance to deteriorating platforms and other facilities
- Accessibility upgrades at older stations
- Radio upgrades for PRT police.
The capital transfer also allows PRT to avoid raising fares from $2.75 to $3.00 a ride, an increase that would have taken effect in February alongside the service cuts. Pittsburgh’s current fare already ranks among the ten highest nationally.
PRT addresses service at The Waterfront
The board unanimously backed the transfer, but public comment was dominated by frustration over the budget Band-aid and concerns about proposed changes to stops at the Waterfront shopping center.
Dozens filled the room and 13 members of the public spoke to the board. Of those, 11 supported the capital transfer despite frustrations about the temporary nature of the solution and worries about the cost to infrastructure.
Other commenters noted that crumbling infrastructure can have the same effect as service cuts for disabled and elderly riders, and for parents. Linda Van Bueren of Elliott testified that shelters and accessible stops are vital for safety, and worried that lack of capital funds could impact her ability to attend the Community College of Allegheny County. “You can’t ride buses that aren’t safe,” she noted.
Another speaker said they depend on transit due to a brain injury, and called on board members to participate in the “Week Without Driving” challenge to understand riders’ daily reality.
Despite the support for avoiding immediate cuts, no speaker expressed long-term confidence in the solution. Even those urging approval demanded sustainable funding rather than repeated crisis management.
Kelleman last week called the transfer “the best bad solution,” warning that while it prevents cuts through 2027, the agency still faces a $154.6 million deficit by 2030. “That’s three years, and then PRT does not exist.”
Six speakers addressed the Waterfront shopping complex that spans Munhall, Homestead and West Homestead. The property owners recently told PRT to stop operating near Giant Eagle and Target, and the change was set to take effect next month.
CEO Kelleman said the stores sit on private property, and the agency only has authority to operate on public roads. Elimination of stops would force riders to walk approximately 1,000 feet through parking lots to reach the stores. She called on elected officials to work with the businesses on solutions, noting that many riders with mobility challenges rely on the service to access groceries.
The Waterfront stop changes affect more than 400 weekday riders, according to PRT.
Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato announced on Sept. 29 that service to The Waterfront stores would remain in place after an “agreement in principle” was reached.
Harrisburg undecided on long term subsidies
The vote caps a seven-month process that began when PRT warned in March of its “single largest service cut in decades” to close a $100 million deficit. The agency passed a budget in June with 35% service cuts baked in for February, including elimination of 40 bus routes and the Silver Line T.
PennDOT’s Sept. 16 approval for PRT to tap $106.7 million in capital funds to avoid cuts came eight days after similar relief for Philadelphia’s SEPTA, which received $394 million. Both agencies turned to capital transfers after months of deadlock in Harrisburg, where Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed $292 million in new transit funding statewide but the Democratic-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate have been unable to reach agreement.
The impasse reflects fundamental disagreements about transit funding. Influential Republicans say the state can’t afford major spending increases. “Our budget doesn’t allow for a lot of additional spending,” Sen. Judy Ward, R-Blair, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, told Public Source in March. Democrats counter that transit is essential infrastructure that drives economic development across the state.
State Rep. Lindsay Powell, D-Lawrenceville, said the divide goes beyond transit. “A lot of it has just been the idea of spending money on services,” Powell told Public Source Thursday. “I think it’s a difference of philosophies of how governments should function and run.”
New transit funding workarounds became necessary after Act 89 — the 2013 law that provided predictable transit funding increases for a decade — expired without replacement. Since 2019, PRT’s operating costs have risen $98 million while state subsidies have increased only $50 million, according to a Public Source analysis of agency budgets. Meanwhile, ridership remains down about a third since the pandemic, the agency reported.
“It’s important to remember we knew this was coming,” said Powell. “We knew that in 10 years, when Act 89 expired, we would need to revisit our public transit funding.”
State Sen. Lindsay Williams, D-West View, who co-sponsors legislation to raise $401 million annually through taxes on car rentals, leases and rideshares, told Public Source on Wednesday that she hasn’t seen “a lot of urgency out of Senate Republicans to get the budget done.”
But Republicans argue transit agencies need to find solutions beyond state subsidies. State House Republican Leader Jesse Topper, R-Bedford, told Public Source in June that “sustainability comes from more than just state funding. In fact, if you’re relying just on state funding to make yourself sustainable, you’ve got a problem.” He said he expects PRT to raise fares, “and I think that’s OK.”
Ward suggested in March that PRT should examine “why their ridership is down” before asking for more money.
The divide leaves both urban and rural agencies in funding limbo. Williams noted that smaller transit systems serving rural counties don’t have the option to transfer capital funds, leaving them with even fewer alternatives to cuts.
The transit funding dispute reflects broader budget negotiations that remain unresolved nearly three months into the state fiscal year. After Shapiro authorized the capital transfer to remove transit from immediate negotiations, lawmakers still haven’t agreed on a final spending plan, forcing some schools and nonprofits to secure lines of credit. Senate Republicans seek policy changes including Medicaid reform and permitting updates to gain support from conservative members for any spending increase. House Democrats, having backed off recurring transit funding demands, say they need other priorities addressed.
The capital gamble
The capital to operations transfer leaves PRT with no mechanism to replenish the $110 million borrowed from its infrastructure budget. The agency has no plans to supplement the remaining $57.9 million capital budget.
During the board’s Sept. 18 committee meeting, board Chair Jennifer Liptak asked which projects would continue after the transfer. PRT officials said safety-critical work and federally funded projects would proceed, including zero-emission bus purchases and Panhandle Bridge improvements, but deferred on providing a complete list of canceled projects.
The capital transfer protects van services that Kelleman said serve “thousands of people who get to work, get to dialysis, get to grocery stores,” and maintains bus routes that 220,000 daily riders depend on.
But advocates say avoiding cuts isn’t progress. “It is not enough to say that the goal is the status quo. … We have been subjected to years of cuts,” Laura Chu Wiens, executive director of Pittsburghers for Public Trans, saying service has dropped almost 40% since 2007.
“People are relieved that we’re not going to see further harm. But without a vision for what improvement looks like, there’s also no sense of victory or progress.”
Correction (9/26): PRT’s standard fare is $2.75. An earlier version of this story included an incorrect fare.
Editor’s note (9/29): This story was amended to include news of an agreement to preserve service to stores at The Waterfront.
Brian Nuckols is an investigative journalist based in Pittsburgh. His reporting focuses on U.S. politics, local government and technology, with a particular interest in how powerful institutions shape the lives of vulnerable communities. His work has appeared in The Lever, PublicSource, Jacobin and Pirate Wires. He can be reached at brianjnuckols@gmail.com or on X at @briannuckols13.
