Elimination of the P76 Lincoln Highway Flyer and the re-working of bus routes near Penn Hills were top of mind for public transit riders at a virtual town hall this week as Pittsburgh Regional Transit pushes ahead with an update of its bus routes.
The plan — dubbed the Bus Line Refresh — would cut 13 routes across the agency’s 98-route footprint, including four that extend into Pittsburgh’s southern and southeastern suburbs.
The update is meant to restore ridership and increase reliability amid an uncertain funding future for the agency. If approved by the Pittsburgh Regional Transit board in the fall, changes could be implemented as early as next year.
PRT is asking for public feedback, after an earlier version found a lukewarm public reception in 2024. The agency’s move to update its network started in 2023, in a plan then known as the Bus Line Redesign and aimed to be a cost-neutral, sweeping redesign.
That plan would have modified every route in PRT’s network, including 22 that would have been cut. Thirteen routes would’ve also been added — including new routes from suburbs to Downtown — and it would have also created “transit hubs” to help facilitate transfers outside of Downtown.
PRT then received around 12,000 comments, with riders and transit advocacy groups saying that the rework would disrupt many riders’ daily commutes.
Laura Chu Wiens, executive director of Pittsburghers for Public Transit, said in an interview that the original redesign failed to recognize that riders had shaped their lives around the existing network. The organization advocates on behalf of transit users.
The redesign meets the cliff
The redesign plan was put on ice in 2025, when PRT faced a $100 million budget deficit that would’ve caused the largest service cut in decades, including the elimination of 40 routes. PRT put the redesign efforts on hold while it stared down the “fiscal cliff.”
The cliff was averted for the near future when the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation allowed the agency to use up to $106.7 million in state capital funds to cover operating expenses. Still, the agency faces another fiscal cliff in 2029 if it can’t come up with new funding.
PRT released its latest bus line proposal in March, heavily incorporating feedback from the original redesign plan. The agency’s Chief Executive Officer Katharine Kelleman said the original plan was “too much, too fast” in a statement, and characterized the new plan as a “refresh” as opposed to a large-scale redesign.
The agency is hosting a series of community meetings throughout the spring to get feedback on the proposal. Riders can also send an email to BusLineRedesign@RidePRT.org or submit a survey here.
South would lose routes, Moon would gain
PRT’s new plan is more modest than the original one. Still, almost every route is modified in some way. It would shift 10% of the agency’s service hours — a term describing when buses are picking up passengers — toward higher-demand areas, like Downtown and Oakland. PRT focused on improvements in more transit-dependent neighborhoods.
Under the plan, 99% of current riders remain within a quarter mile of transit service, according to a news release from the agency.
Chu Wiens said some areas most impacted by the refresh include Pittsburgh’s southern suburbs. Routes that are losing service or seeing significantly reduced service include North Baldwin and Whitehall. Cuts include four routes in southeastern Allegheny County:
- P7 McKeesport Flyer
- P76 Lincoln Highway Flyer
- Y45 Baldwin Manor Flyer
- Y47 Curry Flyer.
Those four routes have seen a significant drop in ridership since the pandemic, like the rest of PRT’s system. The P7 McKeesport Flyer, for instance, went from serving nearly 700 daily weekday riders in 2019, according to PRT data, to less than half that level last year.
Overall PRT ridership has cratered since the pandemic, falling from a high of around 65 million in fiscal year 2019 to about 37 million in fiscal year 2025, according to a PRT annual report.
Other cuts include the 65 Squirrel Hill, P16 Penn Hills Flyer and the 2 Mount Royal.
Emily Provonsha, PRT’s manager of service development, said at the May 6 virtual meeting that the goal of the refresh is to better use the transit agency’s limited resources by shifting away from low-ridership routes. The eliminated segments serve less than 1% of PRT’s current ridership, according to Provonsha.
The biggest winners include western suburbs Moon and Robinson, as well as communities in the North Hills, including Emsworth and West View, according to Chu Wiens. Carrick and Brentwood are also benefiting from new direct routes.
‘Crushing blow’ in Penn Hills, but East Liberty access for Carrick
PRT hopes that the “refresh” will increase frequency across the network and in turn boost the cratering ridership, according to an agency report.
Much of the service that’s cut from Pittsburgh’s sprawling southern neighborhoods and suburbs would be replaced with modified routes.
For instance, the P76 along Jack’s Run Road in White Oak would be shifted to a new route that runs along Fifth Avenue in McKeesport, about three miles west.
At Wednesday’s virtual public meeting, residents voiced concerns about the elimination of the P76 and the frequency and reliability of the new routes meant to fill in gaps.
Also a concern for residents was the elimination of the P17 Lincoln Park Flyer. Penn Hills resident Nicole Olen said cutting the route, which runs from the East Hills to Downtown, would be a “big, crushing blow” to the area. PRT’s plan replaces the route with three new, related routes, but a portion of the P17’s current footprint near Chaske Street in Penn Hills wouldn’t be covered by any of them.
Under PRT’s plan, some southern suburbs would see more expansive one-seat routes to high-demand areas. Mt. Lebanon would get a new direct route to Oakland. Other communities that would see expanded service include Brentwood and Millvale.
The nine new routes in the plan include the proposed N72 from Penn Hills to Monroeville Mall and the O45 from Carrick to East Liberty.
Lucas Dufalla will start as the southern communities reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source in late May and can be reached at lucdufalla@gmail.com.
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