Ridership rose 6 percent on 12 bus routes that received additional service last year, Port Authority reported Friday. Its data for the second half of last year also show a trend of increased bus ridership systemwide as it continues to repair the damage from service cuts made in 2011 because of budget problems, the authority said.
The American Public Transportation Association reported this week that Port Authority ridership was down by 1.26 percent last year, but the data showed that all of the decline came in the first three months of 2014, when bitter winter weather interrupted work schedules.
“It’s heading in the right direction,” said Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, who has pushed the transit agency to become more customer-friendly. “We’ve seen progress and we’ll continue to see progress.”
On Aug. 31, the authority made changes to 22 routes, including extra trips on 12 of them, to ease overcrowding that followed the 2011 service cuts. It was able to add service because of increased funding from Act 89, the transportation measure approved by the state Legislature in 2013.
Ridership on those routes rose 6 percent after the changes and helped to fuel a systemwide bus ridership gain of 1.8 percent in the last three months of 2014, the authority reported.
Spokesman Jim Ritchie said the authority is “very encouraged” by ridership gains coming so quickly after the changes were made. He said the agency expects to add more service later this year.
Before doing so, it will develop guidelines for evaluating requests for additional service or restoration of routes that were eliminated in 2011, he said. Residents of two communities that lost their routes, Baldwin Borough and the Groveton section of Robinson, have appeared at several authority board meetings to ask that service be restored.
Mr. Fitzgerald cautioned that the additional state funding will not pay for dramatic increases in transit service. It was meant primarily to stabilize existing service with “tweaks” to improve it, he said.
Last year’s changes included added trips on the 61 series routes that travel on Forbes Avenue through Oakland. The routes, which are among the most heavily traveled in the system, all posted ridership gains in the last three months of 2014.
Ridership on the 61A North Braddock was up 6.4 percent; on 61B Braddock-Swissvale, 4.5 percent; 61C McKeesport-Homestead, 11.4 percent; and 61D Murray, 3.3 percent.
Extensions made to two routes brought the biggest percentage gains.
The 75 Ellsworth route was extended from its former terminus at Bakery Square in Larimer through Morningside to the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, Aspinwall and Waterworks Mall, with greater service frequency. Ridership went up 55.9 percent.
The 93 Lawrenceville-Oakland route was renamed the 93 Lawrenceville-Hazelwood and extended to reach Greenfield, Hazelwood and Glen Hazel, providing residents with direct connections to Schenley Park, Oakland, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and Lawrenceville. Its ridership soared 68.5 percent.
On the 51 Carrick route, one of the most crowded, the authority added 11 weekday trips, 18 Saturday trips and two Sunday trips. Ridership rose by 3.2 percent.
First Published: March 14, 2015, 4:00 a.m.