After two rounds of bus stop consolidations that drew criticism, Port Authority announced Thursday it will pause to review the process before it examines the next set of routes.
The authority announced final decisions on stops that will be removed on the 88 Penn and 48 Arlington routes with only minor changes from stops initially recommended for elimination. Then Phillip St. Pierre, the agency's director of service planning and scheduling, told a board committee his staff will take a break from its three-month cycle and will delay implementing the next set of stop changes until September.
Mr. St. Pierre said the break will give the agency time to evaluate the procedure it has been using and allow more time to examine stops before recommending changes. In the future, the agency likely will review four routes over a six-month period until it finishes all 98 routes and more than 7,000 stops.
The agency is reviewing stops to eliminate those that are dangerous or redundant. The goal is to improve the on-time performance for bus service, which has been below the average for agencies of similar size.
But it has been taking heat from groups and individual riders for not involving the public in the process until after it reviews stops and recommends eliminations. Officials say their experience has shown that riders don’t respond to meetings about eliminating bus stops unless they know theirs is on the chopping block.
After the first round of changes last fall, Mr. St. Pierre said his staff increased the number of information cards it passed out to riders, allowed for more feedback from operators about stops and updated its rider survey to get better information. They will review the process again before the next route reviews, he said.
“That’s definitely good news,” said Dan Yablonsky, spokesman for Pittsburghers for Public Transit, which has criticized the review process. “It’s incredibly important the Port Authority is listening and paying attention to groups and its customers on such an important issue.”
Christina Howell, executive director of the Bloomfield Development Corp., agreed. That agency was able to convince the authority not to eliminate a stop it considered important on the 88 Penn route at Penn Avenue and Millvale Street.
“That is wonderful news,” Ms. Howell said. “We’re happy the bus stop was retained. But the system needs to be looked at and adjusted.”
In the end, the authority will eliminate 20 of the 92 stops on the 88 Penn, which runs from Downtown Pittsburgh to Point Breeze. It originally proposed 22 eliminations but will continue the stop at Penn Avenue and Millvale Street in both directions.
For the 48 Arlington, which runs from Downtown to Beltzhoover via South Side and currently has 112 stops, the agency will eliminate 21 stops instead of 23. Stops will continue at Josephine and Salisbury streets and at East Carson and 25th streets.
Ed Blazina: eblazina@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1470 or on Twitter @EdBlazina.
First Published: February 20, 2020, 4:30 p.m.