Mt. Lebanon to CMU by public transport -- make sense? (Washington: power lines, live)

[dcraider]

Thanks for the new information. Luckily most of MTL is along the T but doesn't help me for direct service to Oakland. So in a city with good job growth and new businesses moving in (from what I read), I am surprised bus service is being cut? Is there such a short fall in the county budget? Are there any private bus companies taking up the gap? I would think this would open up great revenue for a private company to run shuttles -- but maybe its just too small of an area to worry about. Thanks everyone for the contributions.

[greg42]

There is only one route to my knowledge that was killed by the Port Authority but is now run by a private company. It's an express commuter route in the far north of Allegheny County, Marshall Township, former route 13K to downtown Pittsburgh. The private company charges $5 each way or $200 for a monthly pass. And you can't pay on board. The same company took on a similar, slightly shorter route at the same time with a minibus, but that one didn't pay its way and so was dropped. Most of the people who took that one would live a little closer to the city and a little closer to other places where people could still go get a cheaper PAT bus most likely. At the two 13K park and rides, that is the only bus service for some distance around (a few to several miles).

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by dcraider

Thanks for the new information. Luckily most of MTL is along the T but doesn't help me for direct service to Oakland. So in a city with good job growth and new businesses moving in (from what I read), I am surprised bus service is being cut? Is there such a short fall in the county budget? Are there any private bus companies taking up the gap? I would think this would open up great revenue for a private company to run shuttles -- but maybe its just too small of an area to worry about. Thanks everyone for the contributions.

In a nutshell prior county leaders promised transit workers the moon for their retirements & now those chickens have come home to roost, add in some state funding cuts & you have a system that's in a budgetary mess that relies on last minute stop gap measures from the state every year with neither political party willing to step in with a long term solution at the moment.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by UKyank

In a nutshell prior county leaders promised transit workers the moon for their retirements & now those chickens have come home to roost, add in some state funding cuts & you have a system that's in a budgetary mess that relies on last minute stop gap measures from the state every year with neither political party willing to step in with a long term solution at the moment.

The pension issues are real, but I think it's more about State Funding. After all, SEPTA didn't have the corrupt officials agreeing to the special pension perks (which they then took advantage of), and has faced essentially similar woes. The fact is that Republicans in this state seem to think no one but Democratic voters use mass transit, so there's no political fallback to cut (and they'll even get plaudits in rural areas for "sticking it to the cities."

In raw politics, this kind of makes sense. But as I said a few months back, I was shocked when I went to Cleveland (a city with only around 100,000 more people than us, in many ways in much worse shape, and in a more conservative state), how great their mass transit system was compared to ours. Three different light rail lines which went through the city and were convenient for inter-neighborhood travel. Busways which had dedicated lines right on the roads (like old trolleys). It just blew me away.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by eschaton

trolleys.

The brain trust that ditched our extensive trolley system should have been taken outside & shot back in the day.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by eschaton

In raw politics, this kind of makes sense. But as I said a few months back, I was shocked when I went to Cleveland (a city with only around 100,000 more people than us, in many ways in much worse shape, and in a more conservative state), how great their mass transit system was compared to ours. Three different light rail lines which went through the city and were convenient for inter-neighborhood travel. Busways which had dedicated lines right on the roads, like old trolleys). It just blew me away.

It still boggles my mind that we don't have a dedicated light rail line through the East End, which houses 52% of the city's population; Oakland, the state's third-largest employment center; and East Liberty, which is increasingly becoming the city's "third Downtown" and a major tech hub. Buses that chug along Fifth Avenue just aren't the same. Instead we have light rail lines that service areas like South Park?

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

It still boggles my mind that we don't have a dedicated light rail line through the East End, which houses 52% of the city's population; Oakland, the state's third-largest employment center; and East Liberty, which is increasingly becoming the city's "third Downtown" and a major tech hub. Buses that chug along Fifth Avenue just aren't the same. Instead we have light rail lines that service areas like South Park?

The South Hills got the light rail because it was the last part of the old trolley system that the Port Authority didn't raze. Originally it was going to be converted into a BRT system developed by Westinghouse called Skybus. Wiki has a good summary. In the end Skybus was defeated, and we got the downtown subway, the Light Rail in the South Hills, and the East, South, and West Busways. My understanding is the East Busway, at least, could be reconfigured to light rail again fairly easily. It runs parallel to intact freight tracks after all.

One of my co-workers intered in Mike Doyle's office back around 2000, when the decision was made to extend the East Busway into Swissvale (finished in 2003). There was an alternate plan which would have used federal funding to extend the T subway to Oakland. They decided against it, under the logic that poor people use mass transit more than the wealthy, and it was better to spend federal funds to help people who have no other transit options, rather than cater to wealthy commuters traveling from the South Hills to Oakland. In retrospect, I think it was a dumb decision, because if it had gone through, there would be an even larger community in support of mass transit in the county. In addition, it's possible that Southern Slope neighborhoods which remain in decline would have become student-dominated, and enough traffic would remain on the Brown Line that it wouldn't have been cut.

[FORGOT.PASSWORD]

Best bet: GOOGLE MAPS. Computer probably knows rough location, update by entering exact address. Search for trip to CMU using bus icon. Can also specify time of day, fastest, shortest, least walking. Usually you'll get 4 choices that include various buses from town. You'll find an option to click on detailed walking maps. Easy.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by dcraider

Thanks for the new information. Luckily most of MTL is along the T but doesn't help me for direct service to Oakland. So in a city with good job growth and new businesses moving in (from what I read), I am surprised bus service is being cut? Is there such a short fall in the county budget? Are there any private bus companies taking up the gap? I would think this would open up great revenue for a private company to run shuttles -- but maybe its just too small of an area to worry about. Thanks everyone for the contributions.

Everyone explained the budget problem. There is no private bus company competition because laws prohibit it.

[Hopes]

Amendment delays bill to allow Port Authority competitors - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette