Downtown: Bus-free?

[that412]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

PAT was doing that on a few routes, not so terribly long ago. They paired the Bellevue/West View trips with the Highland Park route- for a West View to Aspinwall route.

PAT gave up on the idea, but maybe it will come back.

They gave up on it because it's a terrible idea. As Moby Hick pointed out, it's the long, meandering routes that kill PAT's efficiency. Making the routes even longer and more meandering is not moving in the right direction.

What really should happen is the 61C should only run from McKeesport to Sq Hill, coupled with every-5-minute-or-less peak service from Sq Hill to Downtown.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by that412

What really should happen is the 61C should only run from McKeesport to Sq Hill, coupled with every-5-minute-or-less peak service from Sq Hill to Downtown.

They've moved a bit in that directly lately. There is now a 61D variant at evening rush hour that runs from Oakland to Greenfield and no further. It does reduce the waiting times and crowds by a fair bit. I think that if they tried to completely separate the portion of the 61C that served McKeesport from the rest of the route in the current funding environment, people would assume this was a prelude to cutting service to poorer areas. I think people might be right about that.

[that412]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

I think that if they tried to completely separate the portion of the 61C that served McKeesport from the rest of the route in the current funding environment, people would assume this was a prelude to cutting service to poorer areas. I think people might be right about that.

In an ideal world, pretty much all lengthy suburban service would be truncated at certain transfer points, regardless of whether those routes serve rich suburbs or poor suburbs. Core service would be stacked to the point where transferring would be such a breeze, people wouldn't think twice about having to do it. Wishful thinking, most likely.

[Blackbeauty212]

McKeesport should be a Transit Hub in its own right.....with a Trunk line that runs between Mckeesport and Duquesne via Rankin Bridge to the Busway for express service to Downtown and people going to Oakland can transfer at Swissvale to the P3..

There should still be a 61C that runs between Kennywood and Downtown...people wanting local service i.e Homestead, Greenfield, Sq Hill can transfer from the Mckeesport express to the 61C at Kennywood. With the 61C shortened, it and the 61D should have each 10 min headways during the rush hour, meaning where the 61C and D are the same route service would be every 5 mins.

Service from Forbes & Murray where you have 61ABCD service headways at a combined should never be more than 2.5 mins, giving each branch 10min service headways.