Pittsburgh Regional Transit seeks feedback on final proposed bus route updates
Pittsburgh Regional Transit's final proposed Bus Line Refresh is here, and the mass transit agency wants to hear what you think about it.
The refresh aims to update a bus network that, according to PRT's Adam Brandolph, hasn't significantly changed in the better part of 15 years.
"Travel patterns have changed over that time," Brandolph, the deputy chief communications officer of PRT, said in an interview with KDKA-TV News. "Communities have grown, communities have unfortunately, in some cases, collapsed. And so we want to make sure that we have a modern system that people can rely on."
Public comment on the proposal opens Monday and runs through Sept. 30. The final proposed refresh incorporates more than 20,000 comments received over the past three years of the process.
"It's shorter routes, more frequent service, if I had to sum it up in as few words as possible," said Brandolph.
He said the challenge was tackling all these changes without increasing service hours for drivers.
"We got to a point where we're still serving 99.4% of our current riders, and then we're able to expand service with the same resources that we have today," Brandolph said.
People can take a look at the final proposed Bus Line Refresh on the PRT's website.
There are multiple opportunities for public comment over the next 45 days. The public can submit their thoughts through the PRT's comment form. There is a virtual information session happening Tuesday, Aug. 18, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Formal public comment will not be accepted during this session.
There are two public hearings where comments will be accepted: Aug. 25 and Sept. 10, from 9 a.m. to noon and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Heinz 57 Building on Sixth Avenue. Riders can also send an email, leave a comment via voicemail, or send a comment form via U.S. Mail.
After the public comment period ends on Sept. 30, the board will formally review the plan and public feedback, with a vote anticipated in November 2026. If the plan is approved, service changes will take place in the second half of 2027.
"The point of mass transit is to serve as many people as possible," Brandolph said. "We made sure that we were going to the places where people live, where people are going, and providing that reliability in terms of more frequent service."
