The Post-Gazette reports that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has committed to providing $99.95 million to Pittsburgh’s $225 million Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Project to run, primarily, between Downtown and Oakland.
Sans a $27 million funding gap that the Port Authority of Allegheny County expects to be filled with foundation grants, the FTA commitment represents the last piece of the funding equation.
Now the questions become if the Port Authority can build this project for the (latest) stated amount and if the much-touted electric buses that are to serve the route will prove to be as efficacious, mechanically and in operation, as billed.
But already there have been problems with this project – problems that always seem to arise with government transit initiatives.
The BRT began life as a $195.5 million way to expedite travel between the Golden Triangle and the robust Oakland business and university community.
Then that cost swelled by more than $50 million to $249.9 million.
Then about $25 million was lopped off the sticker price, money that originally was for underground utility and storm sewer work on Fifth and Forbes avenues in the Uptown district. As the P-G adroitly reminds:
“That work, along with new sidewalks, street lights and repaving, had been a major selling point for the project.”
Additionally, the BRT project runs the risk of beginning operation, then having a now-delayed, city-led road reconstruction along the route disrupt service.
Then there’s the issue of those electric buses. The original plan was to have 25 of the vehicles that, at about $1 million each, cost almost twice as much as conventional transit buses.
A few of those buses now are being tested. If they are up to the task remains to be seen.
How will they operate in hot summer weather requiring further battery drain because of air conditioning? The same goes for winter heating.
Will they be able to command Pittsburgh’s hills?
How often will they have to be charged? And for how long?
Current testing should answer those questions. But, if they are not up to snuff, what happens then?
Make no mistake, the decision to use buses instead of the incredibly costly and less efficient light-rail system save tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars.
But there also are critical BRT operations questions that must be addressed. The major one that comes to mind will be the cost.
Will the Port Authority attempt to use the BRT to finally slay bus operating costs that historically have been out of whack with peer transit agencies around the country?
If so, what’s the plan?
It is cliched to say but “time will tell” if the BRT project has been a wise use of public transit dollars or if it is a boondoggle akin to the light-rail North Shore Connector that supporters continue to defend, though with few statistics to back up their accolades.
And that’s typically part of the problem with public transit projects – carts before horses with fancy sales pitches, sometimes loosey-goosey design and operational standards and the First National Bank of John & Jane Q. Taxpayer forced to underwrite it all.
There has to be a better way.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
