A co-sponsorship memorandum presented by an Allegheny County state senator would “foster the creation [sic] a regional, multi-county transit authority” in southwestern Pennsylvania. It is an idea that has been explored before and one the Allegheny Institute has written about (here, here and here).
The idea typically comes around when there is a funding crisis and officials ponder why there is not a metropolitan transit agency like the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) in this part of the state. As we recently noted, SEPTA was flexed highway money and has announced service cuts and fare increases for its upcoming budget year, similar to Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT).
The most recent time consolidation was studied—in 2015 as part of the law that reformed PRT’s board and directed the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to conduct said study—the findings were not surprising.
PennDOT found that counties other than Allegheny would have to be protected from PRT’s legacy costs, it would be difficult to align labor unions and work rules and there would have to be state legislation to bring the arrangement into reality.
It is difficult to see how PRT would not overwhelm the smaller agencies. It is very likely that PRT still represents the lion’s share of passengers served and hours driven now as it did then.
The memorandum states that any legislation won’t force a merger but instead would provide incentives. Financial? From where would this money come if PRT and other mass-transit agencies across the state are clamoring for more state dollars now?
How about legislation to end transit strikes and to utilize the voluminous transit operating data that PennDOT has collected through Act 44 performance reviews to force PRT to lower its costs?
