On March 20 Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s (PRT) Planning and Stakeholder Relations Committee considered an “Authorization to Proceed to Public Comment Period for Fiscal Year 2026 Fare Increases and Service Reductions.”
A follow-up news release placed the blame on “state funding no longer able to meet the needs of Pennsylvania’s second-largest transit agency.” In PRT’s current budget, the Commonwealth provided $302.1 million (56 percent) of the $539 million in subsidies and operating revenues. PRT would have received an additional $40 million from a planned additional transfer of sales and use tax dollars for mass transit in this year’s state budget, which did not pass. For FY 2025-26 PRT says its anticipated deficit would be $100 million, well in excess of the amount from the transfer.
So does that mean the state will have to dig further? Note that last year the state’s largest transit agency also planned service cuts and a fare increase only for the Governor to flex $153 million in federal highway funds which delayed those actions. Similar flexes have occurred numerous times over the past two decades.
PRT board approval of the agenda item would allow public comment to commence. Up for discussion would be a fare increase of $0.25, the elimination of 41 routes, major or minor reductions to 54 routes, no change to two routes and service increases to two routes.
Of the 41 routes to be eliminated, 22 are commuter bus routes, which connect major job centers. In the presentation to the committee, PRT officials noted the service reductions prioritized eliminating very low efficiency routes first. The average percentage change of weekday riders from 2023 to 2024 for the 41 routes was a 4.5 percent increase. This ranged from a 56 percent increase to a 21 percent decrease. The average 2024 cost per rider for the routes was $20.93, ranging from $46.37 to $11.49.
The National Transit Database’s report on the top 50 mass transit agencies (in terms of ridership) shows that in 2023, PRT ranked sixth highest – of the 44 that operated buses – in terms of operating expense per revenue hour at $258.02. The average for the group excluding PRT was $188.80.
PRT clocked just over 1.4 million annual vehicle revenue hours for its bus service. If PRT was operating at the 44-agency average expense per vehicle revenue hour, its bus expenditures would amount to $267 million, or $97.9 million (26.8 percent) lower than its actual expenditure of roughly $365 million. These savings alone would cover nearly the entire deficit.
As the Allegheny Institute has shown numerous times, PRT is the architect of its own downfall. Rather than clamoring for more state funds, PRT must address its exceedingly high spending compared to peer agencies.
