Westmoreland transit authority looks to bump up local bus service - TribLIVE

soworos.blogspot.com

A portion of Westmoreland County’s local bus service, slowed because of the coronavirus pandemic, will be restored in September.

Westmoreland County Transit Authority Executive Director Alan Blahovec said Tuesday that an informal survey of riders determined an interest in added public transportation for routes that run within the county.

Specifics about which routes are earmarked for resumption won’t be unveiled for another few weeks and implementation of the revised schedule will be sometime next month.

“We cut back at the beginning of the pandemic and, now, we’ve had some requests for some additional service. We’re looking at that in an attempt to get back to a more normal service. We’re working on a plan,” Blahovec said.

The authority currently operates 18 daily routes on Monday through Friday and another six on Saturday. Since March, at the outset of the pandemic, ridership on all routes, including commuter service into Pittsburgh, has seen dramatic declines.

Ridership on all routes dropped by 73% over the last 12 months. The authority listed more than 31,000 passengers in July 2019 and just 8,200 during that same one-month period this year, Blahovec said.

Anticipated changes, which will be implemented over the next month, will include earlier and later runs on local routes throughout the county. Commuter service will continue to operate at reduced levels.

“We surveyed our commuter riders and a lot of people told us they will be staying home until at least 2021,” Blahovec said.

Additional commuter trips could be added if needed, but that service, which at one time was the transit system’s most popular, has been in decline since before the pandemic.

“I don’t know we will ever get back that commuter ridership we had. If it doesn’t come back, we can use those resources on the local service,” Blahovec said.

With reduced ridership comes less fare-box revenue. Officials said $7 million in federal covid-relief funds will enable the authority to continue operations amid the declining ridership caused by the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Go Westmoreland, authority’s paratransit door-to-door shared ride program for elderly and low income residents, has continued to operate during the pandemic albeit with fewer riders. The program has seen about a 50% drop in riders, officials said.

As a concession to the pandemic, fewer riders are being grouped together on Go Westmoreland buses while the service was amended to allow trips for curbside pickups at local stores. Blahovec said the authority has granted requests for solo ride in situations where passengers are unwilling to travel in larger groups.

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Rich at 724-830-6293, rcholodofsky@triblive.com or via Twitter .