Riders say PRT service cuts would be catastrophic: "I'm gonna have to buy a car."
Proposed cuts in service have many Pittsburgh Regional Transit riders wondering what they're going to do.
PRT says it doesn't have the money it needs to operate at the level it is right now, but many transit advocates and passengers say the cuts proposed will be catastrophic.
Nearly half of PRT bus routes are on the chopping block, fares would go up and routes that do survive will face significant service cuts.
"The amount of damage this would do to our community is incalculable," said Laura Chu Wiens, the executive director of Pittsburghers for Public Transit.
"For riders, that's access to jobs, access to grocery stores, to hospitals, to child care, and for kids going to school," she explained.
The proposed cuts could also impact the individuals using special PRT services like the paratransit service. Without it, they might be homebound.
Money problems for the PRT are nothing new.
"We've lost 20% of service in Allegheny County in the last five years of the pandemic," Chu Wiens said.
PRT cuts also include T service with the Silver Line to Library coming to an end. The Silver Line has seen trolley service for over 100 years.
Bill Wimer says he uses the Silver Line about five or six times a week.
"It's not good. There's a lot of people that need it. A lot of people ride that in the morning. You look at 5 o'clock in the morning, it's packed," Wimer said.
Advocates hope that somehow Harrisburg will find a way to fund PRT to avoid the cuts, but if past is precedent, that's not likely to happen.
"I don't know what I'm going to do. I have no idea. I guess I'm gonna have to buy a car," Wimer said.
