2 weeks Ago By Tom Riese
Public transit advocates last month warned that proposed cuts to Pittsburgh Regional Transit routes would create “ an absolute crisis .” But a Pittsburgh state senator says there’s opportunity for southwestern Pennsylvania counties to address transit needs by thinking bigger. Democratic Senate leader Jay Costa says what has worked in the Philadelphia area could benefit the public transportation users and economies in and around Pittsburgh.
Philly has had a regional transit agency since the 1960s with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. SEPTA is also facing financial uncertainty . At a policy hearing in Pittsburgh last week — and in a memo to Senate colleagues — Costa pitched the idea: Why not regionalize and create SWEPTA, for southwestern counties? “We are ripe here in southwestern Pennsylvania for a similar type of transit agency,” Costa said in an interview Monday.
Leaders need to be “ahead of the curve to be able to create a system that allows for greater interconnectivity” with transit systems across the state facing funding shortfalls. The move could benefit economic hubs such as Greensburg, Cranberry, Beaver, and Southpointe, Costa added. “People need to be able to cross county lines.
.. to get to and from these locations” for work, without multiple bus transfers, Costa said.
The idea would face its own challenges: Each transit agency has its own leadership, and an agency like SEPTA would have only one chief executive. Katharine Kelleman, who heads Pittsburgh Regional Transit, said examples from elsewhere in the U.S.
have shown that “consolidating agencies doesn't necessarily save you a lot of administration, but it opens you up to a [larger] footprint” for routes. But “people don't care who signs their bus driver's paycheck,” Kelleman said at last week’s hearing. “ They just want to know if they can get from [point] A to [point] B.
” Costa, the top Senate Democrat, will need the support of his Republican colleagues, who control the chamber, to consider the proposal in the Senate Transportation committee. And it’s unclear how they would respond to the bill. But Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman — whose district includes the counties of Armstrong, Indiana, and parts of Westmoreland and Jefferson — said Costa’s idea has his attention.
"While there are an extensive number of details to consider, addressing transit needs of the region with a streamlined and more efficient system, which can give greater access to rural communities, warrants a serious look,” Pittman told WESA in a statement. The idea isn’t new. Costa, a member of the state legislature for nearly 30 years, says a southwestern Pennsylvania regional transit agency has been talked about since at least the late ’90s.
Former state House member Joseph Markosek, who chaired the House Transportation Committee, recommended funding a study on a potential SWEPTA in 2005, according to a Post-Gazette article at the time. Markosek was a board member of the Allegheny County Port Authority and intended to use his influence to convince stakeholders. But, “it did not happen,” Costa said.
“That’s the reason why we’re looking at it now.” Current transit systems may already be running along the same streets, but unable to collaborate — a point that frustrates Costa. In his Forest Hills neighborhood, for example, Costa often sees a Westmoreland Transit bus hurry past a PRT bus stop without picking up passengers, because “it’s not permitted.
” “Those are the types of efficiencies we need to put into place that allow us the opportunity to be more regional, and be more thoughtful.” Julia Fraser contributed reporting..
