Regional transit bus in Pittsburgh in the Oakland district in the city (Katie Blackley/Wesa)
Regional transit in Pittsburgh hopes to avoid huge cuts of services and a tariff raise, which he planned for next year, instead using a state fund usually used to pay for infrastructure investments.
At the end of Friday, the State Transport Department approved the agency’s request to attract almost $ 107 million from the Public Transport Fund and employ it to cover operating expenses.
The approval came only a day after PRT asked for a transfer. The PRT management must properly change its budget this month, but the traffic allows the transit system to avoid a 35 percent reduction in services and tariff increases by 9%, Both were to take place in February.
“I want to thank Penndot for a quick review and accepting our request,” said Cathy Catholic Kellleman in a statement. “This approval gives us a breathing room that we need to protect our riders and keep our region.”
Each country in the country has a certain form of budget – except for Pennsylvania and Michigan
But although this agent will probably avoid what Kelleman previously called “catastrophic cuts and tariff growth,” there is little joy about this movement.
“This is not an ideal solution, but our best option is to protect our riders,” said Kelleman in a statement after PRT submitted the application.
During the prolonged budget struggle and in the absence of financing, the transit agency had few other options except in question of the governor Josh Shapiro and the Department of Transport of the State for the approval of the transfer.
Usually, money in the capital fund is intended for investments in infrastructure projects. But state law allows the largest transit agencies in the country to cover money to cover operating expenses. And the PRT claims that money-with other local, federal and reserve funds-would stop stopping cuts and tariffs in the agency’s tax year in 2026-27.
SEPTA, a transit agency serving the Philadelphia area, has already had a similar application approved by state officials. But PRT claims that traffic may delay some capital projects – although not those that need system security. And transit activists and local officials say that this is not much more than the Stopgap meter, which would not be necessary if the state provided regular transit financing.
The impasse of the state budget is in the third month among guerrilla differences. The original version of the Shapiro budget provided transit financing, but the plan was plunged in the differences between the democrats and the Senate Republicans who control the upper room.
“I am glad that Shapiro’s governor, Penndot and PRT are taking steps to ensure that transit riders maintain a reliable, inexpensive service,” said Jay Costa in a statement, who runs the Democrats Senate. “Still, I am very frustrated that the Republicans of the Senate refuse their role to ensure a balanced source of financing for our basic public transport systems.”
Approval of the Shapiro administration by the SEPTA financing transfer gives the agency two years of a movement of a moving room
Republicans of the Senate suggested that transit agencies be based on the fund last month – An The idea that the Democrats fought withBut on which the two largest state transit systems seem to come back now. But leaders say this is not a long -term solution.
“I appreciate the need to perform this emergency option to avoid catastrophic cuts and maintain our regional economy,” said the director of Alleghena in a statement in a statement. But she said that she could not wait to find a “long -term solution that allows PRT to serve 1.2 million hard -working inhabitants of Alleghena’s Function.”
Laura CHI WIENS from the Pittsburgh transit advisor group for public transport said that this movement requires the agencies to “cannibalize” money that was intended for infrastructure projects aimed at maintaining the system in the long term.
“It is really disappointing that PRT and septa are able to delay the cutting of services,” she said.
Chu Wiens noticed that “there is a sense of relief” about the perspective of saving the Pittsburgh transit system from cuts. However, she said that the solution would only work for so long and only extend until now: transit systems in rural areas – including those that serve riders in republican districts – are also in the face of financing deficiencies, but cannot access capital funds.
“This does not solve the problem for the huge geography of the state,” she added.
