Transit routes to change
Those who ride buses to and from Pittsburgh, around Washington, and the Freedom Line from McDonald through Cecil Township in the vicinity of Muse will see changes proposed to take effect this spring in nine local communities.
Freedom Transit, the name adopted by Washington County Transportation Authority in 2015, plans some consolidations that will result in passengers having to transfer from one line to another, and some overlapping stops eliminated.
Public meetings on the changes are planned for 3 to 6 p.m. Thursday at Heritage Public Library, 52 Fourth St., McDonald; 3 to 6 p.m. Feb. 8 at Frank Sarris Public Library, 35 N. Jefferson Ave., Canonsburg; and noon to 6 p.m. Feb. 13 at Washington Transit Center, 50 E. Chestnut St. There will also be opportunities to comment online at www.freedom-transit.org.
The state Department of Transportation had a consultant, Michael Baker Corp., analyze overlapping routes to streamline them. While the authority, which has an annual budget of $6.5 million, does not anticipate savings through the changes, Sheila Gombita, executive director, said the objective is to “try to spread around the service a little bit better to try to eliminate redundancies.”
Fixed-route service made 82,090 trips during the 2015-16 fiscal year, which ended June 30. Ridership increased 3 percent from the previous year, and during the first six months of the 2016-17 fiscal year, fixed-route service increased 5 percent over the first six months of last fiscal year, Gombita said.
Another change is that children through age 11 should soon be able to ride Washington County Transportation Authority buses free of charge.
Gombita expects the agency’s board to act on the proposed changes as soon as its March 7 meeting, with implementation tentatively scheduled for Monday, March 27.
Following are details on proposed changes.
Commuter service to Pittsburgh will no longer travel along Route 19 and Racetrack Road to Pike Street in Meadow Lands on Monday through Friday. On weekdays, the bus from Washington will enter Interstate 70/79 at East Beau Street and continue along the highway to Meadow Lands, staying on Pike Street through Houston and Canonsburg, where it will re-enter I-79 to the Southpointe park-and-ride lot.
In downtown Pittsburgh, a stop at Liberty Avenue and 10th Street will be added. The lime-green bus will travel along the Boulevard of the Allies onto Stanwix Street to Liberty Avenue for a new pickup point at the 3 Gateway Center skyscraper, which is already a designated stop for the Allegheny County Port Authority and within walking distance to the Gateway Center T station that connects to Pittsburgh’s North Shore.
On Saturdays, the Washington-to-Pittsburgh commuter bus will also take I-70/79 to the Meadow Lands exit, but it will travel to Tanger Outlets and The Meadows Racetrack and Casino along Racetrack Road. This will result in minor changes in the Saturday bus schedule which travels back and forth to the South Hills Village “T” station rather than downtown Pittsburgh.
Washington’s local “Hopper” service is being renamed “Local Line A,” which will serve Washington Hospital, Washington Park and neighborhoods along a north-south route.
The north-south line will provide service to Washington High School along Jefferson Avenue and pass the Washington County Courthouse on Main Street near the Courthouse Square office building.
Instead of “Shopper Hopper,” a Local Line B will serve shopping centers on an east-west route that will connect the Old Mill shopping complex with Trinity Point, Strabane Square and Washington Crown Center.
“Right now, we are stopping at Wal-mart 43 times a day,” Gombita said. “We are reducing that to 27, which is still a lot.”
Joe Thomas, former director of Washington City Transit who is now director of fixed-route services for Freedom Transit, said, “Some of that is a legacy, too, from when we operated as two separate agencies. Now we’re coordinating our schedules.”
The Freedom Line/County Line will eliminate service to Route 19 shopping centers Strabane Square and Trinity Point. Riders wanting to visit those centers should transfer to the Local Line B at the authority’s transit center at 50 E. Chestnut St., Washington.
There will also be two zones for fares with a boundary of Racetrack Road. Riders staying within a zone will pay $1.50 per trip and those traveling from one zone to another will pay $2.50.
Freedom Line/County Line will continue to provide weekday service to Tanger Outlets and The Meadows.
The Freedom Line/County Line route will eliminate service along part of Route 980 from Route 50 to Muse-Bishop Road, but include service to the villages of Muse, Meadow Lands and Arden; Washington Estates Mobile Home Park; plus Henderson and Jefferson avenues.
For the first time in more than a decade, the county plans to raise fares for what’s known as complementary paratransit provided under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
This program applies to persons with disabilities who are unable to use nearby fixed-route bus service.
The fare for local service will be $3, while county service will be $5. The boundary for the two zones, as with Freedom Line/County Line service, will be Racetrack Road.
Gombita said the fare is increasing because paratransit is more costly to provide than fixed-route service.
The last fare change in complementary ADA paratransit service was in 2007, when it was reduced to $1.75 from $2.20.
Participants in this program must have their eligibility verified by a physician, professional organization or agency. A participant’s status will be based on temporary or permanent disability. Personal care attendants accompanying a disabled rider also need to be certified.
Washington County Transportation Authority offers neither fixed-route or paratransit service on Sundays. It issues alerts on Twitter @WashPATransit.