Apr 8, 2013 2 min read

Ridership on Washington City Transit buses has risen by 12 percent in the last six months.

The increase is due, in part, to a change in bus routes, an increased presence in town and attention to customer service, explained Nancy Basile, city transit coordinator.

But new state legislation requires communities that receive transit services to play a more active role in those transit systems by providing funding for them.

Basile, and Robin Gostic, assistant transit coordinator, have been attending local municipal meetings to ask elected officials to provide additional funds to meet WCT’s match. The match is 15 percent, or $151,350, with more than $1 million projected to come from the state. Of the matching amount, $60,000 will come from a private source, leaving WCT to fund $91,350 from the eight municipalities it serves.

“I’d hate to see everything we have accomplished be for naught if we can’t secure the operating funds and we have to reduce the services that we just enhanced,” Basile told the Washington County commissioners at their meeting last week.

To date, Canton and South Strabane townships have passed resolutions supporting the request. While Canton provided the full amount WCT was asking for, $2,926, South Strabane designated $2,000 of the $13,463 requested.

WCT also is seeking the following amounts from area communities: Canonsburg, $14,383; Chartiers, $5,557; East Washington, $2,801; Houston, $7,410; North Franklin Township, $4,480; Washington, $40,331, and Washington County, $20,000.

The number of riders who board or disembark in each municipality on fixed routes between July and December were Canonsburg, 3,220; Canton, 655; Chartiers, 1,244; East Washington, 627; Houston, 659; North Franklin, 1,003; South Strabane, 3,014; and Washington, 9,029.

WCT contracts with GG&C for its bus services that include:

• The Hopper, a local fixed-route bus service that operates throughout local communities six days a week;

• The Metro: a fixed bus route service for commuters that operates between Washington and downtown Pittsburgh Monday through Friday and from Washington to South Hills Saturday;

• WCT also provides free transfers onto the Hopper, Metro and Washington Ride’s Freedom Line.

Basile, who has served as transit coordinator for the past five years, said this is the first time the transit agency has had to ask municipalities for money, but she doubts it will be the last.

The transit office is located in City Hall, but an intermodal transit facility is slated to be built near the former parking garage on East Chestnut Street.