Westmoreland Transit to use federal grants to keep bus fares steady, for now

Fares to ride Westmoreland County Transit Authority buses and paratransit vehicles will remain unchanged under a new operating budget approved this week.

The spending plan relies heavily on federal stimulus grants as revenues continue to lag more than a year after the coronavirus pandemic caused a dramatic drop-off in passenger levels.

The $13.3 million budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year is balanced with the help of $3.2 million allocated through last year’s CARES Act, according to authority Executive Director Alan Blahovec.

“We’ll watch the budget as we go, but we do have funds to fill in the gaps for this budget and for another year if we had to,” Blahovec said.

The transit authority, which operates 18 weekday and six weekend bus routes throughout Westmoreland County and commuter service into Pittsburgh, said ridership inched upward in recent months but remains far below levels before the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

Fare box revenue is estimated at just over $219,000 for the upcoming 12 months.

Ridership was on the decline when the pandemic caused the numbers to dip by more than 90%. Over a six-week period in April 2019, the authority had more than 51,600 bus riders. It had fewer than 5,400 bus riders during the same period a year later.

In response, the authority cut service but, over the last 6 months, slowly restored operations. Blahovec said the authority is running at about 80% of its pre-covid service.

Passenger levels increased slightly over the past year. The authority had more than 10,500 bus riders during the last month.

“We expect ridership to grow,” authority board President Frank Tosto said.

The authority over the last year was allocated three federal stimulus grants totalling about $25 million. Blahovec said those funds will be used to subsidize operations and for future capital projects.

The authority’s paratransit system, which provides door-to-door service to elderly, disabled and low-income riders, has rebounded over the last year but still is not back to 2019 levels. Blahovec said subsidized fares for the paratransit system are expected to generate about $297,000 this year as costs to operate the program continue to increase.

“A shared-ride (fare) increase is a potential this fall,” Blahovec said.