Westmoreland Transit to change bus routes to better suit needs, attract more riders

Alisia Alcala rides the bus daily to her job at Greengate Centre just a few miles away from her home in Greensburg. Just not on Sundays, when she’s on her own to get to work.

“I’d like to see Sunday service and maybe add more stops to the service. On Sundays, I have to take an Uber to work, and it costs a lot of money,” said Alcala, 37, as she sat in the Greensburg bus station.

Westmoreland County Transit Authority officials plan to make changes to the fixed-route bus system this year as part of a restructuring that is expected to spark lagging ridership.

The authority operates 18 weekday commuter and local routes and Saturday service on six routes. Buses don’t run on Sunday. More than 434,000 riders traveled on authority buses last year; ridership declined by 6 percent in 2018 and was down by about 10 percent the previous year.

The existing service was created in the late 1990s to use Greensburg as the central focus of the route structure. Authority Executive Director Alan Blahovec said 20 years later, riders are more likely to travel to various locations throughout the county than just Greensburg.

“We know people want something different than what we have now,” Blahovec said.

In addition to its Pittsburgh commuter routes, the authority operates buses to Irwin, Mt. Pleasant, Latrobe, New Kensington, Avonmore, Scottdale and Johnstown.

A comprehensive study released last summer of the authority’s operations recommended restructuring routes to add destinations — such as West Newton and Monessen — and eliminate underperforming service, such as daily trips to Johnstown.

Authority officials said they are ready to move forward and expect to hire a consulting firm to help formulate a new route system, which could be in place by this fall, Blahovec said.

“We’re open to anything and will look at all of it to see where we can spread our resources across the county,” Blahovec said.

The authority recently completed a $90,000 transit study, which, along with the county’s new comprehensive plan, found residents want improved public transportation options.

While the authority’s commuter routes to Pittsburgh remain strong, officials said its service on local and rural routes has struggled. New routes focusing on shopping and other popular locations could be added, such as more frequent trips to Westmoreland Mall, where a mini-casino is proposed.

For Tanisha Townsend, 23, of Jeannette, that means more frequent service to more locations. Townsend said she rarely takes the bus from her home in Jeannette to work in Greensburg but did so on Friday because of a vehicle breakdown.

“It seems that they don’t have a lot of stops,” Townsend said.

The proposed restructuring is expected to buttress the transit study’s finding that in addition to its Pittsburgh commuter service, routes to Greensburg, Jeannette, Irwin and Westmoreland County Community College continue to be heavily used. Planners found that routes between Avonmore and New Kensington, downtown New Kensington to the Penn State New Kensington campus, and Ligonier to Greensburg are among the least utilized.

Authority board Chairman Frank Tosto said revised routes are expected to bolster ridership.

“We want our service to be more in line with the needs of our riders,” Tosto said.

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Rich at 724-830-6293 or rcholodofsky@tribweb.com.