New park-and-ride open in New Stanton

Starting April 1, Westmoreland County Transit Authority riders will be able to catch the bus in New Stanton.

That’s when the transit agency’s new park-and-ride lot will open at the corner of Bair Boulevard and North Center Avenue, near the reconstructed Route 70 interchange. It will service the authority’s 3F commuter route between Mt. Pleasant and Pittsburgh.

“It’s our least utilized commuter route and we’re always looking for ways to increase ridership on that route,” said Meghan Yuhouse, the authority’s director of operations.

The weekday route, which operates two morning runs to Pittsburgh and one afternoon trip back to Mt. Pleasant, travels through New Stanton and North Huntingdon. It averaged 61 daily riders in February, although a majority of those passengers caught the bus at the authority’s park-and-ride lot in North Huntingdon, Yuhouse said.

The new lot, which will hold up to 30 vehicles, was built by PennDOT as part of the construction project completed last year that reconfigured and consolidated several exit ramps in the New Stanton area section of Route 70. The park-and-ride facility was turned over to the authority, Yuhouse said.

It becomes the authority’s seventh park-and-ride facility, but just the second one owned by the transit agency. The authority also owns the 300-car lot on Carpenter Lane in North Huntingdon. Park-and-ride lots in Mt. Pleasant, South Greensburg, Irwin, Greensburg and Delmont are leased by the authority.

Yuhouse said a project to repave and line the North Huntingdon park-and-ride lot is currently being planned and could be completed next spring.