Westmoreland bus service keeps fares the same despite ridership, revenue drop

Westmoreland County Transit Authority bus fares will remain unchanged as the agency continues to deal with revenue declines related to state funding cuts and the ongoing loss of riders.

Authority officials have approved a new $12.4 million operating budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year, balanced by the transfer of about $385,000 from a $2 million reserve account. The budget is split between fixed-route bus service and shared-rides that are part of the authority’s paratransit system that provides door-to-door service for elderly, handicapped and low-income riders who qualify for social service programs.

“Our fare revenues decreased by about 8 percent last year due to a decrease in ridership,” said authority Finance Director Ashley Cooper.

Ridership on the authority’s fixed-route bus system, which includes local service throughout Westmoreland County and commuter trips to Pittsburgh, have been on the decline for three years. During the 2016-17 fiscal year, the authority’s 18 weekday and six Saturday routes carried more than 473,000 riders. Those numbers dipped the following year to 434,000. For the fiscal year ending June 30, the total number of riders is expected to be about 415,000.

In all, the authority’s bus service has seen ridership drop nearly 14 percent over the last three years.

Officials said they have no explanation for the ridership drop. Fewer passengers has resulted in about $150,000 less in revenue generated through fares.

Fares and co-payments for travel on the authority’s bus and paratransit shared-ride service account for about $1.2 million, or about 10 percent of the agency’s total budget, Cooper said.

Most of the authority’s operating revenue, about 84 percent, comes from state and federal grants. State funding was frozen this year at $3.6 million. Just 3 percent of the authority’s budget comes from local assessments, totaling $394,000 from Westmoreland County and 31 local municipalities where the authority provides service.

Reversing the ridership loss has been an ongoing issue. A $90,000 study of authority service completed last summer resulted in a number of recommendations that included expanding bus service to locales such as West Newton and Monessen as well as more outside-the-box ideas such as establishing a ride-sharing program similar to that offered by popular services such as Uber.

The authority’s current route structure has been in place for about two decades.

Operations Director Meghan Yuhouse said officials have started working on revised routing for authority buses, changes that could be implemented in 2020.

“It’s going to be a balance because we don’t want to alienate our current riders, but we want to open the door to new potential riders who want our service,” Yuhouse said.