Westmoreland Transit fares hold steady as officials warn of potential increases in 2023

Fares to ride Westmoreland County Transit Authority buses and paratransit vehicles will remain at current levels for now under a $15.9 million budget unanimously approved this week.

But a system overhaul — including the revamping of bus routes — is likely to spur fare increases next summer as the authority plots a course to reinvent itself in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, board members said.

“We just can’t wait any longer to figure out what we can and can’t do with our resources and how we can better serve the county,” authority Executive Director Alan Blahovec said.

The 2022-23 fiscal year budget, which starts in July, carries a $4.5 million operating shortfall that will be offset through funds received as part of the federal government’s covid relief grants. The authority balanced its last two budgets using portions of the pandemic relief grants and expects to have just $500,000 remaining from those funds next summer.

Ashley Cooper-Brounce, the authority’s financial director, said the new budget factors in a full slate of services for the fixed-route and shared-ride programs. During the pandemic, dwindling ridership and driver shortages necessitated cuts to the fixed-route bus service, which includes daily commuter service to Pittsburgh.

The authority had nearly 400,000 bus riders in 2019. Ridership fell dramatically in 2020 to 157,000 during the first year of the pandemic and continued to drop in 2021, when it carried 137,000 passengers.

Ridership has inched upward during the first four months of 2022, and authority officials estimate it will see about 145,000 passengers this year.

Fare box revenue from the fixed-route service is expected to generate $282,000 in the year ahead, which is about 3% of the authority’s operating revenue. Money from fares accounted for about 18% of the authority’s revenue before the pandemic, Cooper-Brounce said.

The authority last increased fixed-route bus fares in 2013.

“We have gone too long without raising fares,” Blahovec said.

Meanwhile, fares for the authority’s shared-ride system, which provides door-to-door service to elderly, low-income and disabled individuals, represents about 15% of that program’s revenues.

Officials said shared-ride fares could be increased in January.

Ridership on that system averaged more than 15,000 a month before the pandemic. The monthly average of riders is about 10,000. Blahovec said the authority caps the service to account for an ongoing driver shortage.

The new budget for both systems assumes service levels will return to pre-pandemic levels and 27 vacant driver jobs will be filled, officials said.

Meanwhile, what the authority’s bus service will look like after next summer is to be determined. The authority operates a fleet of 41 buses on its fixed-route service, providing 18 weekday and six Saturday routes.

A service plan study completed in 2019 found the authority’s Pittsburgh commuter service and routes to Greensburg, Jeannette, Irwin and Westmoreland County Community College were favored by riders. Meanwhile, planners concluded routes between Avonmore and New Kensington, downtown New Kensington and the Penn State New Kensington campus and Ligonier and Greensburg are among the least utilized.

Initial plans called for the authority to continue its commuter service, focus on more local routes and potentially add service to shopping centers and other popular locations, including Westmoreland Mall, where a casino opened in 2020.

Those plans were never implemented and are obsolete, Blahovec said.

Blahovec said the authority expects to appoint a consultant this year hired by PennDOT to evaluate the system’s resources and demand, as well as to help craft a new route structure and service plan.

“This is an opportunity for the transit authority to really get out there, and I would be very aggressive with it,” board member Dan DeBone said.