Editorial: Westmoreland Transit making right moves to bring back passengers

The federal CARES Act funding passed in 2020 was meant to do more than just provide stimulus checks to families and loan money to keep businesses writing paychecks.

It also was about keeping necessary services from closing down.

The Westmoreland County Transit Authority will be making use of that to keep the buses and paratransit vehicles on the roads without changing fares.

In the newly approved operating budget, the authority depends upon about $3.2 million in grants allotted in 2020. That money will make up for fares that remain depressed. Fare box revenue is estimated at just over $219,000 for the upcoming 12 months. The 2021-22 budget is $13.3 million.

Ridership has been down since the coronavirus pandemic began but has begun to recover. The transit authority operates 18 weekday and six weekend bus routes throughout Westmoreland County and commuter service into Pittsburgh.

One problem is that the number of people taking those buses already had been declining. The pandemic took a downturn and made it a freefall, dropping more than 90%.

The authority is doing the right thing — for both the people and the agency — by using the federal money to keep fares from rising.

Wooing people back to mass transit won’t happen if it costs more. The authority was awarded about $25 million from three grants over the past year. Executive Director Alan Blahovec said that money will go toward operation subsidies and capital projects.

One consideration should be a good marketing campaign to increase awareness of the options available through Westmoreland Transit, because what the authority needs most is new riders.

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

It definitely will climb over 2020 numbers. It already has. Last month, riders topped 10,500. In April 2020, it was 5,400.

But to have real recovery, the buses need to be back at pre-2019 levels, and that will require more than just not raising fares.

Because the stimulus funds are there now, but they won’t last forever.