John Heller, Post-Gazette
	Passengers board a Port Authority CL bus yesterday on Smithfield Street, Downtown. The route is one slated to be eliminated.

Alisa Stroud rides two buses every morning from her home in Brentwood to her job in Wilkinsburg. She's gotten to know many of the riders alongside her, in part because they share an oncoming inconvenience -- the bus cuts proposed, and yesterday modified, by the Port Authority of Allegheny County.

Both of Ms. Stroud's buses, the 46A and the BR Brentwood Flyer, were originally slated for elimination. Instead, as part of a recommendation that scales cuts from 25 percent to 15 percent, both routes will remain in operation, but with fewer trips.

In recent months, regulars on those buses talked many mornings about the changes. Some attended public meetings. Many signed petitions. Ms. Stroud spoke with those who feared they would have to relocate or change jobs, just so they could continue to use the bus system.

Now, amid uncertainty about how route reductions will change day-to-day commuting, Ms. Stroud has only one contingency plan: "Pray," she said. "I am going to ask God to intervene.

"People who ride the bus -- you have senior citizens, children, people who are handicapped," she continued. "I know people who are blind who ride my bus. All of our city officials will fight for entertainment, for the Penguins. They showed this. And yet they can't fight for people who have to work for a living? If city officials can pull together during a crisis, this, to me, is a crisis for our city."

Many regular bus riders interviewed yesterday expressed concerns similar to those held in earlier days and weeks; route eliminations, no matter the percentage, still would prompt a change in routine.

Rita Karkowski, who waited during early afternoon rush hour yesterday for the 41A -- a route recommended for elimination -- said that "I'll have to change my whole life" once the changes take place June 17. Right now, she catches the bus on Pioneer Avenue every morning at 6:30. It drops her off right in front of her office building on Sixth Avenue.

Without the 41A, she would have to leave for work much earlier or much later on a different bus. And she'd find herself, potentially, caught in rush hour -- something she now escapes most days, leaving work at 3:35 p.m., excited to spend time with her grandson.

"The bottom line is, 15 percent is still 15 percent," said Amanda Zeiders, chairwoman of the volunteer group Save Our Transit. "We still want no net service cuts. This is still unacceptable. They're still trying to fix the service by cutting routes, and that's wrong, because there will be communities that are cut off."

Some who had braced for route eliminations saw the recommendations revoked. In the original proposal, a sliver of the 51C -- the Prospect Park and Green Meadows route -- was slated for elimination. Now, that service will be retained. That means, among other things, that rider Sean Scapes might still be able to catch his 5:35 a.m. bus to work.

He'd feared he might have to wake up a half-hour earlier every day to accommodate the route's change.

Michael Langley, chief executive officer of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, said the proposed changes "are not simply cuts, but recommendations adapted from suggestions made by the public to create new, more efficient routes to replace obsolete routes, and to examine the use of trunk-and-feeder routes.

"Taken together, these steps -- and others to come -- demonstrate that ... the Port Authority [has] begun to execute a realistic turnaround plan," he said.