There are lots of opportunities for better, cost-effective bus service in Allegheny County, a consultant has told Port Authority officials.

"The most popular route seems to be 'To Garage' " on bus destination signs, said Geoffrey Slater, of Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates Inc., at yesterday's authority Planning and Development Committee meeting.

The authority is paying the national firm up to $800,000 to analyze and help revamp the agency's bus routes under the Connect '09 Initiative that began nearly two years ago. The initiative has incorporated "scorecards" to evaluate ridership, followed by a series of regional open house meetings.

About a year from now, the authority plans to start making major changes intended to create a more user-friendly system, attract more riders and reflect up-to-date demographics and developments.

"We are being challenged to improve our efficiency," authority Chief Executive Officer Steve Bland said. "We hope this [Connect '09] brings people to the table in a constructive manner rather than an obstructive manner."

The existing bus system hasn't been significantly redesigned since the authority began operating in 1964.

The Pennsylvania Transportation Funding and Reform Commission strongly recommended two years ago that the authority improve productivity and operating efficiencies. Since then, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato has made that recommendation a condition of releasing more than $27 million a year in local funding.

While Nelson/Nygaard said the authority provides comprehensive and "very good to excellent" service in some areas, the consultant identified 10 categories that suggest major changes are long overdue. Some examples:

• Complicated service. The 187 bus routes vary by time of day, direction and/or trip -- a total of 1,400 variants that are confusing to riders.

• Long routes. They extend outward into areas where transit ridership is very low. In some cases, a bus driver makes only a single rush-hour trip during a shift.

• Overlapping service. Many routes compete for the same riders. For example, five different routes operate between Monroeville and Downtown, and between Turtle Creek/East Pittsburgh and Downtown.

• Too many stops. The 187 routes have more than 16,000 stops. Some have 18 stops per mile, or one every 300 feet on average. Stopping frequently slows service.

• Inefficient scheduling. Many routes are scheduled with large amounts of unproductive time. Operating 28X service to Robinson Town Centre and Pittsburgh International Airport out of the East Liberty Garage instead of the Collier Garage could save $300,000 a year.

• Poor coordination. Not only do routes 61A, 61B, 61C and 61F operate on the same alignment, some buses run back-to-back, followed by a gap in service, meaning some trips are underutilized while others are overcrowded.

Another area identified by the consultant was too much specialized service, including two routes that carry only 10 riders a day on average.

"We're developing a list of potential changes for every route," based on principles that will ultimately improve the bus system, Mr. Slater said. "Transit isn't the first choice of many people, so it has to be made as simple, easy and efficient as we can make it."

Once reconfigured service and routes are determined, the authority plans to disclose them at another series of regional meetings, probably in February or March.

The redesigned system is tentatively expected to go into effect late next year.