Record transit fare hikes loom if state fails to hike aid
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The Port Authority is planning for record fare increases and service cuts in the event the state fails to come up with more money.
Internally, the staff is looking at consolidating fare zones and charging a single $2.50 base fare in Allegheny County; bus-trolley service reductions up to 24 percent; job eliminations and layoffs in the 3,000-employee workforce; and establishing feeder bus routes to connect to the Light Rail Transit system as an efficiency measure.
The current base fare is $1.75 in Zone 1, within an 8-mile radius of Downtown and accounting for about 80 percent of 260,000 daily rides. The base fare is $2.25 in Zone 2, covering most outer suburbs.
The cash fare also would go up 75 cents, to $3.50, where the authority operates in parts of Armstrong, Beaver, Washington and Westmoreland counties, which, unlike Allegheny, don't help subsidize authority operations.
The widely regarded ACCESS paratransit service would see similar increases, as would the Monongahela and Duquesne Heights inclines, even though the latter is operated by a nonprofit group.
If the proposals come to pass, transit fares here would be among the highest in North America, possibly as soon as Jan. 1.
Closed-door meetings about a rapidly approaching crisis and financial and political issues relating to the transit agency have been taking place for weeks between the authority and government officials.
The numbers bandied about this time reflect bigger deficits and deeper service cuts than previous crises, which were solved with Band-Aid remedies that only postponed the problems to another day.
"We're looking at everything mentioned to see what can be generated in terms of savings and additional operating incomes," Port Authority Chief Executive Officer Steve Bland said. "We need to see if they're sufficient and what will the pain factor be. You can't start and stop a transit system this big on a dime."
Some authority officials want to hold public hearings next month because Jan. 1 is the end of the federal highway funds that Gov. Ed Rendell shifted to transit, and when the authority must address a projected $31.5 million deficit in the last six months of the $347.5 million operating budget for the 2006-07 fiscal year.
Some officials at county and state levels want the authority to sit tight until after the Nov. 7 election, apparently out of deference to Mr. Rendell for his help in settling a labor contract last year and diverting funds to delay fare hikes and service cuts that were threatened two years ago.
A private, high-level meeting about transit funding and how to handle the issue was held last week with Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato.
Mr. Onorato said the Port Authority and its riders are facing "significant change" unless the state steps in and provides the long-sought dedicated source of funding.
"If public funding of transit at the state level doesn't get fixed and the costs of the authority [aren't reduced] -- it's both sides of the equation -- tweaking the fares is not going to fix the problem," he said.
"There's a bigger systematic problem there that you'll probably have a significant change in the type and quantity of service that's provided going forward, based on what's available [in funding]. I'm not prepared to give the details of what that will be, but it will be significant changes across the board."
The authority and other transit agencies around the state have been arguing for years that a stable, dedicated source of funding is the only solution to annual funding crises. A nine-member Transportation Funding and Reform Commission that is assessing the situation and will recommend potential solutions is holding a public "listening session" in Pittsburgh today at 10:30 a.m. at the Regional Enterprise Tower.
Mr. Bland said he's still optimistic that the state will find a solution. "But right now, we don't have the luxury of time. It's not prudent to sit back and [wait]," he said.
Port Authority Board Chairman Jack Brooks said he favors "going public now rather than playing politics" with the authority's funding shortfall.
"There's no easy answer," he said. "It's scary to think about what a big fare increase and [service] cuts will mean to people and the region. But this is serious, and we need to get people talking about it as soon as possible."
Mr. Onorato said he is not opposed to holding public hearings sooner rather than later as long as the Port Authority has specific recommendations to present.
"I just want to be a little careful ... that it doesn't look like a situation where we're just crying wolf," he said.
He said officials should know within the next couple weeks when hearings will start and the specific proposals that will be on the table.
The authority raised fares in 2001 and 2002. The last time, when the base rose from $1.60 to the current $1.75, it also imposed 4 percent service cuts for the second consecutive year.
The authority held federally mandated public hearings in 2003 and 2004 on proposals to increase fares and reduce service again. The state began making its series of short-term fixes.
In the November 2004 hearings, when 150 people testified, the agency was looking at $2.50 as a base fare and cutting weekend, holiday and nighttime service -- proposals said to be "on the table, in whole or part" in current proposals to address the authority's latest and greatest budget crisis.
By consolidating Zone 1 and Zone 2 fares, the authority not only hopes to simplify use of transit for occasional riders but also to lure more people into prepaid, reduced-fare programs such as monthly and annual passes and discounted 10-trip tickets.
Authority officials also have been talking about closing one of five division bus garages; cutting the administrative-management staff by the same percentage as union personnel; downsizing to better reflect the population; and restructuring service to meet changing demographics and needs.
Other state public transit systems also face serious financial problems. The Philadelphia-based Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority is looking at a $50.3 million deficit in its $991 million operating budget.
In a conversation last week, SEPTA General Manager Faye Moore told Mr. Brooks that her board of directors plans to wait until after the election to see if Mr. Rendell and the state Legislature can agree on long-sought dedicated funding before it goes public with contingency plans.
"We were hoping the [political] pressure would come from Philadelphia," Mr. Brooks said. "The problem is that nobody wants to address the issue now. Too many people think when we declare a crisis that we'll find a way out, like we always have."
First Published September 12, 2006 12:00 am
