[PRCo] Re: pat__service__cuts__2007.01.23-changed to 2/1/07

[Fred Schneider]

Because the Allegheny County Commissioners fund the Port Authority,  
maybe you want to ask the question, "Which commissioners have friends  
who might have owned the building they are renting downtown?"

You also might want to question how much analysis PAT did about which  
routes are on the kill list.   I understand it was only average  
patronage per trip without looking at reducing service frequencies,  
or cutting some trips back at mid point or anything else.   So a  
Mount Lebanon - Airport bus that ran every 1/2 hour with 4 passengers  
carries the same weight as the Brookline bus with 900 daily  
riders ... both would be axed.   Does not sound like imagination or  
planning, just the old women and children first to make the state  
come up with money so we can continue business as usual.    But I was  
told they did make one route change ... that Library is now an  
evening shuttle from Castle Shannon to Library ... the better to  
drive away riders.

I'm not really going to tell you who my pipeline is.   Would not be  
fair.

On Feb 2, 2007, at 7:19 PM, Joshua Dunfield wrote:

>
> John Swindler wrote:
>> From today's Post Gazette.
>>
>> One could ask the question: why did PAT need more space when system
>> ridership was declining.
>
> I heard about this brilliant real estate decision from a 28X driver a
> year or two ago.  He thought they did it so the upper management could
> have the rarefied atmosphere of the Duquesne Club nearby.
>
> Actually, *was* system ridership declining circa 2000?  I'm pretty
> sure it increased in at least some of the years I was in Pittsburgh
> ('00-'06), which wouldn't be surprising given that the system was
> expanding in 2000-01; the West Busway opened, the East Busway  
> extension
> and Overbrook reconstruction were ongoing, and 24 hour service began
> on a few buses.
>
> Best,
> -j.
>