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Also known as Port Authority and Port Authority Transit and Allegheny County Port Authority.

Light Rail[]

As of 2004, 1,622 light-rail vehicles were operating in North America, including 83 by the Allegheny County Port Authority.

Shovel-logo3[]

Statements[]

Editorials[]

Insights[]

Position Papers[]

PAT does not stack up well.[]

A policy brief: PAT Answers Won’t Do from the Allegheny Institutue puts forth insights and suggestions:

  • PAT has high driver cost.
  • PAT has high cost per passenger trip. If PAT buses had operated at the average cost per trip, expenditures reduce by $32 million.
  • PAT buses carry fewer passengers per hour

Port Authority must raise the number of bus passenger trips per hour of service.[]

Cutting out many of the daytime, evening, and weekend routes that carry few passengers per hour of operation. And contrary to the Port Authority's claims, it does not require totally eliminating evening and weekend service. It does mean running fewer buses at non-peak hours in order to boost the number of riders per bus hour of operation to create more cost efficiency.

Allow private firms to carry passengers[]

Smaller more efficient vehicles could provide service at to various times and in various areas better than what PAT does.

Threats of eliminating evening or weekend service are scare tactics and indicate an unwillingness to manage in a way that makes the system more efficient.[]

PAT needs to ask for concessions from its drivers and other employees to bring wage rates more in line with other systems around the country. It is simply not appropriate for PAT employees to be paid more than most of their fellow drivers across the country and ask taxpayers to pay more to underwrite their favored position. It is almost a certainty that the fringe benefits they enjoy are well beyond those of most comparably situated and similarly skilled private sector workers in Pennsylvania.

First things first[]

Only after these steps have been undertaken should the Commonwealth contemplate enacting a permanent dedicated revenue stream for the Port Authority. Delivering a dedicated revenue stream before PAT addresses its operating inefficiencies costs will remove the pressure for the Authority to act responsibly and serve the public efficiently.


Facelift for PAT bus patterns within downtown's streets[]

A post-agenda was held in City Council about a new system of bus travel into and around the downtown streets. This system used a pass-through approach so buses didn't need to make a loop within the city's streets. If all the buses entered at one end of town, went straight, and exited at another end, then traffic conditions would improve greatly. Now buses choke town by entering and exiting in the same direction and in the turn-around portion the buses make a loop that takes too much time, effort and has too many ramifications.

The presentation made sense, but would have forced PAT to change its routes. Perhaps PAT didn't want to change.

Details[]

On the South Side, some the PAT buses take a residential pathway, Sarah Street, not the main commercial street, East Carson Street. This alternative puts big buses on side-streets. Casual bus drivers would not know that the bus stop on the main street is not when the next bus is going to pass.

Jack Wagner: Port Authority has wasted millions in taxpayer dollars[]

By Jim Ritchie, TRIBUNE-REVIEW, March 5, 2007

Note to Jack from Joe: Better to get your hand slapped for doing something than get tossed out of office for not doing something --- START YOUR LEGISLATIVE AUDIT NOW.

Auditor General Jack Wagner said today that the financially troubled Port Authority of Allegheny County had wasted millions of dollars of taxpayer money and run up a $28 million deficit in its management pension plan because of lavish provisions given to top executives.

"These generous offerings were developed by management for management, at the expense of the taxpayers of Allegheny County and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania," Wagner said in a letter to authority CEO Steve Bland. "The self-indulgence of management has been financially abusive and must be reversed."

The Auditor General's office is auditing the authority, which faces an $80 million deficit in its upcoming 2007-08 fiscal year starting July 1. It proposes cutting 25 percent of its routes, increasing fares and eliminating jobs.

Wagner, of Beechview, scheduled a 10 a.m. news conference at the State Office Building Downtown to disclose details.

Port Authority officials would not comment this morning other than to say they would have an announcement later in the day.

It will be the second press conference held by Wagner in two months revealing problems found during an ongoing audit at Port Authority.

Wagner also called on the authority in February to move from its Downtown headquarters at the Heinz 57 Center to its vacant office space in Manchester to save money.

Links[]

Media[]

  • Cuts to transit draw 150 to County Council P-G from March 3, 2007 -- Many decry eliminating entire communities from bus service. There wasn't an empty seat in the Gold Room in the Allegheny County Courthouse yesterday, when Allegheny County Council members set transit as the topic.

Saturday, December 24, 2005 By Joe Grata, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Video[]

California High-Speed Rail Authority[]

An environmental impact report for a 700-mile project with trains running at speeds up to 220 mph. A $9.9 billion bond issue, to appear on the ballot in November, would provide funding for the first leg between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

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