Westmoreland Transit study will seek public input Oct. 18 and online

As Angela Catanzaro waited patiently for a Westmoreland Transit bus in downtown Greensburg that would take her to a shopping trip in Hempfield, she couldn't help but wonder if more public transportation options would make her life a little easier.

“I certainly would take more buses around town more,” Catanzaro said Friday. “I used to live in Allegheny County, and Port Authority buses would run as late as 10 to 11 p.m. It would be great if the buses ran longer and around the town so I could get around Westmoreland County.”

Westmoreland County Transit Authority officials will host two public sessions this week to seek input from riders on how to change, increase or reroute bus travel.

For the authority, it's the first phase of a study designed to find ways to reverse a two-year trend that has seen a substantial decline in bus ridership.

Planners from the Southwest Regional Commission will be at the Bell Way transit center in Greensburg on Wednesday for two public input sessions, one from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and a second from 5 to 7 p.m., to listen to riders' thoughts about system improvements.

“We haven't changed any of our fixed-route service in 15 years. Everything is open for discussion. We're hoping to find out if what we're doing is what people want or if it's not what they want,” authority Executive Director Alan Blahovec said.

And that's good news for riders such as Nicole Wallace of Greensburg, who travels by bus to her job at Wal-Mart in Hempfield. Wallace, who does not drive, said she takes the bus only to work, but if more routes were available at more convenient times she would ride to recreational destinations.

“I'd like there to be more buses at different times to different areas,” Wallace said.

The authority, with its fleet of 41 buses, operates about two dozen routes throughout the county and commuter service into Pittsburgh. After years of steady growth, ridership numbers started to decline in 2014. Since then, the authority has seen a nearly 10 percent drop in passengers.

For the 2014-15 fiscal year, the authority had 526,300 riders. That number dipped to 505,618 the following year. Ridership further eroded in the last fiscal year to 473,672.

The most popular service is the authority's commuter service into Pittsburgh, Blahovec said. The express route from Greensburg, through North Huntingdon and into downtown Pittsburgh averages 714 passengers daily.

The authority's Route 9 service from Greensburg to Latrobe is the most utilized of its local bus service, averaging about 182 passengers a day, Blahovec said.

Other local service routes have only a few passengers, such as the twice-daily bus between Greensburg and Ligonier. It averages 10 passengers each day.

Planners want to hear from riders and potential riders as to what kind of transit service they favor.

“Our local service was originally designed to get people to and from Greensburg. Now, I don't know that's as much the case,” Blahovec said. “I'm interested to look at having some local routes that just run through local communities.”

Dave Totten, a planner with the Southwest Pennsylvania Commission, is serving as project manager for the study. He said Westmoreland is one of a handful of counties in the region that is looking to improve its public transportation options.

The commission recently completed a study of Butler County's transit system that explored adding commuter service into Pittsburgh. The commission is expected to soon launch a review of Washington County's transit system.

The reviews will be tailored to local needs, according to Totten.

“We want to see the values that are important to the people of Westmoreland County. We want to hear what people think,” Totten said.

In addition to next week's public information sessions, the commission has posted a survey on its website asking for input into the county's transit needs. That survey can be accessed through Nov. 3.

The $90,000 study in Westmoreland County is being paid by the SPC. Totten said he expects a finished product to be submitted to local transit officials by year's end.

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-830-6293 or rcholodofsky@tribweb.com.