Port Authority will continue to adjust service on the West Busway this fall, re-establishing direct trips from Carnegie to Oakland.
Starting Sept. 5, the G1 West Busway route will be renamed the G1 West Busway-Robinson, and it will serve Robinson, the West Busway stations east of Bell Station, and Downtown Pittsburgh. Its service to the Carnegie station at the end of the busway will be discontinued.
The G2 West Busway-Oakland will pick up the G1's trips to Carnegie, and will serve all West Busway stops between there and Sheraden. That will restore the direct service between Carnegie and Oakland that went away in April after routes were shuffled in an effort to increase efficiency.
"Carnegie has a pretty substantial park-and-ride, so restoring that direct service was a priority," said authority spokeswoman Heather Pharo. The frequency of trips on the G2 will be increased so the Carnegie station will still get a bus every five minutes during morning and evening rush hours, she said.
Once it passes through Downtown, the G2 will use the East Busway to head into Oakland via the Neville Street ramp. But instead of circling back to the busway on Craft, Forbes and Bellefield avenues — which were often slowed by Oakland traffic — it will return to Downtown via Boulevard of the Allies.
The latest switch will eliminate direct service from Oakland to Robinson.
"Students living in Oakland have a lot of different options when it comes to getting to shopping destinations," Pharo said.
The 28X will have different stop restrictions along the West Busway, doing passenger pick-ups and drop-offs at any station when the bus is heading toward Downtown, but only doing pick-ups when the bus is heading toward Pittsburgh International Airport. The restrictions had been lifted June 13 to relieve some overcrowding along the busway.
Other route changes taking effect in September as part of the authority's effort to make its service more efficient will be announced in July or August.
