Port Authority of Allegheny County - History

History

The Port Authority was created by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1956 to allow for creation of port facilities in the Pittsburgh area. Three years later, the state legislation was amended to allow the Port Authority to acquire privately owned transit companies that served the area. This included the Pittsburgh Railways Company and a total of thirty-two independent bus and incline operations.

On April 19, 1963 the Board of Allegheny County Commissioners authorized the acquisition of thirty-two transit companies, including the Pittsburgh Railways Company, which had provided bus and streetcar service to the city of Pittsburgh since January 1902, and an incline plane company; these acquisitions were made at a cost of about $12 million. On March 1, 1964 Port Authority Transit began service.

Shortly after the Port Authority began service, 150 new GM "Fishbowl" buses were introduced to replace aging ones acquired from its predecessors, a new route numbering convention was introduced, and the fare system was streamlined. Due to urban sprawl, the transit agency introduced new routes that served new communities. In the following years, additional buses were ordered and several new transit garages opened. Many of the trolley lines acquired from Pittsburgh Railways were abandoned, and turned into bus lines instead; however, South Hills lines via Beechview and Overbrook were retained. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Port Authority hoped to introduce a modern rapid transit system known as Skybus with rubber-tired vehicles running on rails, but the plan fell through.

In the early 1970s, the Port Authority entered what was dubbed by its fans as the "Mod" era, in which buses were repainted in various splashy paint schemes. Furthermore, several new flyer routes and routes to Oakland's university core were introduced, as part of a new general marketing strategy. A commuter rail line to McKeesport, the PATrain began service in 1975. These new routes, coupled with the 1973 oil crisis, generated a major increase in ridership. Yet, due to the poor state of the economy at the time, fares increased and there was a brief strike in 1976. In spite of these setbacks, the South Busway opened in 1977 and plans for other capital investments were made.

During the 1980s, with gas prices falling and population loss from the decline of the steel industry, ridership decreased and the agency actually lowered fares to attract new riders in the middle of the decade. Many new buses were ordered, and the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway opened in 1983. Construction of a light rail line that started in downtown and went south to traverse Beechview, with separate lines going to South Hills Village and Library progressed during the decade. Part of the light rail line was an updated version of the old trolley system. In July 1985, the downtown subway opened; the Beechview line followed in 1987 and the Library line a year later. In 1989, the agency celebrated its twenty-fifth year of existence. Also that year, the commuter rail service to McKeesport was discontinued.

In the early part of the 1990s, the agency was rocked by a four-week strike due to a labor dispute in 1992. The strike, coupled with changing demographic patterns, caused a decrease in ridership. New buses that were compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 were introduced into the system early in the decade. In 1993, the badly detiorated Overbrook light rail line was shut down, necessitating that all trains heading into and out of downtown to use the Beechview line. Several capital projects, such as the construction of a new western busway and light rail extensions were considered. In 1998, the agency rebranded itself as "Ride Gold" with new paint schemes and a new marketing campaign.

In 2000, the West Busway from the shores of the Ohio River to Carnegie was opened. Shortly thereafter, new bus routes to outlying communities, such as Cranberry, were established. In 2003, a short extension of the East Busway was completed. The following year, another rapid transit addition was made when the Overbrook light rail line was re-opened after a lengthy reconstruction. Construction also started on another light rail extension to Pittsburgh's North Shore near Heinz Field, known as the North Shore Connector. Unfortunately, in spite of the capital projects expansion, the agency was in serious financial trouble by the middle of the decade. In June 2007, the agency went through with a fifteen percent service cut in order to cut the deficit. Also, in order to provide a dedicated source of funding to the agency, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato introduced the controversial 10% Allegheny County Alcoholic Beverage Tax in 2008 to fund the agency. Later that same year, another strike was narrowly averted. The agency is currently planning a major service overhaul that will begin to go into effect in March 2010.

The Port Authority pays $168,763 annually to Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney and $48,750 annually to Greenlee Partners to lobby the Pennsylvania General Assembly.