Students join Port Authority discussion

Students, employees and residents of Allegheny County continue to fight the looming reduction of… Students, employees and residents of Allegheny County continue to fight the looming reduction of Port Authority service with petitions, rallies and the recent creation of a transit advocacy group on Facebook.

Jim Ritchie, a spokesman for the Port Authority, said the community protests will not be able to stop the cuts. Still, Ritchie insisted the protests are not being met with deaf ears and that students and community should continue to voice their frustrations to both the authority and state government.

“It is very important for those who feel strongly about this to speak out. For those who are frustrated, you should continue to express yourself,” Ritchie said.

The 15 percent cuts will take effect March 27 and represent half of the initial reductions suggested as a solution to the $47 million budget deficit currently faced by the ailing transit system. Further cuts are scheduled for summer 2012, when service could be reduced by 50 percent if the state government does not provide additional revenue streams for the authority.

The March service cut will eliminate 29 routes entirely, including the 84B Oakland Loop and G2 service through campus. The 04 McKnight-Oakland Flyer will also be eliminated. A number of routes through Oakland will operate with reduced service, including the 71A, 71C and 71D.

This equates to 13,000 fewer rides per day, or about 5 percent of total riders. Port Authority board members predicted that about half of the regular riders will experience little or no change as a result of the cuts, though 180 jobs will be lost and the Harmar bus garage will close.

The slated loss of jobs and services have brought strong protests from some at Pitt, including senior Kim Autore, who created the Facebook event titled, “STOP the Port Authority Service Cuts.” Though Autore established the page only Tuesday evening, the event already had 318 attending guests as of press time yesterday.

“When I first heard of the cuts, I initially thought it would blow over like every other threat the Port Authority has made in the past,” Autore said. “But no money is turning up this time. The students need to be able to react before it’s too late.”

The Facebook event is open for students to leave comments pertaining to how the cuts will affect them. Autore called the petition “a great way for Pitt students to show they care, that they are not unhappy with the large effect the cuts will have on their lives.”

A petition currently being circulated by the transit workers’ union is highlighted by the Facebook event and addresses Allegheny Chief Executive Dan Onorato, asking him to pressure the Port Authority to reverse its decision about the cuts.

The petition is circulating around campus, as well as neighborhoods that will be directly affected by the cuts. The petition consists of separate signature cards that will be aggregated and sent to city officials. The Facebook event’s information page includes a link to the printable signature cards.

Autore encourages those interested to turn in completed signature cards to the Student Government Board Office in the Union by 3 p.m. Thursday.

The transit workers’ union — officially the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85 — first issued the petition in hopes that signatures would bring rider and worker frustrations to the Port Authority directors prior to March 27.

Bryon Shane, the operator of the Harmar garage, said the transit union will not stop fighting the cuts.

Shane said that the $45 million allocation provided at the end of former Gov. Ed Rendell’s term in office — money that factors into the Port Authority’s service reduction plan — should be enough to stabilize the budget deficit until January 2012, making the 15 percent cut unnecessary.

The union believes that it would be wiser to use the Rendell allocation more quickly to maintain current service levels through January, avoiding the 15 percent cuts.

“By making cuts now, it reduces the pressure on state legislation to find a more permanent solution to the budget problem,” Shane said.

The Port Authority disagrees with the union’s stance. Ritchie said that Port Authority does not disagree with the union members in that the 15 percent cut is not the best option, but in order to prevent a larger cut in the near future, immediate action must be taken.

“If you are upset about 15 percent, try doubling that to 30 percent,” Ritchie said.

Though putting pressure on state legislators is important for future solutions, Ritchie said, the Port Authority cannot rely on the current state level leadership.

“If we were to postpone the cuts, we would be taking a large gamble that the problem would be fixed [by legislators] in the next couple months,” Ritchie said. “If there had been any indication of a solution from legislatures in the near future, then postponement would be more reasonable.”

The petition will be presented to the Port Authority at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, after a rally and march from Mellon Square Park to the Heinz building Downtown.

“Yeah this affects the jobs, the garage, but more than anything it is going to affect the ridership. Once you lose riders’ confidence, you never get it back,” Shane said. “We want to provide a consistently good product to our consumers.”

Back on campus, Dunkin Donuts employee Jeff Kulig described how the cuts would interfere with his commute from the South Side to Oakland each day.

“If the bus drives by too full, I’ll just have to throw rocks, stand in the street, whatever, and make them pick me up,” Kulig said.

Sophomore Brandon Nemeth, who lives in North Oakland, also complained of the possibility of increased difficulty getting into Oakland from his apartment.

“They heard the buses down Centre Avenue were going to be cut. I guess we can only hope the petitions make a difference,” Nemeth said.