More than a hundred angry bus riders gathered downtown in Mellon Square yesterday morning at… More than a hundred angry bus riders gathered downtown in Mellon Square yesterday morning at a rally to protest the Port Authority Transit’s proposed service cuts and fare increases.

Protesters at the rally, which lasted half an hour, criticized what PAT has described as a “strategic assessment and redesign” of its transit system, holding signs and shouting that the cuts were unfair and unnecessary.

Bundled in coats and scarves, the crowd cheered when the leader of the rally, former Pitt student Amanda Zeiders , kicked off the demonstration by shouting through the megaphone, “Save our transit!” Zeiders spoke on behalf of Save Our Transit, the transit advocacy group that organized the rally as part of its six-year fight to secure reliable funding for public transit.

The proposed service changes, which Authority officials announced earlier this month, would include raising fares by up to 75 percent and eliminating more than half of the current PAT routes, decreasing ridership by 11 percent.

The service cuts are in anticipation of a projected $80 million deficit for the Port Authority in the next year, according to the official statement posted on the PAT Web site.

The dwindling population and increasing suburbanization of Pittsburgh contributed to this budget deficit, according to a statement released by the Allegheny Conference. The group concluded that, because the city cannot support such a large transit system, service cuts are necessary for its survival.

But some PAT riders in attendance at the rally believe that the Authority is cutting the wrong routes. Sarah May-Stein, Lucy Shoyer and Louis Liss, three students from Pittsburgh’s High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, held a sign at the rally that asked, “How am I supposed to get to school now?” They all ride express bus routes to school that will no longer exist if the Port Authority implements the service cuts as planned.

Liss, whose mother rode the 67F in the 1950s, said the transit system hasn’t changed much since then and is due for restructuring, but he thinks it is counterproductive to leave “big patches of the city with no way to get to school or work.”

In order to decide which routes to eliminate, the Authority used a service scorecard that rated transit routes on a scale of one to 10, based on the routes’ effectiveness, efficiency and equity.

That is why some transit riders at the rally, like Pitt graduate student Ann Sanders, were confused and frustrated that high-volume routes like the 28X and the 500, which received high marks on the scorecard, are slated to be eliminated.

Sanders, who rides the 1F daily from Millvale, said by eliminating these popular routes, the Authority is “cutting off neighborhoods that really need the service” and that the drastic service cuts “just seem kind of harsh.”

The 28X Airport Flyer, the PAT minibus that runs from Oakland through downtown to the Pittsburgh Airport, serves 1,942 riders each weekday and, if cancelled, would leave many people, including droves of Pitt students, with no inexpensive means of airport transportation. The cheapest alternative is an airport shuttle that costs $19 one-way.

After the rally, the group chanted “No more cuts!” as they marched down Liberty Avenue to the Hilton Hotel, where PAT held the first of several public hearings on the route eliminations. Several cars and PAT buses driving by honked horns in support of the marchers.

More information on the scheduled service changes and public hearings is available on the PAT Web site, www.portauthority.org.

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