DGS49
Diamond Member
Port Authority CEO: Pre-pandemic ridership world not coming back
CEO Katharine Eagan Kelleman said Port Authority may never return to old ridership levels but must meet the new needs of riders.
www.post-gazette.com
The Port Authority of Allegheny County (Pittsburgh and environs) has experienced a net 50% drop in bus ridership and 70% drop on its LRT system, which mainly serves the southern neighborhoods and suburbs. They are not sure where it's going from here, ridership-wise.
This is a huge change. The cynic in me estimates that with ridership down by more than half, they will probably cut their spending to the bone, dropping it by three or four percent. Public sector, and all that.
In Pittsburgh (where most of the riders are going), few employers have demanded that the workforce come back to the office. A few big companies started making those noises and they got extreme push-back from employees who said they would quit.
The Port Authority here is small potatoes compared to mass transit systems in bigger cities, but I wonder if the experience is as drastic with the MTA, NYCTA, CTA, DART, BART, etc., or even SEPTA (Philadelphia).
What are other areas seeing?
