Next Week: West Busway Transit-Oriented Development Workshops

Whether you’re a transit rider, a business owner or just someone who cares about your neighborhood, you probably have an opinion on what kind of role transit should play in community development.

If you have opinions or ideas about transit-oriented development at the Sheraden and Carnegie West Busway stations, you’re invited to share your thoughts next week.

The Allegheny County Economic Development and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, in partnership with the City of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Borough and Port Authority, will hold two workshops to discuss amenities, improvements and development that could benefit transit users and community members alike:

Sheraden Station Meeting
Tuesday, March 23
5:30 pm to 7:30 pm
Sheraden Senior Center
720 Sherwood Avenue

Carnegie Station Meeting
Wednesday, March 24
5:30 pm to 7:30 pm
Carnegie Borough Building, Council Meeting Room
One Veterans Way

Both meetings are open to the general public. Please note that only the Sheraden Station area will be discussed at the first meeting and only the Carnegie Station area will be discussed at the second meeting.

Community input will be used to create revitalization and development plans for the station areas which will be shared at a future meeting.

For more information, visit www.spcregion.org/westbuswaystations.shtml

What do you want from our Web site?

As Port Authority gears up to streamline and improve its transit system, we’re also turning our attention to our Web site. Our last redesign took place in 2006, and we realize there’s much that needs to be enhanced and updated.

Our goal is a more intuitive and user-friendly Web site – a site where key information can be quickly and easily accessed by Port Authority’s many stakeholders, including (but not limited to) riders, the general public, community organizations, business partners and visitors.

That’s why we need your help. We’ve already brainstormed many ideas and improvements, but we can’t move forward without learning what’s important to those we serve.

In the comments section below, please feel free to provide any kind of Web site-related feedback you’d like. What does our web site need that it doesn’t currently have? What on our current web site should we keep? What should we redesign? What should we scrap? What changes would make it easier to navigate? You’re welcome to answer any of these questions or simply provide your own take.

In addition to collecting general comments, we’ll also be reaching out to specific stakeholder groups whose Web site needs may be more specialized – last Thursday, for instance, we met with a group of riders with visual impairments to talk about how we can organize our site so screen readers can most efficiently use it.

As part of the redesign process, we’re also studying other transit agencies’ sites, so if you’ve seen a specific Web site or feature you like, please feel free to share a link.

The Public Relations department will be collecting comments, counting them, sorting them and bringing them to our internal Web meetings. We hope to start making changes to our site beginning in summer and to continue improvements throughout the year.

Bus & T Service for Sunday, Feb.28

UPDATED: 10 AM

Sunday, Feb. 28 Bus & T Service

Port Authority riders might encounter delays on Sunday, as well as minor, temporary detours for tree or snow removal. Buses are attempting to run on regular routes, except where noted below. New detours and delays may also arise if conditions change due to additional snowfall.

A list of bus and T routes that are out of service, or on a detour, is posted below.

An overview of Port Authority's service levels for Sunday:

• Bus service: Multiple routes continue to operate with detours or limited service areas.
• The T: All lines except are operating on a regular schedule and providing normal service to Downtown stations (except Gateway, which is closed during construction), with the exception of scheduled maintenance for the weekend (click here for details).
• Mon Incline: In service.
• Wabash HOV: Open (when applicable).
• I-279 HOV: Open (when applicable).
• Fifth Avenue Bus Lane in Oakland: Open.

Bus & T Routes Detoured

If your route is not listed, then it is scheduled to operate on a regular route and schedule (weather permitting).

Routes that are operating with a detour or are unable to reach certain areas due to poor road conditions or other factors such as snow pack or improperly parked cars:

• 25A Moon Run-Coraopolis: No Mooncrest.
• 46K Knoxville: No Taft & Lafferty.
• 79D Mount Carmel: In the case of additional significant snowfall, will not be serving Mark, Grove, Chaske & Aber.
• 81B Lincoln: No Lemington Home.
• 86A East Hills: Inbound and outbound trips are traveling in the same direction (to the left) on Park Hill and Wilner.
  

Bus & T Service for Friday, Feb. 26

UPDATED: 3 PM

Friday, Feb. 26 Bus & T Service

Port Authority riders still might encounter delays on Friday, as well as minor, temporary detours for tree or snow removal. Buses are attempting to run on regular routes, except where noted below.

New detours and delays may also arise if conditions change due to additional snowfall.

A list of bus and T routes that are out of service, or on a detour, is posted below.

An overview of Port Authority's service levels for Friday:

• Bus service: Multiple routes continue to operate with detours or limited service areas.
• The T: All lines except are operating on a regular schedule and providing normal service to Downtown stations (except Gateway, which is closed during construction).
• Mon Incline: In service.
• Wabash HOV: Open (when applicable).
• I-279 HOV: Open (when applicable).
• Fifth Avenue Bus Lane in Oakland: Open.

Bus & T Routes Detoured

If your route is not listed, then it is scheduled to operate on a regular route and schedule (weather permitting).

Routes that are operating with a detour or are unable to reach certain areas due to poor road conditions or other factors such as snow pack or improperly parked cars:

• 25A Moon Run-Coraopolis: No Mooncrest.
• 46K Knoxville: No Taft & Lafferty.
• 79D Mount Carmel: In the case of additional significant snowfall, will not be serving Mark, Grove, Chaske & Aber.
• 81B Lincoln: No Lemington Home.
• 86A East Hills: Inbound and outbound trips are traveling in the same direction (to the left) on Park Hill and Wilner.
• LP Lincoln Park Flyer: In the case of additional significant snowfall, will not be serving Mark, Grove, Chaske & Aber.

T Line Repaired - Light Rail Service Resumes Normal Schedule

Port Authority T service resumed normal operations about 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday evening and will run on a normal schedule during the Thursday morning rush hour.

The T had been running on a single track between South Hills Junction and First Avenue Station through much of Wednesday due to a weather-related rail fracture at the Station Square station. The fractured line has been repaired.

This caused light some light rail delays during the Wednesday afternoon rush hour and forced buses that normally use the Mt. Washington Transit Tunnel to follow detours.

Buses that were detoured today will resume their normal routes on Thursday morning through the tunnel.

The 52 Allentown line remains out of service due to the earlier winter storm. Snow accumulation alongside the tracks prevents the safe travel of rail vehicles on that line.