All aboard

County is right to stick with Bus Rapid Transit

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald vowed Thursday to build a Bus Rapid Transit System linking Downtown and Oakland regardless of whether the federal government kicks in the requested $100 million in aid. That’s the right position to take. Progress waits for no one, even federal officials holding purse springs.

The need for better transit to and around eastern neighborhoods became more evident than ever last week, when UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh announced plans to develop the UPMC Immune Transplant and Therapy Center in Bloomfield, near the East Busway. The center’s aim will be to produce and speed to market treatments for patients with cancer and other diseases.

Pittsburgh has the potential to reap an economic bonanza from the center, which plans to commercialize its therapies through UPMC or other partners, to share its work space with other cutting-edge research ventures and to serve as an anchor of a growing high-tech innovation district centered around Oakland’s universities and hospitals.

In light of all this, not to mention continuing efforts to lure Amazon’s $5 billion second headquarters and other prospective investments, the city cannot afford to put the $195.5 million BRT on hold until federal funding becomes available. Even good projects wait long periods; U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, spent years vying for a federal grant that would cover much of the cost of building a 3-acre, pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly “cap” over Crosstown Boulevard to help restore Hill District-Downtown connections lost with construction of the Civic Arena. The government finally awarded the $19 million grant in 2016.

The BRT would link the city’s biggest employment centers and offer increased synergy between them. UPMC has corporate offices Downtown and hospitals in Oakland, Shadyside and Uptown.

Electric buses would travel on dedicated lanes, outbound on Forbes Avenue and inbound on Fifth. The BRT would give a boost to Uptown, which has its own Eco-Innovation District — a venture to which Duquesne University recommitted support. A BRT spur along the busway would loop in Wilkinsburg, and other wings would extend to Squirrel Hill and Highland Park.

This public transit improvement would do much to support the hightech growth so many are working so diligently to achieve. The concept has won a favorable response from federal officials, but the proposed 2019-20 federal budget includes no funds for new capital projects for public transit.

Mr. Fitzgerald said officials here will find another way to finance the BRT if the federal government fails to come through. This will be a critical test of his leadership. The city needs theBRT — as rapidly as possible.