Butler Transit to take over service to Pittsburgh

Authority routes set to begin Dec. 18

After nearly 10 years of thinking about and planning to establish bus service between Butler and Pittsburgh, the Butler Transit Authority has scrambled to set up service in two weeks after a private contractor decided to drop the route.

But the authority’s service to replace Myers Coach Lines will follow a different route and could leave some northern Allegheny County riders without an easy transit alternative.

Myers notified riders Dec. 1 that it won’t operate its weekday service after Dec. 15.

“We’ve been planning this for a long time, but now we had to put it together in a week,” said John Paul, executive director of the Butler authority. “Fortunately, we already have the buses and we were able to line up a subcontractor to operate them.”

Myers’ service included three inbound trips in the morning, one in the early afternoon and one in the evening that followed the Route 8 corridor usually beginningin Butler for $7 each way.

Outbound trips were scheduled one in the morning, three in the afternoon and one in the evening.

The company extended one outbound trip in the afternoon and one inbound trip in the evening as far as Grove City for $9 each way.

Myers confirmed it is ending its Butler County service, but no one was available to explain why.

The authority service, which will take over with no break beginning Dec. 18, initially will be less extensive and follow a different route. The authority will operate two morning and two afternoon trips each inbound and outbound for a charge of $5 cash each way with discounts for buying 15or 31-trip ConnectCards.

The route will begin at the same place on East Cunningham Street in Butler and have one other common stop at the Glade Mills Presbyterian Church in Cooperstown. But instead of following Route 8 and Route 28 into Pittsburgh, the authority’s service will miss northern Allegheny County by taking Route 228 to Cranberry and following Interstates 79/279 into the city.

The authority also will have a Butler County stop at the Twelve Oaks Mansion park-n-ride in Mars and has plans to open another park-n-ride lot in Cranberry.

The trip will end at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center through the end of the year, but beginning Jan. 2 it will end at the Port Authority’s North Shore T station, which riders can take free to the Golden Triangle.

The Butler authority won’t offer any extended trips to Grove City.

Mr. Paul said the authority will pass out flyers to riders using the Myers service this week to familiarize them with the changes.

Those changes could be bad news for commuters who boarded the Myers bus on Route 8, which no longer will have any transit service.

Jim Ritchie, a spokesman for the Port Authority, said his agency’s nearest routes would be the 05 Thompson Run, which runs between Route 8 and McKnight Road, and the 012 McKnight Flyer on McKnight Road.

The authority will monitor the situation to see whether it should consider extending service to Route 8 as part of its quarterly route adjustments or its annual consideration of service extensions.

Mr. Paul said the Butler authority has received special permission from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to begin temporary service immediately. Myers hasn’t provided the authority with detailed ridership information from its service, Mr. Paul said, but from its previous planning, the agency believes there will be enough support to continue the service.

“We’re going to, because of the abrupt nature of this change, be operating under a conditional approval from PennDOT,” he said. “We’ve applied for a threeyear subsidy so we think we’re good to provide service for 3½ years. Now all we have to do is get people to ride it.”