Port Authority plans to replace 25 bus shelters around region
Port Authority has posted signs at 25 locations outside Pittsburgh notifying riders that bus shelters will be replaced over the next few weeks.
The authority also will build seven new shelters at pickup- only stops along the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway.
Authority spokesman Adam Brandolph said Thursday the agency allocated the money for the shelters last year but is just getting to them now.
There could be a week or two between when old shelters are removed and new ones are installed.
“We wanted to put the signs up so people wouldn’t think their shelter was being taken away and never coming back,” Mr. Brandolph said. “It’s sort of a mix of shelters we already know about and shelters we were made aware of by customers.”
The shelters are scattered throughout the bus system, mostly outside Pittsburgh, with four in Green Tree and two each in Whitehall and Neville.
The authority owns and maintains 190 shelters.
Almost all shelters in Pittsburgh are owned and maintained by the city, so the authority can offer only suggestions for
improvements.
Mr. Brandolph said the new shelters will be similar in style to the ones they are replacing and will have a bench at sites where there is room.
The agency encourages riders to point out shelters that should be replaced and offer suggestions for new locations.
On the busway, the agency will install seven shelters at pickup- only stops for express service.
All stops for local service on the busway have shelters, but nearby stops for express pickup- only often do not.
Mr. Brandolph stressed that the shelter program is different from the agency’s bus stop consolidation program.
That program started in earnest last year to review more than 7,000 stops on 98 routes over more than five years to eliminate stops that are unsafe or redundant to improve the agency’s on- time performance.
Early results were promising, but the effort was suspended in March due to the COVID- 19 pandemic.