PITTSBURGHERS FOR PUBLIC TRANSIT BOARD MEMBER TEAIRA COLLINS, CENTER, IS EXCITED ABOUT THE NEWS THAT PRT WON’T HAVE TO ELIMINATE BUS ROUTES IN 2026.
For Pittsburgh’s African American community, bus service is important.
Which is why it would have been devastating to see dozens of Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus routes eliminated in 2026 due to a lack of funding for public transit across the state.
But thanks to a save from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, better known as PennDOT, there will be no bus routes eliminated after all.
PennDOT in September 2025 approved a proposal by PRT to divert nearly $107 million originally intended for capital projects for transit operations to PRT to close its $100 million budget deficit, thus keeping all of the buses running into 2026 and 2027.
PRT CEO KATHARINE KELLEMAN
“I want to thank PennDOT for its quick review and acceptance of our request. This approval gives us the breathing room we need to protect our riders and keep our region moving,” said PRT CEO Katharine Kelleman, in a statement to the New Pittsburgh Courier. “Even though this short-term fix isn’t what we were working toward, we will continue seeking a long-term solution that transit agencies across Pennsylvania need.”
As more and more African Americans are being pushed out of Pittsburgh and into neighboring towns such as Homestead, McKeesport, Baldwin and Bellevue, losing buses like the Y49 Baldwin Flyer would have been a big blow to Blacks who live in Baldwin, which is a town south of Pittsburgh.
The Y49 would have been eliminated beginning in February 2026, along with buses like the Y47 Curry Flyer, P7 McKeesport Flyer, 29 Robinson, 43 Bailey, P67 Monroeville Flyer, and 39 Brookline. There would have been “major service reductions” to buses like the 79 East Hills, 82 Lincoln, and 81 Oak Hill.
Teaira Collins, a board member for Pittsburghers for Public Transit, told the Courier that she thought it “was amazing that PennDOT stepped up to help PRT stop the service cuts because they knew it would be detrimental to so many communities.”
Collins, who is Black, told the Courier that her primary bus routes that she uses daily from her Greenfield home include the 58 Greenfield, 65 Squirrel Hill, 56 Lincoln Place and 93 Lawrenceville-Hazelwood. If PennDOT had not come into play for the save, two of Collins’ main bus routes closest to her home, the 58 and 65, would have been eliminated.
“I would have had to move,” Collins said. “No ifs, ands or buts about it.”
But now, thanks to PennDOT’s diverting of funds to PRT, Collins can stay put in her residence in Greenfield, a home she’s lived in since May.
