Schedulers struggle with transit route cuts

Port Authority bus and trolley riders are growing antsy about how they may be affected by upcoming service changes."No one has seen the schedules, and people are scared," Khari Mosley, state director of the Pennsylvania League of Young Voters, said recently when a transit support coalition submitted a petition seeking help from Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato."They want to know how they will get to work, school or doctor's appointments" as soon as possible before June 17, when the most far-reaching cuts and changes in authority history will take effect.

That's easier said than done, even in the computer age. "It's a tedious, time-consuming task," said Lynda Conway, acting assistant operations officer. "Our hands are full. We're dealing with a record number of changes in a relatively short period of time."

On March 30, the day the authority's nine-member board voted to eliminate 29 bus routes and modify 107 others, Ms. Conway and about two dozen staffers she oversees swung into action. The schedule writers, map makers, computer technicians and workers who change route signs have put in full days and overtime to implement the vast changes and prepare to get information out to the public. The intensity will continue through 12:01 a.m. June 17 -- a Sunday, when daily ridership is the lowest -- when the restructured service officially goes into effect systemwide. A computer printout of thousands of specific times, stops and other data associated with the changes "would be a book about [3 inches] thick," marketing and communications director Judi McNeil told board members recently.

The authority is reducing overall operating hours by 15 percent, a move it hopes will save $35 million of a projected $80 million 2007-08 budget deficit. If no additional state and county money is forthcoming, the agency is threatening to cut another 10 percent and eliminate 95 additional bus routes Sept. 2 to make up the remaining $45 million. While the authority staff understands that riders want to know about such things as whether there will still be a late-night bus to ride home on after work, spokesman Bob Grove said the changes are the "most immense and most complex we've ever had to deal with."

Consider:

• Seventy-seven of the 89 timetables covering routes in the Port Authority system are being revised, and their maps are being redrawn. The timetables reflect a total of 45,717 bus and trolley trips that drivers will make each week, starting June 17.
• Nearly 1.2 million timetables will be printed and delivered or mailed -- about twice the usual number -- to 755 community outlets, in addition to the authority outlets with schedule racks, including T stations. Timetables also will be placed on transit vehicles.
• Overtime has been approved for workers so that once the schedules are available, they can get them into riders' hands as quickly as possible.
• Work orders are being prepared -- and then must be carried out -- to add, delete and change route information and bus stop and T stop signs to coincide with the restructured system. A computer-based master list contains more than 16,000 official transit stops in Allegheny County and parts of neighboring counties. Thousands of stops are affected.
• Devices that announce stops are being reprogrammed. On-board informational signs are being printed and then must be posted. Computer technicians are preparing to download route, schedule and other information onto the authority's Web site. Park-n-ride brochures must be tailored to changes. Information on bus shelters must be updated.

Internally, memos about fares, stops, transfers and route adjustments are being prepared for operating personnel so they can answer questions and minimize confusion. Everything is being coordinated with Local 85, Amalgamated Transit Union, to comply with contractual obligations regulating work assignments for 1,600 operators, vehicle maintenance workers and mechanics.The process started last month with a weeklong procedure in which hourly employees chose the locations where they want to work, based on seniority. Individual work assignments were then posted at the five bus division garages and the South Hills rail division. Routes like the EBA East Busway All-Stops are fairly simple, with about a dozen stops. But some routes are challenging -- the 36A Mt. Lebanon-Banksville, for instance, has 107 stops. With so many service changes, including removing 66 full-size buses and 28 minibuses from daily service, instructors expect to be training and orienting drivers on new route assignments until the day before they become effective.

But eliminating 29 bus routes isn't as simple as removing schedules from racks and taking down bus signs."We have to change the database, head signs and stop enunciators," Ms. Conway said, ticking off a to-do list. "Eliminate variances, do geo-coding, take down signs ..." The bus fleet is being shifted to ensure enough vehicles are assigned to meet new peak demands out of each division garage. "Buses have to be positioned to make them as cost-beneficial as possible," Ms. Conway said. "Then the maintenance staff has to make adjustments for the workload." Port Authority officials estimate that cutting service to save money has already cost $123,000 for legal advertising, renting space and holding public hearings, printing the 1.2 million schedules and related activities.The amount does not include staff time. There has been plenty. "I've put in 16-, 17-hour days and worked some weekends, depending on where we were in terms of evaluating service and then implementing changes," Ms. Conway said.