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Sunday, April 06, 2003

By Jan Ackerman, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The Port Authority is the lifeline between Dorissa Miller and her paycheck.

Miller, 38, who lives in the Crafton-Ingram area and doesn't have a car, is a food service employee at the Kane Regional nursing center in Ross. She works the 12 to 8 p.m. shift from Thursdays through Mondays.

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To get to and from work, Miller takes four buses each day. She comes Downtown on one bus and transfers to another that takes her to the North Hills facility on McIntyre Road. At night, she reverses the transfer for a commute that takes about 45 minutes each way.

What would she do if the Port Authority were to eliminate late evening or weekend bus service?

"I don't know," said Miller, sitting on a bench at the bus stop on Seventh and Liberty avenues, Downtown, one day last week. "The Port Authority is my only transportation to get back and forth to work."

Faced with new state cutbacks in Gov. Ed Rendell's first budget, coupled with under-funding under former Gov. Tom Ridge's budgets, the Port Authority's Chief Executive Officer Paul Skoutelas said last month that the transit service was pondering the ideas of increasing base fares and cutting weekend service and weekday service after 9 p.m.

Port Authority spokesman Bob Grove said the authority was originally considering eliminating service after 7 p.m., but now has revised that time frame.

The cutbacks would affect thousands of bus and light-rail trips per year and leave people in a lurch who are in most need of public transportation: people who work weekends or rotating shifts, students who attend night or weekend classes at local universities, the working poor, disabled, handicapped and aged, anyone who can't drive or doesn't own a car.

The cuts even would affect Pirates baseball fans. At the urging of the Pirates' front office, many have been opting to ride public transportation to the ball games to avoid traffic gridlock on nights or weekends when there are cultural events at Benedum Center, Heinz Hall and the O'Reilly Theater.

"I just hope the governor realizes that he is committing political suicide," said Paul Bergstrom, 60, of Dormont, a custodian for environmental services at Mercy Hospital, Uptown, who doesn't own a car, lives on the light-rail line and uses public transportation for all his needs.

"I really feel betrayed," Bergstrom said.

Mark Harris, 39, of the North Side, said he could live with the fare increases, but not the service cuts. He doesn't have a car and sometimes works the 2 to 10 p.m. shift. Each day, he must travel on four buses to work at a warehouse in Leetsdale.

"People who ride the bus at night depend on it for their livelihood," he said.

Sharp service cuts would do much to undermine the state's efforts to get people off the welfare rolls and back to work. Most of the "working poor" don't have cars and tend to work at low-paying shift work such as store clerks, custodians and security jobs.

"There may not be any buses for people who need them the most. There may not be any jobs for people who work weekends and can't get there," said Richard LeGrande, president of the Allegheny County Transit Council, a citizens group that makes recommendations on mass transit.

LeGrande emphasized that not just Downtown workers, but a myriad of nursing home employees, clerks in suburban shopping centers and restaurant employees rely on public transit to get to and from work.

"One of the most successful retail areas in the area is the Homestead Waterfront. You have buses going by there every two or three minutes. Not just shoppers, but workers are riding them," said LeGrande, who will be part of a coalition going to Harrisburg on April 15 to fight the cuts.

There are 1,000 janitors who belong to the Service Employees International Union and work the overnight shift Sundays through Thursdays cleaning Downtown offices. Most don't own cars.

Gwendolyn Duell, 42, of Carrick, is one of them. Each night, she takes a bus to work Downtown. She works the 10 p.m. to 6:15 a.m. shift cleaning Penn Avenue Place.

These days, Duell has many things to worry about. Her oldest, James, 22, is serving in the Army in Baghdad. John, 19, who lives with her, underwent a heart transplant in 1995 and has multiple medical problems.

"I am John's sole caretaker and I do everything by bus," she said. "If they were to cut this service, I would lose my job. I have to work on Sundays."

Bill Klingensmith, who lives in Leechburg and works in the bio-medical department at Mercy Hospital, Uptown, relies on public transportation because he has limited vision. He takes two buses each way to work and usually works the daylight shift. Because he repairs equipment, he sometimes has to stay late or work Saturdays.

"A lot of people are concerned here," he said, adding that service cutbacks would limit workers who rely on public transportation from working at odd hours or meeting specific demands of their jobs.

Both Mellon Financial Corp. and PNC Bank have Downtown customer service centers which employ large numbers of shift workers.

Erica Williams, 18, of Beltzhoover, works the 3 to 9 p.m. shift at the Mellon Service Center and attends daytime classes at the North Side branch of Allegheny County Community College.

She relies on buses to transfer between the two and to get back home at the end of each day.

"It would be a big problem," said Williams as she stood at Seventh and Liberty waiting for a bus to the North Side.

At Point Park College, Downtown, spokeswoman Ginny Frizzi said half of the 3,100 students are evening and Saturday students who could be affected.

Students at the University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University and other local universities also rely on public transportation.

Pam Giansante, 52, of Clairton, takes two to three buses each way to get to get to the North Side CCAC campus, where she teaches biology.

She said many of her students are upset about the pending cuts, which may limit them from taking night or weekend classes.

"Most of our students take a bus to campus," Giansante said. "They have children, or not a lot of money, or no car."

Peter Medure, director of operations at the Westin Convention Center, Downtown, said hotel employees, housekeepers, room attendants, cooks and maintenance workers work three shifts a day and "a good portion of our evening employees take public transportation."

"We are not looking at this as a terrible thing, but if it happened, there would be an impact and we would be looking at ways to help our employees."

The Allegheny County Transit Council and Save Our Transit are leaving for Harrisburg at 7 a.m. April 15 to lobby for increasing the subsidies for Port Authority and for public transit statewide. More information about the trip is available from Stephen Donahue at the Thomas Merton Center at 412-361-3022

"It is a cry for help from the public," LeGrande said. "We have to make these politicians realize that we deserve much better transit than we are getting."

LeGrande questioned how the state can consider extending the Mon-Fayette Expressway farther into Allegheny County, at enormous costs, while making major cuts in public transit funds, not just in Pittsburgh, but in Philadelphia.

"Our politicians are still trying to see the USA in their Chevrolets," LeGrande said. "It is not going to work."

"What is it that this region wants to do?" he asked. "We want to work, have a full life and have an easy way to enjoy our life. We don't want to go into dirty offices Downtown."

Despite declining state subsidies and a potential $19 million shortfall foreseen for the 2003-04 fiscal year, the Port Authority is required to balance its budget.

Among the options the Port Authority is considering is reducing all weekend and holiday bus, rail and Access services, increasing fares, laying off more employees, eliminating special shuttle services for the Fourth of July, regatta, Steelers and University of Pittsburgh football games and other special events.

"We are required to have a balanced budget and we have to deal with the realities of the state situation. We are hoping that the money can be put back into the budget," said Grove, the Port Authority's spokesman.

Speaking to a group of senior citizens in McKeesport on Wednesday, Gov. Ed Rendell was asked about additional funding for the Port Authority.

"Nothing is out of the question," Rendell said. "But they're going to have to meet a very high bar if they want to restore any of those cuts. They're going to have to show me" better productivity and frugality.

Grove said the Port Authority was constantly evaluating its system, trying to find places to cut. There will be a public hearing in May. No date has been set.

"We are looking for ideas," Grove said. "We are trying to minimize the pain, but these are difficult times."

Jan Ackerman can be reached at jackerman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1370.

Post-Gazette education writer Jane Elizabeth contributed to this report.