Oakland-Downtown Pittsburgh transit plan full of promises but short on funding

Port Authority’s board has signed off on an agreement with Allegheny County, Pittsburgh and the city Urban Redevelopment Authority to advance a proposed Bus Rapid Transit system linking Downtown and Oakland, but the plan has a long way to travel before it reaches the station.

It will take nearly two years and $4 million to complete engineering and environmental reviews needed for the parties to seek a federal grant for construction, and the memorandum of understanding approved on Friday acknowledged that federal funding is not likely to cover the entire cost.

Board chairman Robert Hurley said that under ideal circumstances construction could begin in 2017 or 2018.

The previous city administration of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl stalled planning for the estimated $200 million project for more than a year, but Mayor Bill Peduto has revived it.

“The new mayor and his staff have taken up the task,” Mr. Hurley said.

The project would create a subway-like bus system in the Forbes and Fifth avenues corridor with enhanced stations and special vehicles. Several metropolitan areas have embraced Bus Rapid Transit as a more affordable alternative to subway construction.

A BRT system has several attributes of a rail line, including reserved lanes, off-board fare collection, priority at traffic signals and stations that are farther apart than traditional bus stops.

Developing a light-rail system to Oakland would cost four to five times as much as BRT and might take 30 years or more to bring to fruition, Mr. Hurley said.

Under the agreement, the authority and county will spend $2 million each on preliminary engineering, environmental review and an alternatives analysis that are needed before the parties apply for federal funding. The city and URA will simultaneously create a Transit Revitalization Investment District that would generate additional funding needed to finance the project.

Mr. Hurley said the project is intended to stimulate development in the corridor. “We will not be building it. We will not be funding it. We’ll run our vehicles on it once it’s built,” he said.

A BRT system would enable the authority to shift its existing bus routes out of the corridor to provide feeder service from surrounding neighborhoods, he said.

Jon Schmitz: jschmitz@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1868. Twitter: @pgtraffic.