Transit authority solicits public help
With the increase in gas prices, including the cost of diesel fuel, the Mid Mon Valley Transit Authority (MMVTA) is appealing to legislators and the public to help them with increasing their funds. Executive Director Nancy Basile said that public transportation across Pennsylvania is in dire need of funding to continue operating at current levels of service. She said people are experiencing elimination of, or reductions in, services available from public transportation because of increased costs.
“It just got worse in July of this year with the unanticipated rise in the cost of diesel fuel,” said Basile. “The funding here had already been reduced and we were absorbing it. It didn’t have a large impact on our ridership until there was a 50-percent increase on diesel fuel. That sort of pulled the rug out from under us.”
Basile said that they are seeking help from legislators to get grant money to help keep the MMVTA fully functioning.
“I went to Harrisburg Monday to talk with legislators about getting funding,” said Basile. “We’ve been working on this internally for a while. It was a bit disheartening and didn’t go as well as I hoped it would.”
Basile said that because so many people need help right now, the government is not able to support public transportation as much as necessary to help lower fares.
“The legislators I’ve talked to feel as badly as we do but they think the only way to get more money is to increase the price of fuel even more and no one wants to see that happen.”
Basile said that now, they are asking the public who need transportation to help them contact legislators about the issue as well, so that the riders will not have to see another increase in fares or fuel.
“We already raised the cost of fares by 20 percent a year ago,” said Basile. “We may have to implement a 25-percent increase to the existing fare structure. We’re definitely not alone because every agency I’ve encountered is proposing the same increase.”
Basile added that with the costs of diesel, this would be the increase necessary to “help them recoup.”
“It’s hard to propose a budget right now because we don’t know where the cost of diesel fuel will go,” said Basile. “If we do have to reduce service, we will try to evaluate our routes and see where it would have less of an effect on the riders. We want to make sure we get people to work and things like that.”
Basile said the MMVTA is still making an effort to find other alternatives to cut costs.
“We’re not going to give up,” said Basile.
“We don’t want to cut service from our productive routes, but we may need to think about cutting back to every other hour in some places. We have a lot of seniors in the area and a lot of people commuting to Pittsburgh and we don’t want to take service from those areas.”
Basile encouraged the public to contact state representatives about the importance of funding for public transportation. She said that the MMVTA has been sending out information to the public to make them aware of whom their representatives are.
“There is still hope,” she said, adding that anyone who needs to know which legislators to contact can call or e-mail the MMVTA to get that information.
“The public comment has not been positive,” said Basile. “We just feel so bad and we’re trying to respond to the public. Depending on what happens, we may be able to reduce rates to a more reasonable level. Hopefully, one day we will be able to decrease costs.”