Port Authority of Allegheny County

Anytime I see a safety hazard, you’re going to get 2 stars. Period.
Port Authority decided to put a bandage on a sucking chest wound, when they put a «caution wet floor» sign in the elevator, instead of FIXING the floor (novel idea). Or, taking that car out of service until it’s fixed.
A lot of elderly, infirm, or obese people depend on those elevators. Do you really think people already unsteady on their feet should use that car? Would you, Port Authority, want your elderly, infirm grandparent on that? Not me!
They should consult their corporate attorneys, but this does NOT absolve them from liability as the result of an accident. Especially after I report it as a dangerous condition. Oh, and I did I mention their insurance company would have a ball denying their claim (s) on this. I’d pay good money to see that.
So, tell me again, where is the money going whenever there’s a rate increase?

As a tourist, I didn’t have a car, and we wanted to visit the touristy stuff that Pittsburgh had to offer. Fortunately we found out on our 2^nd day that the Transit that runs in the downtown area was free of charge, and $ 2.50 if you go outside by 1 zone.
We were able to go to the Allegheny Station to visit Heinz Field and the Carnegie Science Center, to Gateway to get a bite at the famous Primanti Bros, and to our stop at Steel Plaza where our hotel was located near the Consol Energy Center.
Overall, it worked for what we needed, and we didn’t have to hire a bunch of taxi’s or Ubers to get around.

Took the train from Castle Shannon to downtown, then caught the airport flyer. For my first mass transit experience everything went smoothly. Then again it was early Sunday morning and neither the train or bus was crowded. Cost only $ 4.75, had looked into über and that would have cost upwards towards $ 35 -$ 40. If I was to visit Pittsburgh again I’d ride the red and blue line train just to sightsee.

It’s good if you want to wait 10 hours for a bus or trolley which I had to do all day long it gets worse you can’t get wifi connection ether also the bus drivers are sometimes jerks

Ah. The buses.
Considering the size of Pittsburgh, the bus system here is actually pathetic. I live within a ½ of a mile from 8 bus lines. Yet, there are plenty of places that I need 2 transfers to get to. If you don’t want to go to Oakland or downtown, the buses just don’t get the job done.
First, as much as people are saying that there is real-​time tracking, this is only half true. About ¼ of the buses have real time tracking, which is only helpful then 25% of the time. If all of the buses had real-​time, I would be willing to give the PAT a 3.5 star review. The buses are all over the place time wise.
Second, the buses are dirty and over-​crowded. Clearly there is a decent demand for the buses in the city. So why not actually make a decent public transportation system? Many buses only run in rush hour or once per hour. The T is a bit cleaner and significantly more reliable, however.
Finally, drivers range from super friendly to scary or just rude. However, any time I have had a problem on the bus (because the biggest creeps ride the bus), the drivers have mostly been helpful. One, quite literally, threw a guy off of the bus for me. On the other hand, some drivers will refuse to make stops if they are running behind schedule.
Since I am a student, I use the bus constantly, thanks to it being free. I wouldn’t pay to use the bus. And speaking of paying, no one understands how the system works, so don’t worry. It varies bus by bus, time of day, and more.

The Pittsburgh bus system finally has real time tracking. Be sure to download one of the apps (PAT Realtime Tracker or Transit), so you can figure out where the buses are. For a city with cold and often bad weather, this is a much needed feature. Hope the bus drivers can use this in the feature to improve their spacing and prevent bunching.

The Port Authority runs a convoluted and inconsistent transit network — I hate Über’s business model, but there’s a good reason services like it have found such a hold on Pittsburgh. The buses stop running regularly between 10:30 — 11:30 on weeknights and around midnight on the weekends; some buses require you to pay on exiting, which is bizarre; the timetables on the weekends sometimes feature forty-​five-​minute gaps between buses and the T only serves the South Hills. In general, I’m disappointed as a new resident without a car to have discovered Pittsburgh to be such a car-​centric city when there are so many ways the Port Authority could be improved and expanded. As I write this I’m fifteen minutes late to work due to a late 28x — if you need to be somewhere, leave 90min in advance or risk being as unpunctual as the buses.

I cannot stand the Port Authority yet I’m an avid user of it b/​c I hate driving especially during rush hour. Can you have degrees of hate… well apparently you can and in this contest the Port Authority wins out marginally — which is why it gets 2 stars rather than 1.
I should clarify, I hate the bus system but don’t mind the trolley or «T». But unfortunately, I’ve been destined to live in an area which only has bus trasport so I’ve been trying to manage and I’m so fed up with the constant delays and no-​shows of the bus I try to take to and from the city.
I have the option to take the G3 or 28X to get to and from the city in a reasonable amount of time. There are other bus options but from my research they take well over an hour to get to and from the city to the Robinson area. The G3 and 28X are the only «express» options.
The G3 has been very reliable in my experience but the timings are a bit inconvenient. They operate from 5 AM something to a little after 8 AM and then resume around 3:00 PM until 7:00 PM during the weekdays only. So if I need to get a bus after 8:00 AM or before 3:00 PM then this option is out so I have to rely on the 28X.
The 28X in my experience is constantly delayed or just does’t show up and I make use of the schedule and the TrueTime app. You would think that a bus that runs every 30 minutes could get it together and show up at least within 5 – 10 minutes of it’s supposed scheduled time. On most days, I wait over 20 minutes sometimes even 40 minutes and most of the time I’m at one of the first stops!
I wish there was a better transit option in the Pittsburgh area or the infrastrucure of the city (roads, parking, etc.) was improved… I feel like I’m stuck in between a rock and a hard place.

How is it port authority has the money to build a pointless over pass on the east liberty busway, but can’t update their online system for smart phones to be able to determine where a bus is located at? I waited two hours today in the freeZing cold to get to work. Had to call off it was just to cold out!

As a car-​less denizen of PGH, I rely on PAT buses to get from Point A to Point B. Living in Oakland, PAT offers buses to many places I need to go (downtown, the grocery store, the airport, etc.). As a PITT employee, the price (free) is right.
Having said this, I have several gripes:
1.) Buses almost never run on time, and there’s no way to know when the next one is coming other than asking the other people at the bus stop how long they’ve been waiting. Come on, it’s 2014 – a GPS-​enabled device should be in every bus so you can check to see where it is, or there should be a SMS alert system. Singapore had this for their buses in 2010!
2.) Some drivers can be surly or just downright ignorant. More than once, a bus has passed me when waiting at a stop for no apparent reason, or has failed to hold on for 5 – 10 s. as I huffed and puffed to catch it. For whatever reason, the outbound 28X seems to be especially problematic. True story: Last time I rode it, the driver didn’t know where she was going, and we ended up crossing the Liberty Bridge, despite pax telling her this wasn’t the route. To make matters worse, this was the last 28X of the night, so due to this detour, I didn’t get home until after 1am.
3.) Regardless of which route you ride, the clientele can be a bit sketch. Some drivers will also let homeless people ride without paying/​a voucher out of pity. On one occasion, a pax regaled the bus with nonsensical poetry (not sure if he was under the influence or just mentally incapacitated…), and the driver did nada about it (though it was amusing).
4.) The system of when to pay is nonsensical. Despite having a terminal degree and having lived in PGH for 3 years, I still haven’t figured it out, and have to rely on cues from the bus driver. While I understand the reason behind it (the free zone downtown), there must be a less confusing solution. Get on it!
5.) For those who don’t have a PITT or CMU pass, fares – including monthly passes – are expensive ($ 2.50 per trip). Pro Tip: For a round trip, when you pay for the first leg, ask for a transfer and use it on the second leg – this shaves $ 1.50 off your fare.
6.) Even in Oakland, where route options are better than in most areas of the city, there are no direct buses to some areas I’d like to visit (e.g., the Strip). Also, other than the P1 from downtown, buses serving the East Busway only run during rush hour on weekdays, and even the P1 only runs hourly off rush hour.
I’ve ridden public transit in other cities, and for its size, PGH should have a better system and lower fares. For starters, the T (light rail) should be expanded to run east-​west along the busways, given that it’s currently a line to nowhere.

Officials estimated about 400,000 people would be in downtown for the 4^th of July. I wish someone had informed the Port Authority of this. Maybe then they would have had more than one bus running every 20 minutes after the fireworks. Every single bus stop in downtown had about 300 people waiting for the already overcrowded buses. If a bus actually did stop (some were so full, they just drove by), fights would break out over who of the 300 people would get one of four standing room only spots on the bus.

Awful!!!
Never EVER follows schedule! Lets you wait for literally over an hour on a bus that is supposed to be running every 15 min.

The only pro about Port Authority is it gets you from point a to point b.
I’ve had buses that smell like pee. I’ve had buses where the bus drivers are yelling at drivers or people downtown. Screaming insults out the window. Had a bus driver doing like 70mph down McKnight road.
At least twice a week I get a bus that’s farebox is broke. Yeah a free ride is nice but port authority is always crying wanting to increase their already ridiculous fare prices. Routes are always getting cut which leaves buses jam packed.
They introduce the connect card (an alternative to cash and passes. If I load $ 20.00 onto the card I should be able to get a transfer without entering cash the drivers don’t know that and argue about it. Feel free to train your employees.
On an 80 degree day one buses heat was on full blast. Not the drivers fault. He finally pulled over restarted the bus and it read 98 degrees before the air worked.
Buses are late all the time. When going to work I need to leave at least an hour before I should have to, to ensure I get to work on time.
I can go on forever…

I took the bus several times on a recent trip to Pittsburgh.
The 28X/“airport flyer” is a good option to get from PIT to the city – and at $ 3.75, probably $ 35(?) cheaper than a cab. The bus was also reliable in getting from my Oakland hotel to Downtown, and from Oakland to Regent Square – especially considering the dearth of cabs in the city. The regular fare of $ 2.50 is a bit steep for the shorter trips, and when to pay can be confusing (sometimes when you board, sometimes when you exit), but those are minor annoyances.
TIP: Download the Tiramisu app for real-​time bus tracking. Worked great while I was there, and I loved that you could enter the time you got on the bus, so the app would adjust arrival times for future stops accordingly – terrific idea.

A BIG FAT DISAPPOINTMENT
I am concerned with the future of Port Authority, will Pittsburgh continue to have bus service as we know it?
Port Authority constantly causes me a great deal of anxiety. I have been riding the bus for as long as I can remember. We never had a car in my family. Now I am starting to feel like I’ve taken the bus for granted.
I have a license but I choose not to drive… because I work Downtown and the cost of renting a parking space Downtown is HIGH!!!
Anyway Port Authority to sum it up, is a hot damn mess. How could I have forgotten?
I have been shut in bus doors by ignorant, rude, nasty bus drivers Twice!!!
And when it happen the first time, the bus drive wouldn’t even apologize to me,
The bus drivers are a miserable bunch, just down right rotten,

In the wake of budget and route cuts, I must give due credit and hail PAT’s mighty T! I rarely ever caught the trolley when living in Brookline and would instead board buses since trolley’s didnt go there. After last week’s daily commuting to work from Beechview, I am now a fervent believer.
It is clean.
It is unfailingly punctual.
It rides smoothly.
It is so fast, you are Downtown before you realize it.
It’s helping me to reduce the size of my carbon footprint.
And it can take me to… Stage AE!!! Nyyyyce!!! Rawk!!!
I just wish they’d increase service and lower the fares a good bit.

This review is based primarily with my experiences taking the 28X Airport Flyer to/​from Pittsburgh Airport and Oakland.
Pros: Convienient and cheapest option for a ride to the Airport.
Cons: takes a long time (1.5hrs) and reliability is sometimes questionable. I’ve had one bus break down, one bus leave 10 mins early, and the very next bus was very very late.
Also, my main complaint is that they do not have a designated area for luggage on the 28X bus. I understand that these buses weren’t made to go to the airport, but maybe they should consider having a designated Airport service bus. There’s nowhere to put your suitcase, so it ends up in the walkway or taking up a seat.

Last night marked the second time in a week that I waited 30 minutes or more for a 71B in the freezing cold rain. I was 5 minutes early for the bus I was trying to catch. I can understand a delay during rush hour, but this was not. The bus was running every 20 minutes both times, according to the PAT schedule. When I gave up last night and went into my apartment, it was an additional 10 minutes before the bus went by… So let’s review: I waited a total of 45 minutes for a bus that was supposed to be coming past every 20 minutes. For shame!
From now on, I’ll be hoofing it across the East End instead of buying a bus pass. It will be cold, but at least I’ll be moving.

I called Pittsburgh my temporary home three summers in a row. I went to the University of Pittsburgh for SLI: Summer Language Institute from ’05-’07. The university, in an effort to accommodate out-​of-​state students as much as possible, provided «free» bus passes (these were factored into your cost of attending). With my full scholarship and pass, I had every intention of keeping this trip on the cheap by walking everywhere I could and using public trans for everything else.
My first experience with the Port Authority was taking the 28X Airport Flyer from the International Airport to the Oakland campus, which is roughly 20 miles away. The bus runs from 5:20am to 1:01am every day of the week. The opposite direction is just as convenient and starts at 4:25am with last pickup at 11:51pm. The trip takes about an hour and there are buses every 30 minutes or so. The drive is very scenic and gives you a good feel for all that Pitt has to offer.
Throughout the week students of Serbian, Russian and Bulgarian came together and went on little excursions to pass the free time. The major super market in the area is Giant Eagle («Jynt Igel», if you want to get local). There was one within walking distance of campus, but it was much more of an adventure to take the 61A, 61C or 61D to Squirrel Hill («Skvirel», if you want to get Slavic with it) and shop there. We also preferred this since the main street is lined with Greek, Russian and Jewish stores and restaurants. There is also a good number of family owned arts and crafts shops, handmade goods stores and other small businesses.
If we were feeling like we really wanted a change of scenery, we’d ride the 61C or 61D farther down SW and cross the Allegheny to Homestead, PA. There is a large shopping center with all the luxuries of corporate America from AMC Loews Waterfront 22 and Target to Chick-​Fil-​A and Dave & Busters. The distance is only 6 miles, but it always took forever and a day. You’re looking at 45 minutes in perfect traffic conditions.
Another shopping option was the Southside Riverfront. It was a mere 3 mile ride and could be accessed by hopping on the 75 or 54. We rode it many times to visit H&M for cheap clothing and REI to get travel essentials (many students end up going abroad through their respective language programs). This area was also the place to be on weekends and has a number of eateries and dive bars.
One little known fact about SLI is that you are not saved by the bell. When class is over you are still a student of the linguistic arts and expected to practice as much as possible. This includes lunches with your professors and peers, dinner dates with other students, and cultural excursions. The American Serbian Club was considered the mecca of the language students, regardless of which language they were studying. It is also located in South Side, so the 75 or 54 will get you within blocks of its doorstep. Both run pretty frequently, all day and all night.
But my absolutely best memory of the Port Authority has to be my first day back in Pittsburgh in 2006. I had decided to skip staying in the dorms and opted to go even cheaper by renting an apartment nearby. I had just arrived and was getting to know my roommates. We went for a walk around campus and ended up somewhere just NW of the school. It started to downpour and as we were scurrying for cover, a little shuttle bus driver pulled over and offered us a ride. We asked him where he was headed and in perfect Pittsburghese he replied, «Wherever yinz is a goin’.»

First time in Pittsburgh, from Chicago.
1. NO ONE SEEMS TO KNOW HOW THE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM WORKS.
2. What is with the silly system of paying on your way out sometimes? It seems like the dumbest idea ever.
3. Where are the reloadable transit cards?
4. Why are the conductors so incredibly angry?
5. Why do I need to request a stop on the «T»?
Of the public transportation systems I’ve used, this is definitely the most confusing so far. Even if the website had an easier to understand fare explanation.
Learn from the CTA. I have a new appreciation for Chicago Transit Authority.