Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and Port Authority Chief Executive Officer Steve Bland say most transit riders will have access to service even if a proposal to eliminate 124 of 213 weekday routes is carried out in June as they intend.

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People may have to walk a little farther to stops and be more inconvenienced, but buses will still be on the road 75 percent as much as now, they said yesterday at a meeting with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial board.

"It will still be a significant system and will still provide service to all parts of the county and on nights and weekends," Mr. Onorato said. "We're hoping and gambling that the public will realize what we're trying to do is what's right."

Most of the routes being eliminated run less frequently or carry fewer people than others, or both, so the authority has predicted it will lose no more than 11 percent of 240,000 weekday bus and light-rail riders.

		Listen in Comments from Mr. Onorato: How proposed changes will affect passengers and the Port Authority Two proposals for fare increases Comments from Mr. Bland: Plenty of short-term pain. How the targeted routes were identified Redesigning the system

For example, the 25C Hankey Farms route had only 30 people total on 15 trips on an average weekday in November, or two riders per trip. The 6C Spring Garden, whose 200 riders a day were spread over 25 trips, averaged eight riders per bus. The 60B Jenny Lind in the Mon Valley had 228 riders a day on 38 trips, an average of six riders on a bus.

All three routes are among those proposed for elimination.

If the 11 percent estimate is correct, Port Authority daily ridership would drop by 26,000, or 13,000 round trips.

The cuts were based upon a recently developed "Service Scorecard," a methodology designed to rate objectively such service aspects as average daily ridership and cost per rider.

Mr. Onorato and Mr. Bland said drastic cuts, combined with a fare increase and at least 400 layoffs, are necessary to address a $75 million to $80 million projected operating budget deficit for the 2007-08 fiscal year that begins July 1.

They reaffirmed the decision to downsize and restructure the authority even if Harrisburg politicians intervene with stopgap funding as in past transit crises or pass a long-sought source of long-term, dedicated funding.

"This plan has to happen," Mr. Onorato said, describing ever-growing financial problems at the Port Authority as "a ticking time bomb."

He said he notified Gov. Ed Rendell and state lawmakers who represent the county of the plan to restructure the 43-year-old transit agency into one that Allegheny County can afford and still provides a level of service higher or comparable to other urban areas.

The county gives about $25 million a year to subsidize the authority.

If the state approves dedicated funding, "it will be based on the new system," Mr. Onorato said, and not the costly, inefficient current system.

Twice since 2003, the Port Authority has threatened to raise fares and cut service, but emergency state funding temporarily closed the funding gaps.

The special money ran out Dec. 31, leaving the Port Authority with the cumulative impact of growing deficits, an early retirement program, a new labor contract and rising energy, health care and pension costs.

In September 2004, the authority proposed what was quickly characterized as a "doomsday plan" -- a 75-cent increase in the $1.75 base fare, eliminating weekend and holiday service, and ending weekday service after 9 p.m.

Mr. Rendell initially flexed $4.7 million in federal highway funds to the authority, and then $113.4 million, as stopgap funding that ran out Dec. 31.

"We're not looking for a bailout," Mr. Onorato said. "We're going to do this in June. This is for real."