Opinion — Residents Feel Sidelined in Favor of Tourists

PHOTO COURTESY OF PITTSBURGH REGIONAL TRANSIT

Even if you aren’t planning on braving the North Shore or Downtown for the 2026 NFL Draft, getting around the city during the event may still be more difficult than usual.

Pittsburgh Regional Transit recently announced that it was increasing service for certain routes from April 23 through April 25 to accommodate the 500,000 to 700,000 visitors expected to descend upon the city. But its website shows that a significant number of routes will be running on a Saturday schedule throughout the Draft weekend — which for most routes means reduced frequency — or not at all. 

Routes listed as offering “no service” during the Draft window include typically busy weekday routes like the P3, which services Oakland via the East Busway, and the 65, which services Squirrel Hill. 

Adam Brandolph, deputy chief communications officer for PRT, says the transit network will be operating on a systemwide Saturday schedule, with a few exceptions, for the duration of the Draft. The routes that won’t be running on Thursday, Friday or Saturday of the Draft are the routes that don’t run on Saturdays anyway.

“For the most part, bus routes that don’t operate on Saturdays are our flyer routes that have redundant local service,” he says. The O12, for example, is the McKnight Flyer, which services parts of the North Hills and Ross Township roughly every half hour during daily rush hours to supplement the 12, which only runs about every 45 minutes during the week. 

The problem is that Thursday and Friday are still weekdays for the majority of the city’s residents, who can’t afford to press pause on daily responsibilities just because the Draft is in town; folks still have to get to work, school, doctor’s appointments or even just out to run errands, and service interruptions and redirections in favor of the Draft leave some residents with a sour taste.

“I think PRT is assuming the city is shutting down for the draft,” writes a social media user on Reddit. Another comments, “I can’t see how this is a good idea. The expected draft-specific lines run every 15 minutes while everything else gets decimated?” 

Others voice their frustrations that the city is prioritizing tourists and tourism dollars over its residents, who live in the city and pay taxes to it year-round.

Other non-flyer routes that will not operate during the Draft include the 71 to Edgewood Town Centre; the 52L, which travels to the Duquesne Park and Ride; and the 7, which services Spring Garden. Those three routes in particular are classified as low-income routes, which PRT’s 2025 Annual Service Report found were less reliable on average; 67.1% of designated low-income routes are reliably on time, opposed to 69.5% of non-low-income routes. 

Brandolph says that PRT decided to operate most routes on Saturday schedules so they could direct their “limited resources” toward increasing frequency throughout key Draft corridors, the rail system and the four Football Flyers.

“The only way we are able to increase service on the rail system and have the Football Flyer routes is to reduce service elsewhere,” Brandolph says. “We know our system will continue to be used by local riders trying to get to work during the Draft. We encourage all riders to plan ahead and allow for extra travel time.”

Brandolph notes that a number of businesses and schools have moved online during the Draft, including Pittsburgh Public Schools, which announced it would pivot to remote instruction April 22-24 to help families navigate “the logistical challenges across the region,” according to a PPS spokesperson. Companies such as PPG, Highmark and PNC have also said employees will have the option to work remotely.

But the majority of schools and businesses remain open. It will be business as usual at Duquesne University, which enters its final exam period just a few days after the Draft, and at the University of Pittsburgh, where more than a quarter of students commute to school using public transit. And that’s not to mention the scores of people who work in retail, food service or other customer-facing roles that cannot be performed remotely.

However, the city’s tourism department’s messaging has been pushing public transit, going as far as to unveil a comprehensive public transit plan that encourages travelers to leave their cars at home amid a slate of Draft-related road closures.

A spokesperson from VisitPITTSBURGH said the organization echoes PRT’s communication: Reducing the majority of its fleet is necessary to redirect focus toward Draft-related transportation and local travelers are encouraged to plan ahead. 

PRT and VisitPITTSBURGH have also previously said that riders will be able to “expect a higher level of reliability across the entire system.” 

But with the majority of routes operating less frequently than usual, that messaging feels out-of-touch. PRT is already struggling: the company’s on-time performance standard for all bus routes is 75%, but in 2025, the majority of its routes failed to meet that standard, with 35 routes more than 10% below that benchmark, according to last year’s annual report. The 65, for example, was only on time 39% of the time. 

Painting our city’s public transit as the bastion of citywide connectedness for tourists when we’re in the national spotlight, but privately failing to meet performance standards for the folks who call Pittsburgh home and rely on public transit daily, comes across as somewhat double-edged. It’s reminiscent of the gilded Olympic villages built up to conceal local blight from the prying eyes of the world. 

Yes, the Draft is a big deal, and yes, PRT can’t magically conjure up more qualified bus drivers overnight, but taking service away from people who rely on it can’t possibly be the only answer. Yes, visitors deserve good and accessible public transit, but residents do, too.

Some folks have asked why the NFL can’t contract shuttle buses or coaches from a private company to charter folks from Park and Ride locations into the Draft Zone instead of relying on a local transit system that is underfunded, understaffed and underperforming as is. With a revenue that exceeds $23 billion annually, the NFL’s pockets are certainly deep enough.

When the U.S. Open came to Oakmont last year, event organizers provided free, continuous shuttles operating from two complementary offsite parking lots, one at Hartwood Acres and one at the Monroeville Mall. They were run by the privately owned Academy Bus, and reports were glowing. Visitors got to where they had to be, and locals did, too. Some even made a few bucks renting out their driveways for $50 to $100. 

But with parking rates exceeding $500 in lots near the Draft footprint, and even local meters rising to $5 per hour, PRT buses may be the only real option for our city’s Draft-bound guests.

There’s no doubt that getting to the Draft will be made as easy as possible for tourists. PRT is maintaining full weekday service on key corridors, including the P1 (East Busway), G2 (West Busway) and the 54 (Northside-Oakland-South Side). It is also offering expanded service options like the four Football Flyer routes and additional frequency on the Red, Blue and Silver lines of the T. Sheetz has also partnered with PRT to provide free fares on the T’s Red, Blue and Silver routes and on the Monongahela Incline from April 23-25. However, it comes at the expense of residents whose daily bus routes will be limited or cut altogether — and who balk at the organization’s claim of systemwide ease during the event.

“All the other buses being on Saturday service basically means it will take hours to catch a transfer if you need one,” writes one social media user. “I mean, we’ll live, but this is just so dumb.”