Editorial: Will rebranding Pittsburgh buses work?

On Thursday, Port Authority of Allegheny County ceased to be.

But it didn’t go anywhere.

The buses still roll. So does the T. But with the unveiling of a new idea, Port Authority became Pittsburgh Regional Transit.

It’s called rebranding. It’s a way that organizations — often big names — wipe the chalkboard clean and start over in a new direction.

Dunkin’ Donuts dropped the name of its signature product, becoming just Dunkin’ when it started making more money off coffee sales. KFC was born when Kentucky Fried Chicken sounded a little too deep-fat fried. Facebook became just a social media platform owned by the multibillion-dollar company renamed as Meta.

So why did Allegheny County spend $720,000 to rebrand the state’s largest public transportation system outside of Philadelphia?

CEO Katharine Kelleman said it’s about getting people to change how they think about public transportation.

It might be more about actually getting them to think about it at all since ridership understandably dropped during covid-19 restrictions that kept many people out of their offices and from visiting restaurants and other Downtown destinations. Since those restrictions lifted, passengers have yet to return in the same numbers.

If that was all, rebranding would seem kind of silly. Not as bad as New Coke, but more like the short stint when Pizza Hut tried to go by “The Hut.” Don’t remember that? Exactly.

For the newly christened PRT, the real goal should literally be its middle name. It should also be a focus beyond just the limits of Allegheny County. True regionalization would not just help make more people aware of mass transportation. It also could help other counties’ transportation groups facing similar struggles.

Better integration of Allegheny County’s bus routes with Westmoreland and Washington counties’ — and other areas’ — systems would benefit riders and transportation systems alike.

Rebranding is not always successful. Radio Shack was not saved by its attempt to become “The Shack.”

But if Pittsburgh Regional Transit wants to make a real transition to a new identity, it needs more than new paint jobs on the buses and a new name. It needs a real commitment to embrace the idea of regionalization.