Expect St. Patrick's Day Detours, Delays on Downtown Buses

About 45 Port Authority bus routes serving Downtown and the Strip District will see temporary bus stop changes and detoured or truncated routing during the St. Patrick's Day Parade Saturday.

The parade will begin at 10 a.m., with the route stretching from the intersection of Liberty Avenue and 11th Street at the Greyhound Bus Station to the review stand on the Boulevard of the Allies at Stanwix Street. 

An estimated 23,000 participants are expected to draw about 150,000-200,000 spectators to the area, according to the organizers. 

The parade has been an annual event celebrating the city's Irish heritage for 142 years. Event officials said that Pittsburgh's is the second-largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the United States; New York City has the largest. 

Bus routes serving the Strip District will be detoured as early as 8 a.m., with other detours starting about 9 a.m. Regular stops and routing should be restored at about 2:30 p.m.

During the parade, South Side/South Hills bus routes will terminate at Station Square, where riders continuing into Downtown can transfer to the T for free. Second Avenue bus service will terminate at the First Avenue T Station, and Oakland/Hill District/Penn Hills routes will terminate near the Steel Plaza T Station. All T rides within Downtown are free.

The 28X Airport Flyer will not serve Downtown during the parade. Riders should take the T to Station Square to catch the detoured 28X. P1 East Busway-All Stops riders must pick up their route at Penn Station during the parade.

Various other bus routes are also detoured. For full details, visit www.portauthority.org, or call customer service at 412-442-2000 or the TTY number, 412-231-7007.