“Bonnie, do you find the GOIN’ proposal technically acceptable?” PSTA’s Director of Procurement Al Burns asked Bonnie Epstein, PSTA’s Director of Mobility Services. “I mean…” Epstein answered and paused. The issue at hand was PSTA’s…
In his re-election bid, St. Pete Beach Mayor Alan Johnson appears to have violated Florida campaign law at least twice. First by claiming to have a political endorsement he didn’t have, secondly by also touting…
In developing information for another article we are working on, we discovered that Treasure Island Mayor Tyler Payne told a citizen “It’s Mayor Payne, not Tyler” in a text message. However, Payne doesn’t address others…
Two days ago, St. Pete Beach Mayor Alan Johnson posted a graphic on his campaign Facebook page in which he falsely claimed to have received the endorsement of newly elected Pinellas County Commissioner Brian Scott.…
PSTA executive Abishek Dayal said in this Tampa Bay Business Journal (TBBJ) interview that he is “hoping the BRT project spawns some other interesting projects in the region. That could be extensions of BRT or…
A draft version of an email PSTA CEO Brad Miller was preparing to send to the PSTA board contained a damning admission which didn’t appear in the email that was ultimately sent to the board.…
We reported yesterday that PSTA (the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Agency) in 2019 moved a bus stop to be closer to Pinellas County Commissioner Pat Gerard’s home, this after she lost her driver’s license following multiple…
After a string of traffic citations and car crashes during a two year period, immediate past PSTA chair and former Pinellas County Commissioner Pat Gerard found herself without a driver’s license in 2019. A public…
As the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) continues to fail to meet their own ridership projections, one Pinellas County beach town has shown that transit can be provided at a much lower cost to the…
In a presentation about PSTA’s new Sunrunner bus line yesterday, PSTA’s Director of Communications & Marketing Whitney Fox said it was “really exciting to see that we are getting people out of their cars.” Fox…
PSTA’s response to an extensive public records request shows it has no underlying data to base its ridership claims on. PSTA (Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority) said that they had “no records” when asked for data…
PSTA staff will give a “Sunrunner one month update” report to the PSTA board tomorrow morning. The presentation includes social media impression claims, survey results, a dozen children…and beer. However, completely absent from PSTA’s presentation…
Last week, we rode PSTA’s much promoted new Sunrunner bus line and documented discrepancies between what PSTA was saying and doing (article). We found serious operational deficiencies. However, the most serious problem we found on…
In May, PSTA claimed that its new Sunrunner bus “is designed to meet the demands of work commuters and attract tourists and new riders into PSTA’s comprehensive transit system.” PSTA is now backpedaling, perhaps due…
Three years ago, the Tampa Bay Times reported that “studies of the [Sunrunner] route connecting downtown St. Petersburg with the beaches estimate it would have 4,500 daily rides.” On June 2nd this year, PSTA told…
“The bus will leave when I’m finished cleaning,” the PSTA driver told the Tampa Bay Guardian reporter. We repeated our question: what is the scheduled departure time? “It’s hard to keep the schedule,” the driver…
Term limits for Pinellas County commissioners has been a flashpoint ever since 73% of Pinellas voters approved 8-year term limits in 1996. The county commissioners waged a court fight along with others, mostly at taxpayer…
Three months in to its fiscal year 2022, PSTA’s bus ridership year over year has declined another 20%, according to its own official reporting. PSTA, which is the taxpayer-funded Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, ended its…
