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The 2,200-member Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85, representing bus drivers and maintenance workers, approved the proposed agreement by an "overwhelming majority," president Patrick McMahon said Sunday night. The nine members of the Port Authority board are to vote on the proposed contract at 11 a.m. today.

The Port Authority's system, the nation's 15th largest, provides bus and T rail system in Allegheny County and parts of adjacent counties.

About 1,700 union members voted during morning and evening sessions at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland, although final voting tallies were not immediately available.

Many workers were upbeat about the proposed contract and grateful to their leadership for negotiating the agreement.

"I have to trust our officers," said Tom Moore, a maintenance worker based in Collier for 11 years. "These are the best officers we've had since I've been here. I think they're looking out for the welfare of the (union)."

McMahon led the union's negotiations with the authority since the previous contract expired June 30. Gov. Ed Rendell and county Chief Executive Dan Onorato joined the talks Wednesday.

Both participated in a marathon 23-hour negotiating session that started 9 a.m. Friday and ended about 8 a.m. Saturday with the proposed agreement. Both McMahon and Rendell said each side conceded on some issues and got what they were seeking on other issues.

Regular bus riders were relieved a strike was averted.

"As a senior, I depend on it," Sylvia Rose, 71, said as she prepared to board a bus outside the Murray Avenue Giant Eagle in Squirrel Hill to return to her home after a shopping trip.

"I'm glad it's settled because the bus is the only way I get around," said Megan Shinn, 20, a Carnegie Mellon University junior, as she waited in Oakland for a bus back to campus. She uses the bus to go grocery shopping, travel Downtown and visit friends.

Ramazan Kisa, 27, a master's student at Carnegie Mellon from Ankara, Turkey, said the bus is the only way he can easily get to class in Oakland from his home in Squirrel Hill.

"It would be very hard without it," Kisa said.

The proposal would give union employees a 3 percent wage increase in each year of the contract. The average annual pay for a union employee is $47,000. A 3 percent increase would take that to $48,410.

Also, union members and managers would begin paying 1 percent of the salary toward the cost of health insurance. Co-payments also would increase. Port Authority officials have said the contract would not require a fare increase.

Maintenance worker Rich Walnoha, also based in Collier, said the combination of a 3 percent annual increase and the 1 percent health premium was a concern.

"I personally don't like the freeze in the cost of living," he said. "I think we need to keep up with the pace of the economy."

Rendell pledged to help the authority prepay health premiums so the authority would receive a discount from provider Highmark.

Also, Rendell promised to increase the state's annual subsidy to the authority by 2 percent, generating an extra $9 million in revenue. Rendell said he plans to promote a "comprehensive transportation bill" with the Legislature that would generate more money for highway work and mass transit agencies.

Rendell also is credited with helping end a weeklong strike earlier this month by Philadelphia bus drivers. The agreement reached there appears similar to the Port Authority proposal.

"They say our contract is comparable to what they got in Philadelphia," said 20-year maintenance employee Tom Bevan, who works in West Mifflin. "I guess you can't ask for anything more than that. It turned out pretty good."

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