Nearly a million more riders stepped aboard buses operated by Lane Transit District this past fiscal year.
Overall, LTD says it had 5,956,158 passengers in 2023, versus 4,975,763 the year before.
LTD spokesman Pat Walsh said this increase is likely due to people going back to work or the classroom following the pandemic.
“We believe that passenger boardings will continue to steadily rise over the next few years," Walsh told KLCC. "We need more bus operators to provide more service. We recently graduated a class of ten bus operators, but you know as soon as we hire bus operators we have people in the workforce that retire or change jobs so we’re working hard to recruit and retain the bus operators that we have.”
Walsh said LTD currently has 170 bus drivers. The district need two dozen more to get up to full speed, to serve LTD's 30 neighborhood and two EmX routes.
People interested in being a driver can visit LTD.org to learn more about the job. A new class of drivers are set to begin LTD's nine-week training program at the end of October.
