Lane Transit District says it doesn’t have enough drivers to operate its buses at full capacity. As a result, it’s temporarily reducing service on weekdays.
Before the pandemic, LTD had more than 200 bus drivers, but now they have just 170, said agency spokesperson Pat Walsh.
He said they need to hire at least 100 more bus drivers.
“That includes making up for that shortage from the pandemic,” he said. “But also, we have a number of bus operators that we know over the next year or year and a half, are going to retire. So, we have to look ahead and continuously recruit so we can replace those operators and provide the service to the community.”
For the time being, they’ve had to reduce service.
“Right now we don’t have enough bus operators to run a full complement of schedules,” Walsh said
He said passengers should check the new schedule. Some routes have fewer buses serving them.
“We haven’t eliminated any routes, but what we have done is change some of the pick-up and delivery points on some of our routes,” he said.
Walsh said LTD is in an aggressive recruitment process for new bus operators, fleet mechanics, and public safety officers.
He said they hope to add back much of the reduced service in the summer.
