WRTA Cutting Bus Routes, Reducing Trips Due To 'Driver Shortages'

WORCESTER, MA — The Worcester Regional Transit Authority will cut a new bus route and reduce trips on multiple routes one day per week for the foreseeable future due to an apparent driver shortage.

The regional bus system announced the cuts Friday evening on social media and its website. WRTA will delete the new 825 route — a combined route that runs from the Greendale YMCA down Park Avenue to Webster Square — and will reduce the number of trips on Routes 11, 14, 19, 24, 26, 27 and 30. The cuts will be in effect on Fridays only.

"After thoughtful review of the challenges faced due to driver shortages, the WRTA has decided to temporarily suspend or reduce service provided on Fridays only," the agency said in an alert Friday. The changes go into effect on Jan. 27.

Those schedule cuts will affect service to areas like Vernon Hill, Route 9 to Leicester, UMass Chan Medical School, Burncoat, Great Brook Valley, the Auburn Mall and West Boylston.

WRTA Administrator Dennis Lipka has previously said the agency is fully staffed at about 90 drivers. But for months, WRTA has been canceling trips with short notice, typically on Thursdays and Fridays.

That's due to drivers who use the state Paid Family and Medical Leave program on an intermittent basis, he said. When those drivers call out from a shift, other drivers use overtime to fill in. But fixed bus route drivers typically hit the 60-hour overtime limit before the end of the weekday, leaving the system without drivers.

"We don't have enough drivers who report to work on Thursday and Friday, primarily due to PFMLA," Lipka told Worcester Patch in December.

A representative from the Amalgamated Transit Union representing WRTA drivers did not immediately return a request for comment.

The shortages mean the cancellation of about 60 trips each Friday, Lipka said. A look at the WRTA's social media feeds shows a steady stream of Thursday and Friday cancellations going back months.

Lipka appeared before a Worcester City Council subcommittee earlier this month to answer questions about the continuation of the fare-free policy, and a series of issues with the system — from bus shelters to undependable service.

"You have a system where people can call out within hours, it seems to me we don't have enough employees for that backup," District 2 Councilor Candy Mero-Carlson said to Lipka at the meeting. "They have the right to have that time but to say, 'OK, Joe called in sick,' so that means the entire public gets to stand on the street waiting for the bus? I find it hard to believe we don't have a system that could replace that driver."