Driver shortage hits Minnesota Metro Transit

The driver shortage has been gripping the country since the beginning of the pandemic, its latest victim is the Minnesota Metro Transit Department. 

Metro Transit in Minnesota is all set to enact its quarterly route change in December according to which it will suspend 5% of its current schedule. The suspended half includes routes that have been lagging throughout the pandemic and the shortage of drivers has led to this decision. This reduction of services will affect local urban routes where the frequency of buses will reduce and in some cases not run at all. Changes are to come into effect from December 4th. A new Metro Orange line will be opened to provide rapid bus trips between downtown Minneapolis and Burnsville, this will also eliminate express routes 597 and 535. 

Metro Transit controls 5,500 bus trips every day but the department has had to cancel many trips off late due to driver shortage, this has caused inconvenience to regular commuters. Brian Funk, Metro Transit's acting chief operating officer said that their goal is to be 100% reliable, they do not want to operate under uncertainty as there are people waiting at bus stops for them. Metro Transit needs 80 more drivers out of a total of 1,200 to run their full schedule. 

Source: StarTribune