Port Authority of Allegheny County will reduce its weekly service hours by 4% next month to account for a driver shortage and ridership that has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, officials said this week.
Seventy-five employees, including 43 bus operators, have been fired for violating the authority’s covid-19 vaccine mandate, said spokesman Adam Brandolph. He said about a dozen employees are still awaiting disciplinary hearings.
The changes are meant to reduce the number of scheduled trips on some of the agency’s less-busy routes, making those operators available to fill in for other operators as needed.
It also should make scheduled service more reliable, David Huffaker, Port Authority’s chief development officer, said during a committee meeting Thursday morning.
“This does not mean we’re cutting service permanently, and we are not eliminating any jobs,” he said. “It is a temporary step to make sure that our schedule, which is our contract with riders, is reliable for them when they leave for work or school or a doctor’s appointment.”
The changes go into effect June 26.
For a full list of changes, visit portauthority.org/ServiceUpdates.
Officials said missed trips peaked in March at about 14%.
Port Authority has struggled with driver shortages and service disruptions for months as hundreds of employees protested the vaccine mandate put into place earlier this year.
The mandate went into effect in March, at one point prompting more than 400 employees who refused the vaccine to be held off of work pending their disciplinary hearings.
