Cascades East Transit to resume weekday bus schedule as more bus drivers come aboard
Starting Sept. 7, 'particularly because school will be beginning, some people are resuming back to work'
BEND, Ore (KTVZ) -- Like many businesses, Cascades East Transit had to change its schedule to allow more flexibility for their workers and ensure they could meet the demands of customers. But now, with school about to resume and more drivers on board, the regular weekday schedule is returning.
CET Transportation Director Andrea Breault said Monday they're fortunate for things to be turning around.
Initially, CET had to move to its less frequent Saturday schedule due to a driver shortage toward the beginning of summer. Now, with more staffing, it has switched back to accommodating bus riders Monday-Friday.
Breault said the transition, set for Tuesday, Sept. 7, is possible to a few reasons.
"Particularly because school will be beginning, some people are resuming back to work," Breault said. "We'll also be regaining some of our driver staff from our summer recreational services. We've also done a lot of recruiting over the summer to get more drivers on board to work for Cascades East Transit."
Breault said that although things are looking up, they're still in the hiring phase, and they're hoping to revamp the Driver in Training program, which will cover the cost for an individual to receive their commercial driver license after they work for the agency for more than six months.
I asked Breault how the initial change to the Saturday schedule had impacted bus riders, and she said the change had turned out to be a success.
"We worked with our Bend Dial-A-Ride system, which is our curb-to-curb service, to ensure that for those that use the regional system, we can ensure them a ride home in the evening, if they've missed their Bend fixed-route transfer."
"We actually stationed a vehicle here post 5 p.m., and anybody who was not able to get a ride back, we would actually drive them to their home here in the city of Bend," Breaulet said.
She also said switching to the Saturday schedule required only eight drivers, half the 16 drivers typical for weekday schedules. As of now, there are five to six new drivers coming onboard for the fixed-route and Dial-A-Ride system on the Bend side.
The special summer route between La Pine and Sunriver ends on Monday for the season. This is the second summer the free shuttle was offered and Breault says ridership has doubled. The shuttle has gained a lot of traction with the La Pine Senior Center and people who live in La-Pine but work in Sunriver.
