Staffing shortage may curb full bus service

After nearly five months of allowing employees with illnesses, high health risks, and child and family care issues to stay home with pay, Port Authority ordered everyone who wasn’t sick or quarantined to come back to work this week in anticipation of returning to a full service schedule Aug. 23.

But the agency and the union that represents operators say they are concerned a long-standing shortage of operators combined with COVID-19-related problems will make it difficult to provide full service.

“We have a concern that we’ll have enough people to operate the full schedule on Aug. 23,” said Jim Ritchie, the agency’s chief communications officer.

“That’s honestly not a new problem for us. We’ve been faced with this problem throughout the pandemic.”

While it may seem odd to plan full service at a time when demand remains low, the authority says it is locked in by decisions made in the spring.

The agency announced in June, when virus numbers were dropping, it would return to full service Aug. 23 to meet union requirements for drivers to bid on available routes. Although the virus spiked again and ridership has remained more than 50% below last year’s level, it has to follow through with the return to full service.

“If we didn’t decide to go back to full service, we ran the risk of not having enough [service] operating to serve the people who needed it to get to work if the [virus] numbers continued to go down,” Mr. Ritchie said.

Records provided by the authority show it paid $3.3 million to employees who have been off with various COVID-19 absences: 285 at various times for virus testing; 111 off to monitor symptoms; and 255 off because they were in medical quarantine. Dozens more have been off

under the federal CARES Act for extended periods because they are at high risk for the virus, for child care or for caring for family members, initially at full pay and then at two-thirds pay.

Although nothing has been determined yet, the authority is hopeful those salaries will be reimbursed under federal grants made available to public transit agencies that have lost millions in revenue due to the virus. The authority is eligible for $141.75 million.

Steve Palonis, president and business agent for Local 85 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, said the authority has done “a great job” putting safety measures in place and allowing employees to take advantage of the federal leave program. He said he understands why the agency didn’t want to extend the agreement with the union that allowed workers to stay home, but he questions whether it can provide full service.

“How long can you go like this with that many people off?” Mr. Palonis said. “We need operators. We need maintenance people to run the system. But I don’t know how they think they can provide full service.”

As the pandemic began in March, Port Authority cut service by 75% as ridership dropped by more than 80% on buses and more than 90% on the light-rail system. In May, it returned 39 bus routes to a full schedule with a limited number of riders to maintain social distancing, and in mid-June, it returned to full service on the lightrail system and announced full bus service would return Aug. 23.

Throughout the pandemic, though, the agency has had problems meeting whatever service level it has in place on paper. With drivers off, it couldn’t staff trips on some routes, and buses with too many passengers have had to pass riders at stops regularly.

Overall, the agency has been unable to provide drivers for about 9,000 hours of service since mid-March.

Mr. Ritchie said that’s an extreme version of what happens at the agency every day, where supervisors at its four division garages juggle to meet service schedules. For several years, he said, the agency has been short an average of 85 drivers and regularly fills routes with drivers on overtime.

“I don’t think it’s a secret,” Mr. Ritchie said. “We’ve battled through the pandemic to meet service requirements. This will be no different.”

Groups such as Pittsburghers for Public Transit have criticized the authority for not shifting drivers to make sure the busiest routes are served as well as possible. But Mr. Ritchie said the authority considers service to economically depressed areas an important part of the agency’s responsibility.

When a division comes up short of operators, Mr. Ritchie said, supervisors usually choose to pull drivers from the most frequent service to make sure less frequent routes are served. For example, a route with four trips an hour is more likely to have one skipped if there is a driver shortage than one with only two trips an hour.

“They have to make spot decisions,” Mr. Ritchie said. “They do what they can to spread out the impact as much as possible.”