It’s been plaguing everything from supply chains to consumer prices and local commuters – driver shortages. Help is on the way, but there’s plenty of frustration left to get through.
“I’ve lived all over the country. I’m from New York City. I’ve never been in a problem where I couldn’t get to somewhere through public transit,” said Syracuse resident Jeffrey Martinez.
Martinez lives just a few blocks away from the CENTRO stop at the intersection of James and Warren Street behind City Hall, but says that’s where the convenience in his commute stops.
“If you don’t have a job in the city, it’s impossible if you don’t have a car to get to work, unless you pay for an Uber, and who has the money to pay for these extra things?” said Martinez.
Martinez said he’s lost two jobs and had to turn down work because of a lack in transportation, and he’s not alone.
“I’m talking to a lot of people… a lot of people are in my same situation. They just can’t get to their jobs. It’s failing the people of Syracuse,” said Martinez.
CENTRO Vice President of Communications and Business Planning Steven Koegel says he’s heard many of the concerns.
“The past two years have been certainly a challenge. Hopefully by March, we’ll have more more service on the road,” said Koegel.
A shortage in drivers has continued to cripple CENTRO’s efforts to remedy the gaps in service, but there’s more.
“We’re all trying to do the best we can to attract the right amount of people and the right people to get behind the wheel and do the job. Basically bus operators and mechanics, service or cleaners,” said Koegel.
For the driver issue specifically, they’re starting to fill courses with applicants again.
“What we had before, there in that 15 to 20 range, but there were a couple of classes where we had 10 people in the class and we ended up with three drivers turned in,” Koegel added. “So it’s difficult when you’re just not getting the numbers through the door. And you’re losing people through attrition and retirements, through people just changing their job situation or families move or whatever.”
While they work on staffing up and trying to expand services to and beyond pre-pandemic levels, they “get it.” Things aren’t running as smoothly as anyone would like to see right now. That said, they have two tips to those with concerns: patience and being proactive.
“I would ask anybody who has a specific need, let us know some of the services that we put back on the street this week, or in direct response to phone calls or emails or conversations that we had with existing corporate customers who said, ‘hey, this is what I need, can you provide it?’ We continue to work right now on restoring as much service as we can,” Koegel added. “It’s not full service. It’s not what we had. But it is the level of service that we provide at this point.”
CENTRO officials say they have made a concerted effort to increase frequency and routes. Many of the recent additions started on November 8. One thing Koegel also mentioned is that they are working closely with businesses outside city limits to best serve the workforce as they return service.
