Numerous afternoon bus routes will not run as usual Wednesday afternoon to and from Downtown and Brookside, Lighthouse Point, Kimberly Square, City Point, Hamden, Cheshire, and Waterbury in the latest of ongoing CT Transit cancelations.
The cancelations have occurred daily since an unusually large number of drivers have called in sick, apparently in response to Covid-19 safety concerns (Read about that here.)
Eleven routes are affected Wednesday.
CT Transit Assistant General Manager of Planning and Marketing Joshua Rickman told the Independent in an email that the agency is working on the problem.
“It is unfortunate these trips will not operate today. Fortunately for some of these trips, such as the 238, 243 and 261, there next trips that operate shortly after the cut trip. On a daily basis CTtransit operates slightly less than 1,800 trips out of the New Haven Division, so even with these cancelled trips, over 99% of our service will go out today,” Rickman wrote.
“It is important to clarify that we are not experiencing an abnormal number of sick call outs. We do have some employees that are currently excused from work for medical reasons; however, the number of these employees is decreasing. The pandemic has also slowed our ability to train new operators to replace those who have retired, but I’m happy to share that we currently have training classes underway to help increase our number of bus drivers.”
Here’s the latest list of cancelations from CT Transit for Wednesday afternoon:
Route 206
The 5:50PM trip on Route 206 from downtown New Haven to the Lighthouse Park Terminus and the 6:21PM return trip from the Lighthouse Park Terminus to downtown New Haven will not operate.
Route 228
The 5:10PM trip on Route 228 from downtown New Haven to the Cheshire Town Hall Terminus will not operate.
Route 229
The 4:10PM trip on Route 229 from downtown New Haven to the Waterbury Green Terminus and the 5:32PM return trip from the Waterbury Green Terminus to downtown New Haven will not operate.
Route 234
The 5:20PM trip on Route 234 from downtown New Haven to the Putnam Place Terminus and the 6:01PM return trip from the Putnam Place Terminus to the Davenport Apartments will not operate.
Route 237
The 4:30PM trip on Route 237 from downtown New Haven to the Brookside Terminus and the 5:18PM return trip from the Brookside Terminus to the Davenport Apartments will not operate.
Route 238
The 4:25PM trip on Route 238 from downtown New Haven to the Centerville Terminus and the 5:18PM return trip from the Centerville Terminus will not operate.
Route 243
The 3:40PM trip on Route 243 from downtown New Haven to the Brookside Terminus and the 4:15PM return trip from the Brookside Terminus to downtown New Haven will not operate.
Route 261
The 3:35PM trip on Route 261 from downtown New Haven to the CT Post Mall Terminus and the 4:31PM return trip from the CT Post Mall Terminus to downtown New Haven will not operate.
The 4:40PM trip on Route 261 from downtown New Haven to the CT Post Mall Terminus and the 5:46PM return trip from the CT Post Mall Terminus to downtown New Haven will not operate
.
Route 271
The 3:50PM trip on Route 271 from downtown New Haven to Kimberly Avenue & Ella T. Grasso Blvd will not operate.
The 6:55PM trip on Route 271 from downtown New Haven to Kimberly Avenue & Ella T. Grasso Blvd will not operate.
Route 272
The 4:49PM trip on Route 272 from downtown New Haven to Union Station and the 5:03PM return trip from Union Station to downtown New Haven will not operate.
Route 274
The 3:00PM trip on Route 274 from downtown New Haven to the City Point Terminus and the 3:15PM return trip from the City Point Terminus to downtown New Haven will not operate.
While I signed up for email alerts regarding CT Transit service disruptions, I think it would be helpful if CT Transit used its Twitter account and Tweeted them.