TACT Operations Manager Tiffany Chaffee listens intently as the Board of Directors discuss changes coming to bus routes in April.
The Town and Country Transit Board of Directors were the first to glimpse into a list of route changes coming to bus service throughout the middle Armstrong County area.
According to TACT Operations Manager, Tiffany Chaffee, riders can ask to have the bus stop at an undesignated location along the fixed route. However, there were several locations that riders often requested to be picked up or let off.
“One of the most requested ones was the Social Security office and the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) in West Kittanning,” Chaffee said. “So we are altering our Blue Line (schedule) a little bit to make that a regular stop to cut down on the request only stops. As much as they are needed, it puts a strain on our fixed route drivers. When you get too many request stops, that puts us behind schedule and (drivers) at a disadvantage. We are trying to look at where the request stops are and adjust them a bit better for our drivers.”
Chaffee said that her team was busy going through all of the daily runs and making changes.
“For the most part, the times may be adjusted 10-15 minutes difference,” Chaffee said. We did remove some of our runs that we didn’t have much ridership on. Instead of having five different drivers on fix route, we are going back to 4.”
TACT General Manager Patti Lynn Baker assured her staff that changing service routes would have no effect on current staffing.
“To be clear, no one is losing their job. We are going to absorb that person back into shared ride, where we actually need drivers as well. It is a win-win situation.”
New schedules are being printed and are expected to be available on Monday, April 3. She said old ones would be removed from racks and destroyed when the new ones are available.