At the end of October, SMART public transportation temporarily halted their Saturday bus services due to understaffing.
The organization is currently planning to resume services in the spring for the 2022 Moscow Farmers Market season, in order to get people into the market.
Ben Aimen, the executive director of SMART transit says that this is a difficult situation.
“The reason we’re doing this is because of a severe driver shortage,” Aimen said. “We haven’t been able to hire enough positions to maintain operations as they were, so we looked at all our data points and found that ridership was a lot lower on Saturdays.”
As the current schedule stands, the buses run alternating between the two routes Monday to Friday from 6:40 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Aimen does not believe there will be any further changes to the schedule.
“Our goal was to suspend Saturday service in order to protect Monday to Friday,” Aimen said. “So, I don’t anticipate a need to suspend more services.”
Kallyn Mai, ASUI president, also sits on the SMART transit board as a voting member.
“The board has been phenomenal from the beginning communicating with me and asking if that solution was okay,” Mai said. “Many of the businesses in town and across the country are facing staffing issues”
Mai also was not terribly worried about the loss of the service for UI students.
“I surveyed our small group of ASUI students, and everyone said no, it shouldn’t be an issue, because it was just the weekend,” Mai said. “My biggest concern was that students could get to class, and they can still do that.”
Mai also said she had not yet heard any issues surface from the student body, but encourages students to reach out to her and the ASUI Senate if they experience any issues.
Mai also encouraged students to utilize other resources that are available to them for getting around.
“Another great solution is the new Vandal UberX program that is rolling out,” Mai said. “It offers up to two one-way trip subsidies anywhere in the city of Moscow… It’s a super great program that has been in the works for a long time.”
Mai also wants to emphasize how much SMART transit does for the community.
“They are doing all they can to serve the community,” Mai said.
More information on the bus system can be found on their website. More information on the Vandal Uber project can be found on the UI website.
Abigail Spencer can be contacted at [email protected] or on twitter @ABairdSpencer