The Centre Area Transportation Authority is looking to hear from community members about how they have been affected by recent service reductions and suspensions resulting from staffing shortages.
CATA will hold a community input meeting at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 7, in the Downsbrough Community Room of Schlow Centre Region Library, 211 S. Allen St.
“The goal of this meeting will be to accept comment from CATA’s riders and others relating to how the authority’s recent service changes, made in response to staffing shortages, have affected them and their transportation needs,” according to a CATA statement. “Information received will be considered in future service planning decisions.”
Anyone unable to attend the meeting can submit comments to comments@catabus.com or call CATA’s Customer Service Center at (814) 238-2282.
After implementing some changes in August, CATA announced two rounds of temporary service reductions and suspensions this fall.
In September and early October, CATA suspended the the F (Pine Grove), G (Gray’s Woods) and S (Science Park) routes, ended service earlier on the K (Cato Park) and P (Boalsburg) routes and reduced frequencies on the N (Martin Street/Aaron Drive), R (Waupelani Drive), V (Vairo Boulevard), W (Valley Vista), and HM (Nittany Mall/Toftrees) routes.
In late October, the authority suspended the A (Park Forest) and XG (Pleasant Gap) routes and University Park campus Green Link as well as all Sunday CATABUS and CATARIDE service. It reduced service frequencies on Saturdays and ceased service at 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday on all routes , with the exception of the campus Loop and Link. CATA also further reduced service on the K (Cato Park) HM (Toftrees/Nittany Mall), P (Boalsburg), XP (Scenery Park) and Loop and Link routes.
The second round of changes were meant to “assure published service is more reliable,” after staffing shortages resulted in last minute cancelations on some routes
CATA officials said in October that the changes were expected to remain in place at least through the end of the calendar year, though they would be revisited as hiring continues.
Louwana Oliva, CATA CEO and executive director, said in a September statement that the authority was experiencing “severe” and “unprecedented staffing shortages,” much like some other businesses and transit agencies around the country.
She added that CATA has “all hands on deck” and that every staff member with a commercial drivers license is being asked to get behind the wheel. But staffing levels are too low to handle any type of absence.
“CATA currently finds itself in the situation of not having enough employees to cover scheduled transportation service,” Oliva said at the time.
“While we understand that everyone’s bus service is important, we need to make difficult decisions to shift available staffing resources away from low ridership routes and times of day to meet overall demand and serve the most people. The result is these temporary service changes while we continue to work on bus driver recruitment.”
