{"id":104324,"date":"2022-07-06T11:41:49","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T15:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=104324"},"modified":"2022-07-06T11:44:24","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T15:44:24","slug":"kingston-transit-recovering-from-pandemic-impacts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/kingston-transit-recovering-from-pandemic-impacts\/","title":{"rendered":"Kingston Transit recovering from pandemic impacts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The impacts of the pandemic continue to be felt for public transit users in Kingston as service interruptions are still occurring. For a few hours this past Saturday, one of the routes was reduced from a 30 minute frequency to hourly. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAny interruptions that we\u2019ve had have been quite limited, very localized. At this moment we are meeting all our committed service levels,\" Director of Transit Services Jeremy DaCosta says.<\/span><\/p>\n

DaCosta says one of the biggest variables in service interruptions is COVID-19.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe impacts of COVID are still real\u2026staff on a daily basis may screen out of the workplace because they may have COVID or symptoms related\u2026This is something that\u2019s very hard to predict, it can change in a moment if a bus operator finds themselves in that situation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Another key factor relates to layoffs and reduced service during the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe laid off all our part time bus operators\u2026during that period of more than a year, we didn\u2019t hire any bus operators\u2026We did have bus operators who retired or transferred to other departments. <\/span>Coming out of COVID,\u00a0 as ridership is returning\u2026we have a deficit of bus drivers\u2026we are recovering from that, we\u2019re trying to hire staff,\u201d says DaCosta.<\/span><\/p>\n

DaCosta says Kingston Transit has a path forward.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day we continue to hire staff\u2026we have at least seven more in active training, and more that are planning to start training soon. The situation is definitely improving.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

DaCosta says any cancellations are a last resort.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still subject to further service reductions\u2026we do everything we can before we cancel a route, that sometimes means assigning other staff who wouldn\u2019t normally drive a bus\u2026the only time we reduce service is when we\u2019ve exhausted all other options.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to the full CFRC interview with Jeremy DaCosta below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The impacts of the pandemic continue to be felt for public transit users in Kingston as service interruptions are still occurring. For a few hours this past Saturday, one of the routes was reduced from a 30 minute frequency to hourly. \u201cAny interruptions that we\u2019ve had have been quite limited, very localized. At this moment…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":104326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[218,2602],"tags":[9203,284,16434,15004,7104,15187],"radio":[13056],"origine":[267,13051,269],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104324"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104324"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104375,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104324\/revisions\/104375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104324"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=104324"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=104324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}