DART makes temporary bus route cuts because of workforce shortages caused by pandemic

Philip Joens, Des Moines Register
·1 min read

Des Moines Area Regional Transit will temporarily reduce service on seven routes Wednesday because of workforce shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"By temporarily reducing service on some routes, DART will improve the reliability of our services until staffing levels improve and DART can restore service to these trips," DART spokesperson Erin Hockman said in a news release.

The public transit service plans to temporarily reduce service on:

  • Local Route 52 — between Valley West and Jordan Creek.

  • Express Route 92 — to Hickman Road.

  • Express Route 93 — to 8th Street.

  • Express Route 95 — Vista Inbound.

  • Express Route 96 — EP True Inbound.

  • Express Route 98 — to Ankeny.

  • Express Route 99 — to Altoona.

Changes can be found online.

In a mid-January interview, Hockman hinted that temporary service changes could be coming in order to sustain reliable levels of service on some key routes because more employees were infected by COVID-19 after the holiday season.

“If we do end up needing to make some temporary service reductions, it won’t be as significant as the service reductions we did have to make early on in the pandemic,” Hockman said at the time.

More for subscribers: Omicron surge leaves no segment of Iowa unscathed: Police, schools, restaurants deal with record wave of cases

Philip Joens covers breaking news for The Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-443-3347 at pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines' DART bus system makes temporary cuts to service