Santa Barbara MTD to lower service levels at end of April

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Santa Barbara MTD announced on Wednesday that it will temporarily lower service levels at the end of April in order to improve system reliability in response to driver shortages.

“The reliability of our schedules is crucial and due to the current labor shortage the temporary reduction of service is a necessary step,” said MTD General Manager Jerry Estrada.

“We hope that these temporary reductions will allow us the time to staff up appropriately and return to higher levels of service later this year.”

The temporary service reductions will be effective April 25 and will impact over 20 service lines from UC Santa Barbara and Isla Vista to Carpinteria, according to Hilary Blackerby, spokesperson for MTD.

The changes for each bus line will be different, so riders are encouraged to review the new schedules online. Temporary schedule guides will be printed and available at the Transit Center in Santa Barbara and on-board buses, and the new schedule is available online by clicking here.

Blackerby said that there has been a shortage of transit operators nationwide since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"While MTD continues to recruit aggressively for bus operators, the agency has experienced a confluence of retirements and normal attrition causing a drop in the number of available bus operators," she continued.

"This drop coupled with the Omicron surge has meant that various bus trips are occasionally cancelled, causing uncertainty for passengers."