Juneau residents can once again take a Capital Transit bus to the airport, University of Alaska Southeast and social service providers on Teal Street on weekdays.
Capital Transit suspended the routes in Dec. 2022 because of a driver shortage. Now, both routes are running on weekdays and at peak hours only, pausing service in the late morning and early afternoon.
Capital Transit Superintendent Rich Ross said driver recruitment picked up over the summer, when the city switched to an online application system. Last winter, they were short eight or nine drivers. Since then, they’ve hired five drivers. They also hired another maintenance worker.
“We have a fleet of 18 buses, and I’d say on average this summer, probably five of them were broken down at a time,” Ross said.
Hiring the maintenance staffer brought that down to two or three, Ross said. Capital Transit is still looking to hire a mechanic and a service technician.
The city resumed service on routes 5 and 6 on Monday. Route 5, the University Connector, runs from the Valley Transit Center to Auke Bay and UAS. Route 6, the Riverside/Airport Connector, has stops at the airport, Nugget Mall and Teal Street.
Additionally, routes 1 and 4 will start earlier in the morning. Route 1 serves downtown and Douglas, and route 4 serves the Mendenhall Valley.
“Every time we add in earlier service, we get more people riding than we had initially expected, so it seems like there was some unmet demand there,” said Matthew Carpenter, Capital Transit’s lead operator.
The earlier service on route 4 will allow people to get to Bartlett Regional Hospital before 7 a.m. The first route 4 bus will leave the Valley Transit Center at 6 a.m. and get to the hospital by 6:45 a.m., according to the new schedule.
“We had gotten feedback that there were people trying to get to the hospital early in the morning before 7 a.m. for some shifts that start there early in the morning,” Ross said.
Updated schedules are on Capital Transit’s website.
