ST. LOUIS–Passengers on the MetroLink and MetroBus systems have noticed changes that went into effect starting Monday Nov. 28 as BiState, the agency which oversees the operations, grapples with staffing issues.

Instead of continuing to cancel MetroBus trips on a daily basis because of a lack of drivers, some lines have been reduced to improve dependability. 

One route, the #71 Patterson-Redman, has been suspended temporarily. Metro announced an agreement with the rideshare service Lyft, for $1 fares for portions of the line. 

“Ultimately, we want our customers to know their bus will show up when it is scheduled,” Charles Stewart, Metro Transit’s Executive Director told Spectrum News in a statement.

“We do not want to make any MetroBus route changes without adequate workforce resources in place, as it would risk returning to unplanned cancellations and inconsistent service. As we hire new operators, we will look at the best allocation of our MetroBus resources,” he added, without specifying how many operators the organization was short.“

“We continue to aggressively recruit, hire and train new classes of operators, and will continue to regularly evaluate our operations for opportunities to improve transit service for our customers as we work on our workforce goals," he said.​​

You can find more information about the impacts to service and the Lyft agreement here.