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Upper Cumberland Public Transit could be forced to temporarily reduce service over the next several weeks because of COVID quarantines.
UCHRA Executive Director Mark Farley said at least ten drivers have been lost in the Cookeville office in the last several days.
“We’ve got a lot of drivers, we got a lot of staff out right now,” Farley told the UCHRA Board Of Directors Wednesday. “Our ability to transport people may suffer for a couple of weeks. We’re getting notifications all morning about different drivers that are being quarantined or coming down sick. And it may just be a sheer numbers situation where we have to scale back and just worry about sort of prioritize our trips in the next couple of weeks.”
Farley did not rule out a temporary suspension of service.
“Wee may have to look at what goes on over this holiday period, we may have to shut down for a little bit,” Farley said. “And so just bear with us for trying to work through this as soon as we get through all these quarantines and the sickness.”
UCHRA runs more than 100 vehicles in its fleet providing more than 250,000 trips per year, according to UCHRA data. The service provides different levels of transit opportunities across the region from in-city bus routes in Cookeville, Crossville and McMinnville to destination trips for residents across the region.
