WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Watertown CitiBus is down three of its buses – reducing the number of daily pick-ups on a couple of routes. It could take more than a month to see the buses back on the road.
Watertown CitiBus typically has five buses, with three of them running daily routes. The other two are used as backups. But some recent mechanical issues have knocked three of them out of the rotation.
Two of the smaller buses both need new air compressors. City transit director Kyle Meehan says it might take a while to get two of them.
“They were about two to three months out when we contacted them for the first one. So we’re hoping that we can at least see one in the next four to five weeks,” he said.
Meehan says it’s hard to get the air compressors because of supply chain issues. The third bus is one of the larger ones. That one has a transmission issue and has been out of service since November. There’s no timetable yet for that one to return. In the meantime, the city has looked for loaners without much luck.
“We’ve contacted every major transport agency; Albany, Rochester, Cortland, Tompkins County, and Syracuse, and none of them have any spare buses to loan us,” said Meehan.
While the city waits for repairs, CitiBus is combining two of its routes – the Route B Arsenal – Mall, and Route C 2 Coffeen – JCC routes. The change will cut the number of daily pick-ups and drop-offs in half on that route. See the full changes at the bottom of this story.
We spoke with a couple of people as they were waiting for the bus and most of them said the schedule changes are only a minor inconvenience.
“No, I’m not very frustrated. Either take a cab or walk or whatever – ride my bike,” said Trevor Chamberlain, CitiBus rider.
Meehan says the larger bus will cost around $400,000 to fix. The smaller buses are closer to $150,000, but he says the city will not have an issue covering the costs.
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