Starting Monday, Lane Transit District will operate under a new schedule, with reductions to eight routes, additions to one route and scheduling shifts to three routes. LTD plans to prolong the suspension of three routes.

LTD attributed the cutbacks to a combination of reduced ridership and a shortage of drivers. The press release said ridership is at 70% of what it was pre-pandemic. LTD Chief Marketing Officer Pat Walsh said LTD is actively recruiting and that LTD can only provide the level of service it is staffed to deliver until positions are filled.

Schedule changes to EMX and the continued suspension of routes 27, 73 and 79 might affect University of Oregon students. Other changes can be found on LTD’s website.

EMX

Full EMX trips will now occur every 15 minutes instead of every 10 minutes between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekdays. 

In between those, additional weekday trips have been added so that between 1:44 p.m. and 4:50 p.m. there is service along the route from Eugene Station to Springfield Station every 7 and a half minutes. The same is true for the trip from Springfield to Eugene between 2:43 p.m. and 5:50 p.m.
Routes 27, 73 and 78

In the press release LTD announced there would be “no service until further notice” on these routes. These were three of seven routes suspended when LTD cut back services at the start of the pandemic. The other four have since returned.

Route 27 Fairmount ran from downtown through the West University, South University, Fairmount and Laurel Hill Valley Neighborhoods. Route 73 UO/Willamette ran from UO Station south through the Southeast Neighborhood along Willamette St. Route 78 UO/Seneca/Warren ran west from UO station through the Churchill Neighborhood.