Charm City Circulators increase route rotation times after period of cancelled service
BALTIMORE -- The Charm City Circulator shuttle buses will begin running at a tempo reminiscent of a time when the free-ride buses were popular among the city's public transportation community.
The buses had stopped rolling past their regular stops in December due to a driver shortage that prompted cancellations, according to the Baltimore City Department of Transportation.
The department said in a series of online posts at the time that it had been trying to hire 45 new drivers after switching contractors.
Repairing the buses and training new inspectors also topped the list of priorities, transportation officials said.
Some of the Circulator buses returned to service on Monday, running at intervals of every 40 minutes to every 60 minutes.
The following day, the buses increased their speed to intervals of every 30 minutes to 40 minutes.
On Thursday, those intervals will increase to roughly 20 minutes with the exception of the Banner Route buses, according to transportation officials.
The buses will run every 20–40 minutes depending on their routes, transportation officials said.
- Purple Route: 20 minutes
- Orange Route: 20 minutes
- Green Route: 20 minutes
- Banner Route: 40 minutes