SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC NEWS) – Instead of having to worry about parking or sitting in traffic, you may decide to take the Centro bus to the NYS Fair. Central New York Regional Transportation Authority has been providing a shuttle service to the NYS Fair for 45 years.
The number of stops has decreased because there aren’t enough bus drivers. Vice President of Communications and Business Planning, Steve Koegel says, “We are still struggling with a manpower issue, we have a limited number of bus operators right now, we’re still not at 100% of our Syracuse regular fixed routes service that we operate day to day.”
In the past, the Park-N-Ride shuttle service has made stops to locations like Weedsport, Auburn, and Oswego. For 2023, there will only be three stops; Destiny USA, Long Branch Park in Liverpool, and downtown Syracuse hub.
Centro hired more drivers specifically for the fair and plans to do another hiring event. Koegel says, “Once the fair ends we’ll get back into the full blown advertising, getting people here, and trying to build our ranks again.” Koegel finds that the problem is less people are getting their commercial driver’s license and being a bus operator may not be an attractive job.
The NYS Fair will be from August 23rd to September 4th. The shuttle service will continue to be $1 to and from the fair and will operate from 8:45 a.m. to 10:30p.m. Drop off back to the shuttle service stop runs from 9 a.m. to midnight. In addition, Centro will accommodate fairgoers who attend Chevy Court concerts that run later into the night.
Centro’s main focus is to hire more drivers before looking into what they can do with Micron. Currently, there is a direct bus line to and from the Amazon warehouse in Liverpool and Centro plans to do something similar with Micron employees.
