Lean Times for Rabbit (Para)Transit (Harrisburg, York: unemployment benefits, subsidized, cost)

[2nd trick op]

Those of us who can no longer drive due to age or disability, or who studied and/or worked in passenger transportation (I qualify on both counts) are painfully aware that local passnger (bus) carriers have been struggling for years -- and both the COVID pandemic and the quantum changes in the economy haven't helped.

York-based Rabbit Transit operates a variety of services to the local traveler with special needs -- from subsidized bus routes in York and Adams Counties, to a network of bus and van pools in several upstate counties, geared principally around Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, but covering a number of other needs, such as dialysis.

But the inceased availability of Unemployment benefits spawned in response to the COVID crisis has severely disrupted Rabbit Transit's operating pattern. Reportedly, about half its pool of drivers based in Elysburg (about halfway between Bloomsburg and Shamokin) found better-paying opportunities elsewhere. Persons with disibilities are still being served, but many of the regular ridership also use the service for groceries, banking, haircuts, etc, and availabilty of these options has had to be severely curtailed, as resources are stretched very thin.

https://www.rabbittransit.org/

Speaking on a personal levell I'd be in very tight straits without this service, and the care and courtesy of the drivers I've met has been top-notch -- but the future looks more than a little cloudy right now.

[MarketStEl]

I recall reading sometime late last year that the transit authorities serving York and Gettysburg (Rabbittransit — the Central Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) and Harrisburg (CAT — Capital Area Transit — the Cumberland-Dauphin-Harrisburg Transportation Authority) have merged.

Their service territories overlap in Cumberland County, and their websites now look identical save for logos. That includes home-page messages informing paratransit users that non-medical trips will be curtailed.

Maybe administrative cost savings might help their near-term prospects, but lots of service industries have had trouble filling jobs even after the end of pandemic unemployment benefits. Seems a lot of people who had been working jobs like these decided it wasn't worth it anymore; I've heard this being called "the Great Resignation."

Ultimately, companies hoping to fill these slots are going to have to do two things: offer higher pay and treat the workers better. The nature of public transit will probably make the latter harder to do.