Buses aren’t running in Orange County due to maintenance worker strike.
(Published 1:41 p.m. May 7, 2018)
Orange County officials are considering making the entire route of the bus system in Orange County open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday. The county is considering the move so bus operators can deal with a work stoppage.
Orange County Supervisor of the Board of Supervisors Todd Spitzer, who is leading the effort to make the entire county bus system open Monday, said the last time the entire county bus system was closed was in April 1986. A series of accidents prompted the mass closure of the entire bus system, with buses only operating between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m. during the day.
“This time, we’ve added an extra hour or so to each day so bus operators will have more time to do their job,” Spitzer said.
The first buses will run from 7:15 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. Monday. The last buses run at 4:30 p.m. at 7:15 p.m.
The last time the entire Orange County bus system was closed was for a three-day strike in April 1986, according to a March 31 article posted on the county-commissioner’s office website.
During the strike, the county replaced bus drivers with bus-rides, with bus drivers being replaced weekly. The strike officially ended on May 7, according to the Orange County Transportation Authority website.
Orange County officials previously proposed extending the hours of school buses, opening the route of shuttle buses and extending the hours for county-owned buses on the entire bus system.
Bus contractors such as Metrolink and Southern California’s own Santa Ana County Public Transportation Authority, which manages the Santa Ana County bus system, had already indicated that they would keep the entire route of the Orange County bus system open Monday.
