Bus Route Trouble Continues Thursday, MOCO Posts Affected Routes

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — Bus driver shortages left some MOCO students without a ride for the second day in a row in the Montgomery County Public School district on Thursday.

The district announced Wednesday night that the shortage would continue and posted a list of the affected morning and afternoon routes. An updated list was posted with more additions later. The shortage was due to an unexpected number of drivers calling out sick, MCPS said on Wednesday morning.

MCPS suggested that parents carpool or have kids walk to school if possible. The district said it would post updates, prioritize the bus routes that serve special needs students, use staff to drive routes that can serve more than one school and use all available transportation staff to cover routes.

"We recognize the hardship that transportation staffing shortages creates for our families we thank you for your support as we address this challenge," the district said. "Your patience and understanding are appreciated as we work through the ongoing challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic."

The district said Wednesday morning that approximately 90 routes would be affected that day — it announced later that 75 were affected in the morning and 82 in the afternoon.

"We apologize for this inconvenience and understand the difficulty this causes for families," the district said in the announcement on Wednesday morning. "Given these circumstances today we are working to better understand the problem and will provide further communication to let families know how we will solve this issue."

See the district's page for bus updates here.