CT Transit / DATTCO Dispute Leads to Indefinite Suspension of Three Hartford Express Routes

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

So I was browsing through the CT Transit website and I somehow stumbled through this:

https://www.cttransit.com/alerts/disruptions-three-express-bus-routes-effective-saturday-september-4

The routes affected as follows:

• 921 - Serves Middletown, Old Saybrook (Weekdays)
• 923 - Serves New Britain, Bristol (Rush Hours Only)
• 928 - Serves New Britain, Southington, Cheshire, Waterbury (Daily)

This appears to be a result of a dispute with DATTCO, who operates the route under contract to CT Transit. I was unaware of this, but damn does that one hurt for regional commuters. The 928 in particular hurts because of the direct link between Waterbury and Hartford (and connections to Metro-North). So riders from Waterbury, if they're making the trip, are probably either taking the 229 into New Haven for the 950 or Hartford Line, or taking the 450 up to Torrington for the 926/927 (IDK if there's even a smooth connection between the two). 

The 921 also got expanded midday and reverse-peak service in the weeks before, and it connects to Shore Line East. On the flip side, the 923 is entirely covered by the 102, so it's not the end of the world. However, the suspension is still going on four months later, and will continue for the foreseeable future until whatever the issue is gets resolved. 

____________EDIT____________

Here's an article from the Hartford Courant which suggests that the issue is surrounding hourly pay by the state to the DATTCO, which the company says it's not sufficient to continue operations. 

And apparently, after looking into this matter more, DATTCO has been operating very limited service themselves, using their own buses. I have no idea if the state is fine with this, although no issue has come up yet. The schedule is seen on this page. Two things to note are that one has to pay in cash (no CT go card or passes accepted), and the prices are higher than the CT Transit fares. DATTCO states that the current model is "not sustainable", so there may be a point if this continues on where DATTCO may even suspend that limited service. 

It would be a shame if this situation ends up in a similar fate to what happened to Bieber bus service (except in that case DATTCO would still be in operations, just not doing CT Transit work), where they basically all get eliminated. Having such a prolonged suspension definitely doesn't help rebound ridership. 

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by BM5 via Woodhaven

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

An update to this story 

https://www.cttransit.com/alerts/ctdot-announces-cttransit-express-bus-route-928-resumes-service-monday-june-20-2022

928 service resumed on June 20th, and 921/923 service will resume sometime in August, nearly a year after the routes were suspended.

 

[Mtatransit]

On 7/10/2022 at 4:17 PM, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

An update to this story 

https://www.cttransit.com/alerts/ctdot-announces-cttransit-express-bus-route-928-resumes-service-monday-june-20-2022

928 service resumed on June 20th, and 921/923 service will resume sometime in August, nearly a year after the routes were suspended.

 

Ahhh so I lucked out this weekend. I didn't even knew that they had only recently resumed service.

Ridership on the 928 was like 3 passengers including myself, so it seems like ridership is still taking its time in recovering