Cobb County transit buses to operate on Saturday schedule tomorrow

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — CobbLinc buses in Cobb County will be operating on a Saturday schedule on Tuesday after multiple bus drivers called in sick.

Channel 2's Cobb County Bureau Chief Chris Jose spoke with employees who call this a 'silent protest' about pay and benefits.

On Monday afternoon, CobbLinc issued a press release saying they are calling in extra drivers to make up for the morning's shortage. They said the system shuffled resources to make sure Paratransit services were available for critical customers. A majority of afternoon routes are expected to run as scheduled.

"We regret that our customers experienced disruptions to their schedules due to the unexpected shortage of bus operators today," said Andrea Foard, CobbLinc Director. "We remain committed to providing quality, timely, and safe service to our customers and endeavor to assure similar disruptions do not occur in the future."

CobbLinc management said it is unaware of what caused a significant amount of drivers to not report for work Monday and had no advance notice that it would happen.

A Cobb County spokesman said about 50 drivers failed to show up for work but said they didn't know why.

Taxi Driver, Melvin Gordon, spoke to Jose about the frustration among riders.

"I got like 3 or 4 customers saying that the number 40, number 45, never showed up," he said. "The bus driver pulled off, told them they had to wait on another bus, which was probably about an hour."

A frequent rider told Jose his bus was an hour late. When the rider spoke to the driver, he said there was a problem with the union and they couldn't really discuss it.

CobbLinc’s Saturday schedule essentially runs the same routes, but starting later in the morning with less frequently arriving buses.

Cox Media Group