Orange Route, Old Bristol Road out of service

Orange+Route%2C+Old+Bristol+Road+out+of+service

Emily Milano, Reporter

The AppalCart’s Orange Route is closed Thursday due to a staffing shortage and Old Bristol Road will be closed for AppalCart buses indefinitely, according to AppalCart.

“For those using Orange, please utilize the Green Route for service to Mountaineer Village,” AppalCart posted to their website Thursday. 

There are no plans to close any more routes, and AppalCart hopes to have the Orange Route running Friday, according to Craig Hughes, AppalCart director.

“Hopefully, this is just for today. You never know who’s going to call out or how it will impact service. We try to plan for that, but we can’t always have all the pieces fall into place for something to get covered,” Hughes said. 

When the Orange Route is out of service the Green Route is able to pick it up without a lot of change to the route, Hughes said. The decision to resume services to Old Bristol Road is made on a day-to-day basis; however, the Orange Route is expected to be running Friday. 

AppalCart is working to get more drivers trained to keep routes open on a more consistent basis.

“The Silver Route hasn’t been running to Old Bristol for about two weeks now, and we have still had classes making it hard to get to class each day,” Elle Brislin, sophomore public relations major, said. 

Hughes said the Silver Route hasn’t been running to Old Bristol Road since the snowstorm Jan. 15.

“It’s not like App has adequate parking options, so not having access to our bus makes it very challenging to plan on getting to school each day,” Brislin said. 

AppalCart has made no announcements to open services to Old Bristol Road.