Service Disruptions Background

Metro apologizes for the inconvenience caused by our shortage of equipment.

Metro's maintenance team went through classroom training on electric buses this past summer. With mechanics in the classroom, we are behind on mandatory inspections and repairs.

This is causing us to be short standard-size diesel buses. Metro experienced similar issues earlier in the year as a number of our mechanics were involved with training. 

Electric Bus Issues / Route B Cancels

We also have been experiencing some cancelations on Route B due to issues we've experienced with our New Flyer electric bus fleet.

Route B utilizes a different type of charging process than Route A.

On Route A, buses top off their charge at the end of the route with overhead chargers at Metro’s new maintenance facility at Hanson Rd., as well as at Junction Rd. and Sun Prairie park and rides. 

With those overhead chargers at the end of the line, those buses can stay out on the road all day. 

On Route B, we don’t have these overhead chargers, so we need to send buses back to our Hanson Rd. facility to plug in. This charging takes longer, and the logistics of driving back out to the garage make it more challenging as well. 

We’ve also experienced some programming issues with these garage chargers that prevented them from receiving a full charge at times and there have been problems with doors working correctly. 

Issues with our electric fleet have diverted maintenance resources from the diesel fleet, which has further added to our diesel bus shortage.

There are teams from our bus manufacturer New Flyer here in Madison working through these issues with us. 

Metro again apologizes for the inconvenience our passengers are experiencing due to our bus shortages and are working to get this corrected as soon as possible.