delays

(Updated at 5 p.m.) Some Arlington Transit (ART) riders are out of luck as transportation officials tell ARLnow that maintenance issues are cutting service.

The bus service shared today that ART routes 43, 45, 53, 87 would operate on “reduced service” and that at least three other lines (45 to S. Dinwiddie Street, 61 to N. Veitch Street, and 75 to N. Monroe Street) “will not operate.” The disruptions are due to a “mechanical issue,” according to social media posts.

Numerous delays and cancellations were also reported on Monday.

In October so far, the ART Alert Twitter account reported 76 times that buses missed their routes and 25 times the buses were late or ran reduced schedules. The vast majority of both types of issues were attributed to unspecified mechanical issues.

Due to mechanical issue ART 45 to S. Dinwiddie and Columbia Pike from Rosslyn Metro at 1:00 PM will not operate. We apologize for the inconvenience.

— ART Alert (@ART_Alert) October 29, 2019

A spokesman for Arlington’s Department of Environmental Services (DES) — which oversees ART — told ARLnow that the service interruptions were not related to the ongoing Metrobus strike in Northern Virginia.

“The recent missed trips are due to bus maintenance issues,” said DES spokesman Eric Balliet. “ART’s service provider, National Express, is working to address these issues as soon as possible.”

“This is a temporary interruption and we are working side-by-side with the County to rectify these delays,” said a spokesman for the U.K.-based National Express Transit Corporation. “We will be back to full-service without reductions within 48-72 hours, and will continue to work with the County on delays that may be caused for any route that we serve.”

This is not the first time that mounting maintenance problems affected ART service.

In January, ART pointed to its bus aging fleet and a shortage of drivers and as reasons why some trips were going “missing.” Last June, ART service was also dogged with service delays and cancellations due to unspecified maintenance issues.

In the past, several buses’ brakes have failed, one bus with a reported check engine light issue overturned, and there were other major crashes. However, it’s not clear whether ART’s the latest maintenance woes are related to any of the past issues.

Back in May, a county survey found riders want more updates about their trips, and a recent study found ridership has continued to decline over the past three years.

ART 53 will operate with reduced service this morning. Details: https://t.co/8VHMnU8tow and click "Service Alerts"

— ART Alert (@ART_Alert) October 29, 2019

Due to Mechanical issues ART 61 to Veitch from N. Veitch st at 4:13 pm will not operate. We apologize for the inconvenience.

— ART Alert (@ART_Alert) October 29, 2019

Arlington Transit officials are hoping to get bus service back to normal this week, after everything from emergency brake issues to loose bolts on buses prompted a series of delays and cancellations, but riders on some routes could still see longer waits.

Arlington Transit Bureau Chief Lynn Rivers told ARLnow that her agency discovered a series of mechanical issues on county buses during an inspection of the ART fleet that began last Saturday (June 2). Rivers noted that ART technicians worked to repair those issues as inspectors discovered additional problems, which forced the agency to offer reduced service over the course of the last week.

A county spokeswoman says that ART wrapped up its safety inspection and repairs on Friday (June 8). Now, Rivers says ART hopes to restore its level of service to “our normal” this week.

“All of those [issues] are easily repaired. They’re part of a routine maintenance,” Rivers said.

ART runs routine fleet inspections about every two years, Rivers said. This inspection, which ART characterized as “expedited” in a statement last Tuesday (June 5), occurred a little under two years after the last one, according to Rivers.

She says the the transit agency decided to bump up the safety review after “noticing and also getting comments… about our on-time performance.” Rather than sampling half of ART’s 72-bus fleet, as the agency would in a typical review, Rivers said officials decided to sample 51 buses for maintenance — the number that operates across the county on a normal day.

Issues uncovered by the inspection led to the cancellation of almost 6 percent of trips last Monday (June 4) according to Rivers. That translated to 48 missed trips that affected 11 of ART’s 17 routes, according to the ART Alert Twitter account, which announces all delays and cancellations. Over the course of the week, 12 routes were affected.

Tuesday saw 38 trips missed, according to Twitter. Although that number was down to 16 by Wednesday, it spiked back up to 32 on Thursday before settling back to 13 on Friday.

There were 24 cancellations yesterday (Monday), comparable to the number missed in some of the days preceding last week’s inspection.

Rivers noted that ART plans “to follow up” this week “to see exactly where things are.” However, she added that the conclusion of this inspection and maintenance work likely won’t prevent some of the more serious issues ART riders have noticed, like buses struggling to get up hills and to start again after stopping at lights. Rivers said that ART has noticed “buses that seem to have some power issues,” prompting those sorts of breakdowns.

Problems like this could occur in buses at the end of their “useful life” — 12 years for a 40-foot bus. These buses are routinely scheduled for “rehabilitation,” which extends their useful lives by about four years, Rivers added.

“What will be done in most cases is major components,” like engines or transmissions, “are upgraded or rehabilitated,” Rivers said.

With all that work still ongoing, Rivers said ART appreciates riders who have stuck with the bus system.

“We’re just very grateful that people will just be understanding as we work through this process to continue to have a faithful and reliable system,” Rivers said.