OSTA making progress on bus driver shortage, down to 30 vacancies

A yellow school bus in Ottawa is seen in this undated photo. (Dave Charbonneau/CTV News Ottawa)

The authority that manages school buses for Ottawa's English public and catholic school boards is continuing to make progress in hiring more bus drivers to tackle a shortage of bus drivers.

The Ottawa Student Transportation Authority announced Wednesday that it continues to deal with a shortage of bus drivers, but the number of vacancies has been reduced from 40 to 30 drivers.

The 10 new-hires were made in the last two weeks, a statement by the OSTA said.

The new hires will also reduce the number of bus cancellations.

"This driver shortage results in the long-term cancellation of approximately 2 per cent(118 runs) of all transportation services managed by OSTA," the statement said.

There are currently 38 drivers in training.

As of Oct. 24, there were 50 driver vacancies in the Capital, resulting in the cancellation of 4 per (216 runs) of all transportation services managed by OSTA.

Two weeks earlier, there were 71 driver vacancies, resulting in the cancellation of 5 per cent (258 runs) of all transportation services managed by OSTA.