ALLENTOWN, Pa. – For the first time ever, LANTA is putting in place restrictions on its bus routes to conserve fuel.

Starting on Wednesday, the buses will not be running at their usual times. LANTA Executive Director Owen O’Neil said 20 routes will be starting later and ending earlier, and 6 will be canceled altogether in an effort to save fuel.

“We have never really run into this kind of a situation where we do have a limitation on us right now from UGI, because their supplies are being limited from one of their pipelines,” said O’Neil.

UGI Utilities sent us a statement explaining the issue. It said, in part:

“During this extreme cold period, one of the interstate pipeline operators that deliver natural gas into UGI’s system has instructed UGI to closely manage deliveries from the pipeline. Accordingly, UGI instructed certain tariff rate class customers to limit their usage.”

“We’ve had to kind of put these emergency schedules together so that we can try to limit our fuel usage,” said O’Neil.

But those schedules could seriously mess up some riders’ commutes.

“You need to get on the bus like you normally do, all of a sudden oh no that route’s not working today because we don’t have any fuel. That’s just ridiculous,” said Roger Heintzelman.

Heintzelman said he’s hoping it doesn’t end up costing him an arm and a leg.

“If I have to take an Uber or something, it’s going to be ridiculous amounts. I don’t have that much money to be spending running around,” said Heintzelman.

O’Neil said he understands the issues the fuel shortage is causing.

“We are trying to find alternate, additional sources,” said O’Neil.

And he said the agency is also looking at ways to keep this from happening again.

“Whenever you face an emergency like this, it makes you kind of think for, what could we do the next time?” said O’Neil.

Unfortunately, LANTA doesn’t have a timeline for when the routes might be back to normal, so you’re going to want to head to the agency’s website or give its customer service line a call at (888) 253-8333 to make sure you’re not waiting out in the cold for a bus that isn’t coming.