ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Some LANTA bus riders are seeing changes to their daily commute.
Service reductions are now in place on several routes.
Executive Director Owen O’Neil says these reductions are mainly on isolated trips on routes with the lowest demand in ridership like late-night weekend buses.
“With the reductions we tried to make sure we were affecting as few riders as possible,” says Lanta Executive Director Owen O’Neil.
Over the past few months, LANTA has been taking public comment on the reduction.
Riders weighed in during a series of meetings.
“We were able to make some of those changes and keep some of those trips based on the rider input,” says O’Neil.
The changes stem from a lack of funding.
“We had a lot of reserve funds from some of the COVID relief funding that we had gotten a few years ago, and we were able to kind of stretch that out, but as that funding went away and there was no replacement for it, we had to make some adjustments to our level of service,” says O’Neil.
Some riders we spoke with say they’re concerned about how the cuts could impact their daily commutes.
“I don’t have a car, and this will be my only transportation to work, so it could affect me in the fact that I might have to cut hours at work,” says rider Yanelis Savaro.
Looking forward, LANTA hopes it can maintain its service levels for all of its riders.
“We’re hoping that next for our next fiscal year that there will be a new funding bill passed at the state level, and if that’s the case, then we won’t have to continue doing these kinds of reductions,” says O’Neil.
You can find a full list of changes here: 2026 June Service Changes – LANTA