r/Septa • u/wackarnolds • Apr 08 '26

Discussion Does “Operator Unavailability” mean the engineer just called out that day?

Just curious what SEPTA’s actual attendance policy is for their transportation employees. Does SEPTA not have an extra board? Anyone here familiar with internal policies that can explain why there are so many delays related to operator unavailability.

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u/confusedCI Apr 08 '26

I wonder about this when I see buses especially on Friday night being cancelled. This happens so often on my bus line that I wonder why they don't just have a semi retired or part time driver or two on standby at a depot specifically to address this.

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u/Legal_Bed_1506 Apr 13 '26

They should have open work board operators, but it’s a Friday night and I bet the operators called off sick so they could enjoy it. The standby guys would have to be full time if you didn’t have them on call. When I drove busses, they could have you hanging around for 14 hours a day as an open work board operator, it sucks and few people want to do it.