West Virginia University at Parkersburg student Sienna Smith walks to her car Friday at the school. While many WVU-P students drive to the campus, some use other means and would like to see a Mid-Ohio Valley Transit Authority route to the school reestablished. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG — The general manager of the Mid-Ohio Valley Transit Authority is open to resuming service to West Virginia University at Parkersburg, but said a driver shortage makes it impossible at this time.

“We … don’t have anybody right now to run a route out there,” Mike Kesterson said Friday.

The service was initially discontinued when WVU-P moved to virtual learning at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Kesterson said. It came back for a while until virtual classes were reinstituted.

“Then we got a shortage of drivers here,” said Kesterson, noting the authority has not been able to resume evening routes after suspending them last fall due to the same issue.

WVU-P student Jack Comeaux brought the issue up during the public forum portion of Tuesday’s Parkersburg City Council meeting.

A Mid-Ohio Valley Transit Authority bus is shown at the transit center on Juliana Street. A bus route to West Virginia University at Parkersburg was eliminated during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic and has not been resumed due to a driver shortage. (File Photo)

“Some students depended completely on the bus” to get to classes, he said. “Access to higher education should be the highest priority, since we are the future.”

The city collects a tax levy that supports the bus service and appoints some members to the transit authority board but does not manage the service. Mayor Tom Joyce said he notified Kesterson of the student’s concerns.

“I trust the transit authority to do what’s best for their organization,” he said.

Comeaux said he had a friend who dropped out of WVU-P due to a lack of transportation.

Interim WVU-P President Torie Jackson said she could not confirm that but said there has been an increasing number of students without driver’s licenses or their own transportation.

Cars are shown in a parking lot at West Virginia University at Parkersburg on Friday. While many WVU-P students drive to the campus, some use other means and would like to see a Mid-Ohio Valley Transit Authority route to the school reestablished. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

“We do have some students who rely on the bus system,” she said.

Kesterson said that even before the pandemic, ridership on the WVU-P route was low, averaging about 3.25 riders an hour. But even though the authority did not charge fares to students or receive any funding from the college, he said he would be willing to bring it back.

“I’d love to start it back up if I could get our driver base back up,” he said.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.