The Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District has canceled dozens of trips in recent weeks amid a driver shortage.

The agency is working to replace seven drivers it unexpectedly lost in April, but service may continue to be affected, Hillary Blackerby, a spokeswoman for the MTD, told Noozhawk.

“While we are always hiring and have onboarded new operators in the past few months, it takes two to three months from offering the job to having them behind the wheel of a bus on their own,” Blackerby said.

She said she could not share the reasons for the departures because of personal confidentiality, but said the agency has not laid off any employees.

She added that bus drivers deal with the same traffic, roadway detours and interruptions as the public.

Those can affect their ability to make stops on time or at all. Blackerby said that even though the agency may cancel some trips throughout the day, it will not cancel entire routes.

She said the best way to stay up to date on the status of trips is at x.com/santabarbaramtd.

“Canceled service is always something we want to prevent, and our team works constantly to try and cover service,” Blackerby said. “We know that people rely on us to get them where they need to go. We thank our bus operators and supervisors for pitching in.”