Shuttle service cancellation is never something we take lightly. When a snowstorm is coming, we begin carefully following weather forecasts several days in advance—watching the storm’s predicted timing, temperatures, severity and location variations.
If we don’t think that we can get you home safely in the afternoon, we won’t operate in the morning.
If we operate your shuttle in the morning, we will do our absolute best to get you home in the afternoon.
Factors that influence the decision to cancel for the day, whether because of unsafe conditions in the morning or unsafe conditions predicted for the afternoon, include:
- The severity, timing and expected length of storm according to the National Weather Service.
- The combined effect of previous storms: Has there been enough time to clean up? Will even bigger snowbanks make roadways too narrow for buses to maneuver?
- Requests by public officials for the public to stay off of the roads and/or for private businesses to close.
- Roadway conditions that specifically affect larger vehicles like our shuttles, but which may not be an issue for smaller personal vehicles.
- Conditions in the cities and towns that our shuttles travel through: For example, the roadways in Cambridge may be clear while the hills of Waltham are impassable.
When a storm is happening during the workday—and in the messy days following a storm—we do everything we can to operate shuttle services on a regular schedule. However, weather conditions and MBTA delays can cause your shuttle to run behind. When delays or other changes must occur, we will always keep you informed. Again, we communicate via mobile rider app alerts, on your route’s webpage, and over email as time allows.
During storm conditions, if we’ve operated your shuttle in the morning, we will do our best to operate on a regular schedule in the afternoon. However, in very rare cases, we may need to run the afternoon shuttle schedule early (e.g. first pick-up at 2 P.M. instead of 4 P.M.) to ensure everyone’s safety.
If an individual member company would like an early release for its employees, we need to receive the request from an assigned member contact by 10:30 A.M. at the latest—earlier is better.
During extreme weather events, please do not call 128 Business Council for shuttle updates.
During extreme weather events, please do not call 128 Business Council for shuttle updates. Normally, we welcome calls from our riders! But individual calls during storms tie up our phone lines, disrupting our ability to coordinate schedule adjustments.