Looming cuts to Rhode Island Public Transit Authority bus routes and bus frequency are off the table – for now.

The service cuts caused by a driver shortage were to go into effect June 15, but progress recruiting new drivers encouraged the statewide bus system’s board of directors Thursday to put them off indefinitely. Interim RIPTA CEO Chris Durand said he thinks the agency can ‘figure out’ driver staffing for the next couple of months without the cuts and hopefully avoid them in the long term.

The service cuts were initially planned to go into effect this month but were put off until June while RIPTA held hearings to get reaction from the public on them. Riders, predictably, were not keen on the reductions.

The number of routes affected by the cuts was also scaled back. On Thursday, Durand said the agency’s recruitment efforts, boosted by a recent increase in driver pay, had gone well enough to suggest the bus system could piece together its schedule without the cuts. ‘We do have a driver shortage. We do not have enough drivers today to meet the schedule,’ Durand said. ‘However, looking at what [the scheduling] team can do to manage that day-to-day versus eliminating routes in their entirety, we feel this is a better course of action to make sure buses are still there.’ Durand said RIPTA had received applications from more than 200 prospective drivers and is hoping a decent share of them can become full-time drivers.

RIPTA needs 17 to 20 new drivers to plug the shortage, but is hoping to get at least 50 new drivers out of this round of applications to ease the scheduling strain in the driver pool.

Hiring bus drivers is more complicated than some jobs because applicants must get a commercial driver’s license before they can begin training.

Durand said RIPTA wants to begin training and paying drivers while they go through the commercial license process to maximize the number who become full-time employees. He said RIPTA hopes the cuts can be avoided, but will reevaluate its staffing situation on June 15. The cuts would have reduced frequency, days of the week or eliminated entirely more than two dozen routes across the state.

In other RIPTA news, the board asked staff to investigate hiring an executive search firm to find a permanent CEO after the resignation last week of Scott Avedisian. Facing an $18.6-million budget gap for next year, the RIPTA board also voted to ask the Rhode Island Foundation for money.