PITTSFIELD — The Berkshire Regional Transit Authority advisory board voted Thursday to abandon its plan to reduce frequency on multiple bus routes, formalizing an announcement made by Administrator Kathleen Lambert earlier this week.

“We announced that we were discontinuing the route realignment project because we have been working with our new vendor on some … run cuts, so that we can operate with the personnel we have available, including supervisors,” Lambert said at Thursday’s board meeting.

After working with Omar Oliveros, the performance director at BRTA’s new operating company, Keolis, BRTA was able to craft a schedule that would redistribute its existing employees more efficiently along its routes, Lambert said. The new schedule will be implemented in about three weeks. Until then, unexpected run cancellations due to a lack of drivers may still occur.

The announcement was met with approval from board members, including Pittsfield Mayor Peter Marchetti, who represents the city. “All’s well that ends well,” he said after thanking Lambert for her efforts to communicate with Berkshire County residents and resolve the bus service issues.

Citing driver shortages, the agency announced earlier this year it was planning reductions to six weekday bus routes that would have affected one of its most heavily used lines. But earlier this month, it delayed voting to implement the changes to gather more input from the public. And in recent days, it has backed away from the plan, signaling it felt confident it could maintain the existing schedule.

The initial vote Thursday to formally scrap the planned route reductions had to be reconsidered after a bit of confusion and back-and-forth among board members about whether their vote had also accidentally eliminated BRTA’s Link413 program.

The situation began when Rene Wood, the representative for Sheffield, argued on a technicality that the motion to eliminate the proposed route reductions had also eliminated the Link413 program that launched in January to link Berkshire County to Greenfield and Northampton through a coach bus service.

Because the original presentation announcing the proposed route reductions also included information publicizing the Link413 program, Wood argued, a vote to eliminate the former would also eliminate the latter. Wood then made a motion to allow Lambert to negotiate with the state to suspend the program and to negotiate with BRTA’s transit authority partners to ensure they could continue the service on their end.

Some board members have previously said they regret approving the Link413 program because it resulted in four bus drivers being taken off their regular routes to drive coach buses, exacerbating an existing driver shortage that has caused frequent cancellations of Berkshire County bus runs.

Wood’s motion, which she ultimately retracted, set off a heated discussion about the program and its impact on BRTA. Ray Killeen, the board representative for Cheshire, also seconded her motion before it was withdrawn.

During the discussion, Lambert stipulated that the Link413 content included in the realignment package was solely “for informational purposes” and did not determine the existence of the program. She requested time to discuss the Link413 program with colleagues before any decisions were made.

At first, Wood remained unmoved and did not agree to revise her motion. “You have caused absolute chaos with [Link]413,” she said.

Wood’s motion caught several members off guard, including board Chair Douglas McNally, who said he did not intend to eliminate Link413 when he cast his initial vote. “I would not have voted for the motion because I did not think that we’d agree to a modification of Link413 service,” he said.

Marchetti said that he believed Link413 had technically been “killed” by the previous vote, but because discussion of Link413 was not included on the meeting agenda, “I don't know that we have fairly told the general public what we might be discussing in the meeting.”

“I don't think that your motion fits in the open meeting law,” he said, referring to Wood.

Wood withdrew her motion after Marchetti’s statement, and Killeen then withdrew his second.

The BRTA advisory board then set out to ensure its previous vote only retired the revised route plan and not Link413. After a motion from Marchetti, the board voted to reconsider its previous vote. It was accepted; Wood was the sole opposing vote.

Afterward, Marchetti made a motion to once again deny the proposed route changes.

“I'll make a motion to deny the route alignment in regards to any proposed changes to the RTA routes, plus the schedules, and hold harmless Link413 until the next meeting,” he said. “But at that meeting, I would expect a report from the administrator regarding cancellations and an update of where we are.”

The board voted to approve Marchetti’s second motion. Wood made a request for Lambert to look through meeting minutes and determine exactly when the board originally voted to approve Link413, which Marchetti seconded.

Lambert told reporters after the meeting she felt Link413 still had ridership potential.

“I'm concerned because the Link413 service really is getting some traction,” especially as the weather warms up, she said.