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NRoute employees are told today is the last day
NRoute employees in Vicksburg were informed that today, September 18, 2026, is their last day of operation due to financial struggles and rising insurance costs. Efforts to secure funding from the city have been unsuccessful.
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VICKSBURG, Miss. (VDN) — At a meeting held last night in the NRoute building on Halls Ferry Road in Marcus Bottom, NRoute employees were told today, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, would be their last day of operation.
Financially struggling NRoute met with the City of Vicksburg last week in a Hail Mary attempt to ask the city for more money and save them from years of losses and inaction.
The main financial struggle is paying insurance on vehicles which are not in use. NRoute has 22 vehicles in their inventory but only use five on a regular basis; however, by federal regulation, they all have to be insured. Over the past few years those insurance costs have skyrocketed, causing the current financial crisis.
NRoute Board member Bobbi Bingham Morrow, when asked at last weeks meeting why they hadn’t reduced the number of buses, stated reducing the number of busses didn’t necessarily mean the insurance would reduce proportionately. Morrow offered no explanation of why they hadn’t reduced the bus inventory over the past few years.
Due to needed repairs, some of the busses haven’t moved for years.
NRoutes former executive director, Evelyn Bumpers, came out of retirement to break the bad news to her former staff, “You didn’t do anything wrong.” Her voice broke a couple of times as she walked her former team through the separation process.
According to Bumpers, the Claiborne County Human Resources Agency is still trying to work out a deal with the City of Vicksburg to take over operation of NRoute. But, as of the time of this report, no deal has been made public.
