Bus service to Sea Witch turns out to be waiting game

Parking in Rehoboth Beach for the annual Sea Witch Festival is always a little spooky. On Oct. 26, even using a Delaware Transit Corporation bus to get to the Sea Witch Festival Costume Parade turned out to be a Halloween nightmare for hundreds of riders.

People waited 45 minutes to an hour or more to get on a bus to and from the festival. At the Lewes Transit Center, staffing was also an issue, and the limited staff at the center ran out of change.

DART CEO John Sisson said they weren't prepared for the large crowd. He said six additional buses were put into service, and when it became apparent the buses couldn't meet the demand, another two buses were put into service. But even those buses couldn't keep up with the number of people.

Both the Lewes Transit Center and Rehoboth park and ride parking lots were filled by 9:30 a.m.

DART started year-round, beach-area bus service two years ago, but this is the first year DART provided bus service to the Sea Witch Festival.

“We should have known better, and we will be better next year. We want to help with events, and we apologize to anyone who was inconvenienced,” Sisson said. “We have learned a lesson.”

Sisson said the same issues occurred at the Rehoboth park and ride. He said more buses and staff will be added next year.

“It's a shame that if this was someone's first experience with DART that it was not the best,” Sisson said.

Among those waiting in line at the transit center was Donna West of Harbeson.

“After weeks of hearing that the bus was the way to go to Sea Witch, my husband and I parked at the Lewes Transit Center at 9 a.m., leaving us plenty of time to get to the parade, or so we thought,” West said.

She said several buses were running on regular routes and at the time, there was only one Sea Witch express bus.

“The supervisor on duty was running around frantically as the lines grew longer. It made no sense to run regular route buses as the passengers were all going to the same place and the buses were standing room only so no other passengers could board at other bus stops on the way,” she said.

She said they arrived at the Boardwalk at 10:50 a.m., nearly two hours after they parked at the transit center.

“The return ride was not much better with one frantic supervisor running between two spots at the end of the Boardwalk trying to tell folks where to go. Buses were mislabeled and misdirected,” West said.

Sisson said this time of year, two buses operate out of the Lewes Transit Center. On summer Saturdays, six to eight buses operate out of the center.