RTA buses to stay on full schedule but with limited passengers

Texas jets to Gunnison airport pretty much done after Friday

By Mark Reaman

The buses running between Gunnison and Mt. Crested Butte will continue to roll on the full winter schedule for now but they will only carry a maximum of eight passengers at a time. When ridership decreases to a point that the full schedule is obviously no longer needed, the transit system will shift from running 28 trips a day to the summer schedule of 13.

That decision was made a special meeting of the Gunnison County Rural Transportation Authority (RTA) board on Tuesday afternoon. It was pointed out that with Mountain Express service currently suspended, the RTA will allow riders to board in Crested Butte to get up to the ski if there is capacity…in other words, if less than eight passengers are on the bus.

RTA executive director Scott Truex said ridership has been declining with the closure of business and the ever-changing mandates dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. On Sunday, 321 passengers were counted. On Monday it was 274 passengers. He Tuesday was expected to be a bout a total of 200 and with the visitors all leaving, he expected most season tourism workers to be pretty much done riding the RTA.

Alpine Express which contracts to run the service reported that while two driver have chosen to “self-quarantine” none of its drivers have tested positive for the COVID-19. Each driver is screened before starting a shift and if showing signs of any illness, they are sent home.

RTA board member John Messner said it was important to have enough buses to ensure transportation for essential workers over the next couple of weeks. He wanted to prioritize passengers such as hospital workers or teachers over other employees given the limited number of seats.

Truex suggested to the board that he and board chair Janet Farmer be given authority to monitor ridership and shift from the fill-time winter schedule to the downgraded spring-summer-fall schedule when numbers indicate the logic of such a shift. “That will give us some flexibility over the next week,” he said.

The board unanimously passed a motion to that effect.

On the air side, RTA airline consultant Kent Myers said that situation has also been in major flux, especially with the closure of ski resorts. He said he and his people have been in touch with United and American Airlines and United will be cancelling service from Houston to Gunnison after Friday, March 20. While American currently has suspended flights from Dallas through Saturday, it is expected they will make that suspension permanent since Vail Resorts announced Tuesday it was closing CBMR for the season.

The two daily United flights from Denver to GUC will go down to one trip starting next week and that single flight per day will be the schedule through at least April.