RTA board considers charging bus fees

“It’s about lowering demand”

With a reduced bus schedule on the books for this coming winter, the Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority (RTA) is investigating ways to decrease demand for its services. The month of May’s ridership was up a little bit overall, and RTA executive director Scott Truex said 15 percent of people are getting either on or off in Crested Butte South.

People are making good use of the service, but to address funding issues, this winter the Crested Butte to Gunnison RTA bus will be down to six round trips per day. That’s compared to the 10 trips it ran last winter.
“What we realize is the reduction in service next winter will create some issues, and there will be greater demand,” said RTA chairman Jonathan Houck at the June 11 meeting.
Truex agrees. “If the same number of people try to use the bus this winter we will be overloaded. I’m assuming with a reduced schedule that fewer people will ride because it will be less convenient.”
One of the other options on the table for reducing demand is adding a fee to ride the bus, which is currently free. According to Truex, if they charge, “on a six-trip schedule we could save about $20,000. If we are collecting fees, all the money will go into operations.” Truex said Mountain Express, which operates the RTA buses, would collect the money and deal with the administration.
RTA board member Bill Nesbitt asked Truex, “What kind of political flack do you think you’re going to get?”
“I think it will go both ways,” Truex responded. “This is not a money-generating program. It’s about lowering demand. There’s not enough money to run the buses. You’re going to piss more people off when you have 90 people trying to board a 45-passenger bus.”
Board member Roland Mason asked, “How will this affect the Western State College program?”
Houck explained that Western’s Sustainability Commission plans to contribute about $1 per student to the RTA for the ground program. He said Gary Pierson, Western’s vice president for student affairs and dean of students, “made it clear that would have to be revisited because that decision was made under the assumption of free buses.”
Truex recommended hearing from Mountain Express director Chris Larsen and Stewart Johnson of Alpine Express before making a decision. Larsen said, “Last winter, even with 10 round trips we had buses that were too crowded. We have to do something with only six trips.” Johnson agreed with Larsen, and said it could be chaos otherwise.
“I don’t think we have a choice, especially after hearing from Stu and Chris,” said Truex.
Nesbitt then made a motion to charge $2 per bus ride. Jim Starr seconded the motion.
“Before we vote—I’m inclined not to vote right now—have we fleshed out which price is right, how that plays into the contract?” Houck asked. “If this does not pass right now, can we revisit?”
“I’d say $5,” Nesbitt said. “You want to cut ridership, that’ll do it.”
The motion to add a $2 fee failed by a 4-2 margin, and the RTA board agreed to revisit the discussion at its July meeting.