RTA sees record bus use in December

Late night bus continues to be plagued by the drunk and unruly

By Alissa Johnson

For those familiar with a certain baseball movie, there is a saying that if you build it, they will come. That certainly seems to be the case with the Gunnison Valley Transportation Authority (RTA) bus service, which saw record ridership in December.

According to executive director Scott Truex, the bus between Gunnison and Mt. Crested Butte carried more than 23,000 riders in December. While the RTA has seen monthly totals reach or near 19,000 on a few occasions, the service had never reached—much less surpassed—20,000.

Truex attributes the increase in ridership to the increase in winter service. “We went from 13 round trips [last winter] to 17, and ridership has stayed strong,” he said.

The average ridership has stayed right around 21 riders per bus, even hitting 22 riders per bus in December. And the number of trips per day will stay strong this spring, when the RTA will operate eight round trips, and summer, when it will operate 11 round trips per day.

Truex said that at the January board meeting, the board of directors considered adding a mid-afternoon northbound bus during the spring. A local business owner made the request so it would be easier for employees to make it to afternoon shifts. There is no way to do that, however, without disrupting other parts of the schedule or adding another bus, and the board opted not to add the trip.

“In the past, there were only three round trips in spring and fall, and we bumped it to eight. If you look at the schedule, [a mid-afternoon northbound bus] just doesn’t work. Unfortunately, the only way to do it is make it a nine-trip schedule, and the board felt that if they add trips, the off-season isn’t the time to do it,” Truex said.

RTA buses will continue to serve Crested Butte South year-round, with the exception of winter express buses, when Mountain Express makes up the difference. And the late-night bus will also run year-round, though Truex acknowledged that the RTA continues to have problems with intoxication and vomiting on that trip. It’s even known as “the drunk bus” by some of the college students and younger partiers in the valley.

Following some discussion on the matter last Friday, the board of directors agreed that when someone gets sick on the bus they will be responsible for paying for clean up and perhaps kicked off of the RTA altogether.

“We’re aware that people feel like it’s a party bus, but it’s not. People acting inappropriately are going to be 86ed… It’s really no fun to clean that up, and the bus at 6:30 the next morning can still smell like it, and that’s awful. There are some real problems there, and we’re not going to put up with it,” Truex said.

Aside from that, however, things have been running fairly smoothly despite the January snow cycle. Truex said that the RTA canceled 32 percent of its routes on Monday, January 9, and 20 percent of routes the following Tuesday due to the conditions. There was one incident when a bus slid into a parked car in Gunnison, but that was the only accident resulting from the storm.

“The board and I appreciate everything that Alpine Express, the drivers, the mechanics, the dispatchers, and everyone who works on the RTA have done this winter, especially during that storm cycle,” Truex said.

Looking ahead, riders can expect the RTA to conduct a survey in the next month or two to further understand who’s riding the bus and why. The full schedule is available at gunnisonvalleyrta.com.