Bus boards talk about improvements

Serving outlying areas a conundrum

By Mark Reaman

The elected leaders of the local transportation boards met last week to determine if there were ways to improve on the successes of the Mountain Express and Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority (RTA).

They basically determined there was room for some improvement but the idea was to build on the foundation that was in place and find more ways to improve ridership. Discussion topics included Crested Butte South service, expanded routes, late-night taxi subsidies and solutions, alternative fuel direction and their shared industrial lot in the Whetstone Industrial Park.

The Crested Butte South discussion took the most bandwidth during the December 6 meeting. Service to Crested Butte South started in 2015 and now includes more than 25 trips per day in the winter season. The Mountain Express does six trips per day during the peak transportation hours when the RTA buses going between Gunnison and Mt. Crested Butte are at their fullest. Since 2015, more than 45,000 passengers have used the free CB South bus service. According to the statistics, the number of passengers per bus has remained fairly constant. Last winter the Mountain Express carried an average of 9.2 passengers per bus in the peak direction. The RTA averaged 19 passengers per bus.

“Crested Butte South has a robust winter schedule and the people there seem to really appreciate it,” said RTA executive director Scott Truex.

Mountain Express transit manager Chris Larsen agreed, saying the ridership is a bit off of average so far this winter, in part because of the later ski area opening.

Both Truex and Larsen said the philosophical discussion of what satellite areas to serve was not an easy discussion. Truex said the mission of the RTA was to prioritize the Highway 135 corridor. He said subdivisions such as Buckhorn or Meridian Lake would probably also like to have bus service but that was logistically a lot more difficult than serving Crested Butte South.

“For the Mountain Express, the board is asking itself what our service area is a lot,” Larsen said. “We get our funding from the two towns through sales and admissions taxes. Residents of the outlying communities make the point that they spend money in the towns and contribute to sales tax but my struggle is to determine what we do and for whom.”

Mountain Express board member Roman Kolodziej said the board was still discussing that issue. “We haven’t made the tough decision about who we are servicing,” he said.

“I don’t buy into the argument that because they spend money in town they deserve free service. People living in both towns pay that money too. I don’t think the towns should foot the bill to other areas without them paying something into it,” said Mt. Crested Butte mayor and RTA board member Janet Farmer. “Wherever we live, we’re all paying the same sales taxes and I don’t think the two towns should be responsible for all the funding.”

“So the question is, what is our service area?” pondered Mountain Express chairperson Laura Mitchell. “It’s expensive to serve areas outside of the towns.”

“The cooperation from our two agencies has been very good and resulted in good service to Crested Butte South and they appreciate it,” said Truex. “It works. I don’t hear many complaints.”

Kolodziej asked how the agencies could get more people from Crested Butte South to ride the bus. He wondered if having the buses circulate more within the subdivision would help.

“We are providing the service, so maybe the [Property Owners Association] has to help change the culture of their residents getting in their cars and driving into town,” suggested the RTA’s Roland Mason. “But it is hard to get someone who lives there to get in their car and get the kids ready and then drive a mile to a parking lot near the highway, for example, and transfer everything to a bus when they can go into town and park for free.”

“From everything we’ve heard, making parking painful is the only thing that changes that cultural behavior,” said Mountain Express assistant transit manager Bill Quiggle. “Things like charging for parking in town make it work.”

“That could dovetail with the town’s Climate Action Plan,” suggested Chris Haver of the RTA. “The action plan might ultimately influence service and things like parking in town. If the idea is to get more people to ride the bus, paid parking would deter people from driving into town,” said Haver. “I’m not saying we will do that right away but we should look at it. It’s also a revenue stream.”

“To meet the town’s new climate action plan goals, paid parking will get more people to use the bus,” added Farmer.

“It is working really well right now,” said Truex.

“It is and other places like Buckhorn are growing and may want similar service,” said Farmer.

Larsen said the Crested Butte South POA contributes to the cost of the additional bus service. He said the POA picks up about one-third of the Mountain Express expense. That amounts to about $16,500 per year.

“Crested Butte South should have some skin in the game,” said Mason. “The same when the buses serve Gothic and RMBL.”

“So if other places want service is there a per-trip dollar amount associated with that?” asked RTA board chair John Messner.

“The strategic plan we are discussing is looking into that,” said Kolodziej. “We are looking into the details of expanded service.”

The Crested Butte South service is heaviest in winter and then drops to 13 trips per day in the spring, summer and fall.

Will Dujardin of the Mountain Express suggested regular half-hour service for the subdivision.

“Crested Butte South is a traditional subdivision and not set up for transit,” said Truex. “People need to plan when using public transit; it is not a taxi service. But what we have out there is better than most places. Can it improve? Probably. You can always throw more money at an issue. But the cost per passenger for Crested Butte South is probably highest than for any other of its routes.”

“Eventually there will come a time when sales and admissions tax won’t be enough to pay for expanded routes,” said Mason. “An economic downturn could come and have an impact. It is something to consider when talking about satellite communities. That usually is the first place to consider cuts when things slow down.”

Messner asked if there was a need to expand service to Crested Butte South in 2021.

Truex said the RTA was probably maxed out for winter but summer expansion could be a possibility. The current 13 trips in the spring and fall off-seasons, he said, were probably adequate.

Larsen asked if the RTA would consider paying the Mountain Express for its Crested Butte South service. While the response was generally lukewarm from the RTA board, Messner said he could see some of the logic for helping to fund Mountain Express for some of that service, since it steps up when the RTA bypasses the subdivision with express routes when the buses to or from Gunnison were full. “In my mind it is possible to fund some of that service,” he said.

Other items discussed included trying to figure out late-night bus or taxi service, future collaboration and how to move Mountain Express to alternative fuels. The boards plan to hold another joint meeting on June 5.