Mountain Express going to reduced summer schedule on Monday

RTA buses will have passenger limits

By Mark Reaman

With the decision by Vail Resorts to close its North American ski areas including Crested Butte Mountain Resort given the coronavirus outbreak, the Mountain Express bus service will be curtailing its service starting Monday, March 16. While providing a full schedule with limited ridership on Sunday, March 15, the system will go to its limited summer schedule on Monday.

That means the first bus from the Four-way will be at 7:40 in the morning. The first bus from Mt. Crested Butte will leave at 8 a.m. The last bus up will leave Crested Butte at 11:40 and the final bus down from the ski area is at midnight. A combined and limited condo route service is also part of the summer routing.

In a two emergency meeting session held on Saturday, March 14, the board struggled with what were appropriate measures. It first agreed that with the ski area open, ridership be limited to 10-13 people on each bus in order provide space between individuals so as to limit the potential spreading of the virus. Once the announcement came that CBMR would be closing for at least eight days, the board reconvened and decided on more stringent action but not without debate that resulted in one board member submitting his resignation immediately.

Citing the extreme worldwide health crisis and what has been seen over the last few months in other countries, board member Will Dujardin argued strongly that the transit system should suspend service immediately. “Every time someone gets on one of the buses they can expose the staff or other people to the virus. I think we should mirror Vail and close it immediately,” he said. “Given what we know about the numbers and what it can do to our healthcare system and we’ve seen happen around the world, I think it is reckless, ignorant and irresponsible to continue service.”

The other board members said they felt a responsibility to help those people here now that would be stranded without any bus service.

“We should not just chop it off,” said Mt. crested Butte town manager Joe Fitzpatrick. We need to give some notice and take care of the people here and those that are still working.”

“It seems irresponsible to keep public transportation going right now,” emphasized Dujardin.

“It’s irresponsible to just strand people that are here,” said board member Gary Kaiser.

“I support the tapering down of service and looking at things Monday since there a lot of visitors that don’t rent cars,” said board member Laura Mitchell. “If no one is riding the bus we can make a decision next week about shutting it down completely.”

“We have an opportunity to do what we think is right for our community and the guests,” said Dujardin. “Frankly, everyone needs to be in self-isolation right now.”

“To cut the people that are here now off at the knees and say you came here at a bad time but we’re going to pull the nuclear card, doesn’t make sense to me,” said board member Dwayne Lehnertz.

“None of this makes sense,” responded Dujardin. “It’s unprecedented. I’m sorry to say it but you’ll all have blood on your hands if you don’t the measures we need to take.”

“We are taking measures given the circumstances,” said Lehnertz. “I guess I’ll have to own the decision.”

“Give people at least a day’s notice,” suggested Assistant Transit Manager Bill Quiggle. “They need to have a way to do the things so they can prepare to leave.”

“That’s bullshit knowing what it will do to this community and the numbers we can expect our healthcare service having to deal with,” said Dujardin. “If you vote for this I’ll vote against it and resign from the board.”

Kaiser made a motion to run full Mountain express service Sunday and then go to the limited summer schedule on Monday. That includes ceasing its routes to CB South as of Monday. The board then will reevaluate the situation by Wednesday. That motion passed 4-1 with Dujardin voting against it. Dujardin then resigned from the board effective immediately.

Board member Roman Kolodziej said the Mountain Express should make it clear they discourage people from riding the bus. “It should be used for essential needs. Drive your car if you can,” he recommended.

RTA bus update

As for the RTA buses the chair of the Rural Transporation Authority Janet Farmer said the system is monitoring the situation day by day. “Right now we are limiting the number of passengers on each bust to 23 or 24 people,” she said. “We are running a full schedule probably at least through Tuesday and we will then evaluate.”