Local transit ridership up

Mtn Express/RTA ridership increasing

By Kendra Walker

It sure is nice to see those colorful Mountain Express buses cruising throughout town again, after the bus service’s hiatus this spring due to COVID-19. The buses are currently running a 20-minute summer schedule and keeping a 14-passenger limit at any given time, and Mountain Express managing director Chris Larsen says everything is going fairly well so far.

This spring, Mountain Express installed plexiglass partitions for the drivers, currently requires all passengers to wear face masks and allows onboarding and de-boarding only at the door entrance closer to the back of the buses. “The drivers are happy with all the precautions we’ve taken to protect them from the virus,” said Larsen.

Ridership is down about 60 percent compared to last year, but mostly due to the limited passengers per trip requirement, said Larsen. The buses are averaging two passengers per trip compared to six passengers per trip last June. So far, the evenings are typically when people have to be turned away from a “full” bus; however, “the passengers have been very understanding about the 14 passenger limit,” said Larsen. While Mountain Express doesn’t keep track of the passengers using each stop, he’s noticed the Four-way Stop busier during the day and the Old Town Hall stop busier at night.

And Mountain Express anticipates more demand as the summer continues and more visitors come to town, running extra buses for the Fourth of July holiday weekend. From Friday, July 3 to Sunday, July 5, buses will run every 10 minutes from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., with 20-minute service before and after those times. “If weekends continue to stay busy we may have to provide similar service,” said Larsen.

Mountain Express also added an extra stop along Elk Avenue in conjunction with the Elk Avenue reconfiguration, which is working out okay so far, said Larsen. “We are hoping that this new stop is making it easier for passengers to enjoy their experience while shopping and dining in town. However, we are having issues with bikes traveling in the wrong direction.”

Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority (RTA) executive director Scott Truex said the RTA bus ridership has increased quite a bit since last month. “We averaged 212 passengers per day over the past seven days,” he said this week, which is up from 70 per day in May and only 40 per day in April. However, the RTA has not gotten back to “normal” numbers, Truex said, as the bus service was carrying about 304 people per day this time last year.

The buses are currently limiting the number of passengers to 24 at any given time, and drivers have not had to refuse any passengers since that number increased to 24, said Truex.

“We are fortunate to be able to run the 13-trip schedule for this summer and we plan to run it through the fall as well,” explained Truex. “At this point, we are not planning to add any additional service, but that might change if we start having more demand and we start having to leave folks at the stops.”