The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Chaffee County more up in the air
By Mark Reaman
The board of the Gunnison Valley Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) expressed support for continuing the second daily roundtrip Bustang Outrider bus trip between Crested Butte and Denver. Whether Chaffee County will continue to help provide funding for the second bus remains a question.
RTA marketing and communications manager Leia Morrison told the board the Chaffee County funding situation is uncertain at the moment. She said while Gunnison County has an organization (the RTA) focused on transit, that’s not the case in Chaffee County. So, the county works with cities in the region like Salida and Poncha Springs to help pay for that bus.
“Right now, the county’s budget is set so they are telling us they don’t have the additional funds for that second bus,” she told the RTA board at the November meeting. “They say their budget is set and they can’t reallocate funds. They are seeking more information from CDOT (Colorado Department of Transportation). They have a lot of questions and are especially wondering why this route needs local funds and how a reservation system might work since sometimes the bus is full of Gunnison passengers when it arrives in Salida. They’ll propose to CDOT this gets revisited in July to match the state’s fiscal year.
There is a lot of discussion happening, but no decision made.”
RTA executive director Scott Truex said the local funding element comes because that second bus was a local request. No other Outrider route in the state has two scheduled trips per day. “CDOT did come down in the funding request from $286,000 to $143,000 for each of us,” he said. “We have options to consider but my recommendation right now is to wait until the next meeting before deciding anything. I put the $143,000 in the 2026 budget.”
Board member Ian Billick said any government can adjust their budget, so it seems Chaffee County just doesn’t want to do it at this time.
“To be fair, they are trying to figure it out with a more complex system than what we have,” said board member Diego Plata.
“They want the service,” said Truex. “They just aren’t sure how the money from the county and municipalities can be implemented. It is an easier conversation for us since we have transit funding.”
“It is important for our community to maintain that second route,” said Billick. “I agree we should keep the money in the budget and see where it goes.”
“If both entities don’t approve this in the budgets, what happens to the second bus next year?” asked RTA board chair Matt Schwartz.
“I don’t know,” answered Truex.
“I’d love to have that answer before making decisions,” said Schwartz. “I agree we need to keep it in our budget and clearly show our intent.”
“I’ll ask CDOT what happens if just we fund it and not them,” said Truex. “We can have a deeper discussion at the next meeting.”
As far as starting a bus route between Gunnison and Montrose to the west, that conversation with the state continues.
“We have had conversations with officials in San Miguel and Gunnison Counties to find ways to fund this,” said Truex. “We are looking at some possible opioid settlement funding but not sure about that. We are exploring different funding options but there is no solution at this time.”
The board encouraged Truex to continue the effort to find a way to get a bus route to Montrose.
“We’ve been at it for 12 years so far,” he said. “We’ll try to figure it out.”
