The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Chaffee County still trying to figure out funding
By Mark Reaman
While there is still some uncertainty, the Gunnison Valley Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) board has committed funding to continue the second daily Bustang bus running between Crested Butte and Denver. The board authorized spending $143,000 for the service in 2026 but the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has sent Chaffee County a bill for that amount and those county officials haven’t committed to that funding in 2026. RTA officials admitted they don’t know what will happen to the route if Chaffee County doesn’t participate in the funding for this year.
RTA executive director Scott Truex said Chaffee County representatives want the second daily service and are looking for ways to support it, but they have not budgeted for the route. “They don’t have a dedicated funding source for transportation like we do so it is more complicated over there,” explained Truex.
Chaffee County administrator Beth Helmke attended the December 12 RTA meeting by Zoom. “We appreciate the conversations, but this wasn’t factored into our 2026 budget discussions because we didn’t know it was coming,” she said. “We are gathering data to analyze for our county. We want to figure out how to provide monetary support.”
Truex informed the board that since the increase in the service to two trips per day, there has only been one instance of overcrowding on the bus, “so that problem has been almost completely solved. CDOT also reports that they plan to have a reservation system for the route within a year or so.”
“We like the idea of the reservation system next year but this $143,000 comes as a large number to us,” said Helmke. “We are in the data gathering, modeling and promotion mode right now to figure out how it could fit into some discretionary funding in perhaps quarter three of 2026 and into 2027 for the long-range planning and institutionalize it.”
“No matter what, I agree it is a good idea to have an IGA (intergovernmental agreement) with CDOT to get some predictability with them,” said RTA board member Laura Puckett Daniels.
Truex said the staff recommendation was to contribute the requested $143,000 for this service regardless of whether or not Chaffee County matched the funding. It is part of the RTA’s 2026 budget. He did say that he’s asked CDOT what happens if Chaffee County doesn’t participate in the funding but that is “unknown” at this time.
Board member Liz Smith expressed some concern about the potential ongoing expense to the RTA and Puckett Daniels expressed a desire for more analysis from CDOT about ridership data. The board unanimously authorized the RTA to allocate the $143,000 for 2026.
