RTA board discusses future moves in big picture context

How much to integrate with Mountain Express, airport service, tax increase

by Mark Reaman

The board of directors of the Gunnison Valley Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) is continuing its deep dive into future big picture possibilities.

At an August 14 work session, the board discussed a variety of issues and asked RTA executive director Scott Truex to gather more information on several topics. Those include looking at potential long-term integration with Mountain Express; organizing a meeting between board members of both the RTA and Mountain Express to talk about future collaboration and possible integration to build on each organization’s strengths; seeing how other communities like the Roaring Fork and Vail valleys cooperate between various transit operators; looking at how to support possible “last mile” service to the airport from an RTA bus stop like Safeway and the Mt. Crested Butte base area; getting a better understanding of the population and need for additional service in west Gunnison; and looking at a potential contingency plan if for some reason the current RTA operations contractor, Destination Systems, can’t continue to provide valley-wide service.

The board also touched on topics such as how to provide additional service to the Gunnison-Crested Butte Airport (GUC) that would benefit both locals and tourists along with the future possibility of asking voters to increase the RTA sales tax from the current 1% to the allowable 2%.

RTA board chair Matt Schwartz brought up the idea of shifting to an in-house operation if for some reason Destination Systems no longer wanted to run the RTA operations. He noted that they were the only bidder on the last seven-year contract that was enacted last year. Truex said if for some reason the company backed out and the RTA had to take over operations, it could be done but would likely take between four-and-a-half and six months to accomplish. He said the RTA owns all the assets but things like staffing could be a challenge.

The board discussed various scenarios and said it would be a good idea to at least prepare for such a dire circumstance by outlining plans. While they did not want to spend any money in preparation, the board felt having a basic plan would be a good idea.

Board member Ian Billick said the board should take the next step and look at how to eventually integrate with Mountain Express. “To me it’s important to consider whether we are operating at optimal scale and taking advantage of all our resources,” he said. “On a related issue, the RTA buses can’t get up the hill to Mt. CB in the winter and have had to rely on Mountain Express for help, so during peak times, there’s a bunch of issues around integration of operations, especially as we see the corridor build out.”

“I see the potential of integration between the different bus services,” said Billick.

Truex said the winter hill is a rare issue during certain times of the day with snow and the freeze-thaw cycle, but it doesn’t happen often. “When it happens, it happens, and we work together,” he said.

“It’s a way to think about and leverage the strengths of the different organizations,” said Billick.

“Most valleys have more than one transit agency with different missions,” Truex told the board. “There are advantages and disadvantages to joining together but there is definitely room to partner more.”

“I think thinking about integration of operations across transit systems becomes really important if we are going to talk about any service expansion in Gunnison at all,” said board member Laura Puckett Daniels. “What is the most efficient model to do it under?”

She said there are additional services needs at both ends of the valley and a system like Mountain Express doesn’t exist in the south end of the valley. “What can we do in the upper valley that would create a more flexible and expansive service for these expansions that we could replicate in the lower valley,” she asked. “Is there a structure we could put in that would allow for some of that conversation to happen?”

Truex said he would dig deeper into how other communities integrate transit.

Billick suggested the RTA and Mountain Express board members gather to chat about such topics, even if informally.

Truex said it would take additional money to expand services and told the board the RTA could ask voters to increase the sales tax to 2% from the current 1%.

“There are needs at both ends of the valley that could benefit from increased revenues,” said Billick.

One idea according to Truex would be to ask voters in the district to increase the sales tax by 1% while at the same time asking voters in the north end of the valley to reduce or eliminate the 1% sales tax in Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte that goes primarily to Mountain Express. “That would be a wash for the north end of the valley,” he said. “I would suggest before doing that however, that there is a detailed plan on what exactly the money would be used for so voters know exactly what they would get.”

“Planning this would take a couple years,” suggested Billick.

“Preparation is really key,” added Puckett Daniels.

Schwartz said the number one service change he saw as a priority was service to the airport. “The amount of people I see getting off the RTA at Safeway and trucking to the airport with their rolling bags is astounding,” he said. “It is unfortunately a big issue to tackle and figure out. Philosophically for me as an organization that works with both air service and commuter bus service, we just don’t integrate the two. We should be able to get off a plane and come north without having to walk a mile to do it.”

Billick disagreed. “It makes me nervous because we do have commercial bus service for the airport,” he said.  “People coming off a plane have paid a lot for a ticket so another $50 or $100 for bus service isn’t probably a big issue. I wonder if it’s not more of a communication issue. I’m uncomfortable with that especially if we have needs for commuter service in west Gunnison. They don’t have an option or the economic flexibility an airline passenger does. That’s what I struggle with.”

“I think it’s a service level problem,” said board member Liz Smith. “I think it’s a different audience taking the commercial bus service up to Crested Butte. It is frustrating to have a bus system so close to the airport and not be able to use public transportation from there.”

“As much as I would love service to the airport, it is a different level of need from say west Gunnison,” said board member Gabi Prochaska.

Truex said adding an airport stop to the current route would add about eight minutes to each route, cost approximately $300,000 a year and likely result in overall lower ridership. In the future Truex suggested circulation buses in Gunnison and even CB South would help retain ridership of the main RTA route. Schwartz said he hadn’t contemplated those ramifications of adding time to current routes so agreed that including an airport stop “was not something we should move forward with at the moment.”

Truex mentioned that the same final destination issue would occur in the north end of the valley if the RTA dropped people off at its Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte bus stops. “They would have to haul their gear, their luggage, their kids to their Airbnb or other accommodations,” he pointed out. “The most expensive part of transit service is the first and last mile.”

RTA marketing and communications manager Leia Morrison said trying to support ride share operation like Lyft or Uber has been discussed in the past. She suggested that with some help, it could be an entrepreneurial opportunity for a local business.

“Part of it is habit and culture,” said Smith. “We just have not had the opportunity for ride shares in the valley. An investment might be helpful with TAPP’s help to get something off the ground until the business becomes self-sustaining.”

The board also spent about a half-hour deliberating what should be considered “core air service” to GUC. They concluded the minimum service should be at least two flights a day between Gunnison and Denver along with seasonal air service to multiple other hubs like Dallas on a seasonal basis acknowledging the importance of tourism to the community.

Billick said it was also important to communicate with stakeholders about the brainstorming ideas.

“We have a lot to chew on,” summarized Schwartz.

“Some of it is out of my comfort zone but I’ll see what I can find out with information,” said Truex.