Bus service goes back to the highway this winter

Cost of running buses into subdivision over $50,000

A bus ride from Crested Butte South this winter will start with a walk or ride over the river to Highway 135. Bids for bus service from the Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority (RTA) and Mountain Express came in too high for the subdivision’s Property Owners Association (POA) to consider this year.

So the subdivision will take a pass on bus service that comes right to the POA’s front door this winter and return to the service of years past, when the bus stopped only at the top of Cement Creek Road.
Because many of the RTA buses that pass by the subdivision in the winter are already full of riders heading to the north end of the valley, POA manager Chris Behan said the cost for service this year would likely have required extra buses and exceeded $50,000 for the 130-day ski season.
For now, Behan said, “The RTA/Mountain Express door is closed. We kicked it around a lot and we’ve come to the conclusion that it’s too large of a number for our organization, that doesn’t collect tax, to come up with right now. It was a good idea at the wrong time.”
For the buses passing Crested Butte South that aren’t full, the RTA would have had to charge the Crested Butte South POA between $8,000 and $11,000 to make the trip between the highway and the POA offices. Mountain Express offered to fill in the service by adding four buses devoted to the subdivision to the schedule each day for about $40,000.
Echoing the frustrations of property owners and residents of Crested Butte South, Behan said, “We’ve been paying into the RTA tax, just like everybody else and they want an additional $51,000 on top of that. We’re 10 percent of the county population in one square mile. The RTA has the mission to provide ground transportation for the Gunnison Valley…”
RTA director Scott Truex says his organization is trying to do just that, but with revenues expected to come in below the costs of operating the bus service, nothing is coming for free this year. The RTA is funded through a 1 percent sales tax in the north end of the Gunnison Valley and a .5 percent sales tax elsewhere in the county.
“The reason we’re cutting back service to six trips a day and charging $2 dollars this year is our financial situation,” Truex says.
And despite the ongoing sales tax contributions that come from the people of Crested Butte South, the POA was still required to pay the RTA about $11,000 to get buses to turn into the subdivision through the spring, summer and fall.
“The last seven months have been very successful, but we don’t know what’s going to happen this winter,” Truex says. “If the buses are going to be really crowded or if they’re not, we don’t know and it’s tough to make a prediction.”
But Behan plans to keep up the search for a bus service that will make the one-mile round trip between the subdivision and highway through the winter months after the service gained popularity over the summer.
“I know it sucks… but people still don’t believe, and I agree with them, that they’re getting the benefit of this service from ground transportation side. We’re back to people walking up to the road.” Behan says. “But if you wanted to be an optimist, you could say that it’s better than nothing… a little sliver better.”