Bus service will be free and more frequent this winter

Airfare sales a little slow

Bus service between Gunnison and Mt. Crested Butte will increase to eight trips a day for the upcoming ski season—that’s two more daily trips than last winter.

Even better? Riding will be free. The Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority (RTA) has restored its fund balance, allowing it to provide a more robust transportation service in the valley.
“The schedule has been adjusted to try to accommodate the majority of our customers,” said RTA executive director Scott Truex. “We know that it won’t meet everyone’s needs but based on past data, this schedule should accommodate the greatest number of passengers.”
Last winter, the RTA ran six trips a day between Gunnison and Mt. Crested Butte, charging $2 per passenger. Adding two trips this coming winter will allow the RTA to offer a 3:15 p.m. bus from Mountaineer Square in Mt. Crested Butte to Gunnison.
“The last time we ran the bus [for] free, the 4:15 bus averaged more people than there are seats. We wanted to give people the option to go down a little earlier,” Truex said.
The RTA can offer the additional trips and extend the free service already offered during the spring, summer and fall into winter because it has restored its fund balance.
The RTA is funded by a Gunnison Valley sales tax, which began a steady decline when the economy took a downturn in 2008. And according to Truex, in 2009 the RTA funds took another big hit to fund the 2008-2009 air program and a large bus service.
Since then, the goal has been to build the fund back up to $350,000. The RTA is set to reach that goal at the end of 2012, achieving a $350,597 balance in unrestricted funds. Sales tax revenues are also up. July brought in $136,630, 15.4 percent higher than last year and an amount back on par with 2007 when the RTA brought in $138,044 in sales tax revenue.
“We now feel like we have the breathing room to grow both [the bus and the air] programs again,” Truex said.
At the program’s peak, the RTA offered 10 trips a day during the winter, with an additional Saturday trip, and nine trips a day during the summer. But don’t expect to see 10 trips a day just yet—the RTA plans to grow steadily and responsibly instead of going back and forth between more and less trips.
Winter bus service will begin November 23, 2011 and will run through April 8, 2012. Until then, the RTA will continue to run three free trips a day. Checkout www.gunnisonvalleyrta.org for detailed schedules.
Air schedules for the winter season are also finalized, offering direct flights to the Gunnison-Crested Butte airport from Denver, Houston and Dallas. Airlines have been selling seats since mid-summer. Yet both RTA airline consultant Kent Meyers and Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) have noted that pacing of those sales is off compared to last year. Exact numbers were not available, but sales typically increase as the season progresses.
“If you look at the last two weeks there appears to be, across the [airlines], a dent in the pacing compared to previous years,” Meyers said. “Is it unusual? No, it’s not necessarily unusual because you never know year to year what they’re going to do.”
CBMR public relations and communications manager Erica Reiter agrees that it’s something to keep an eye on but is not yet cause for concern. Several factors may be involved: the resort changed its deadline for early season bookings from September 13 last year to November 1 this year; airfare prices are high across the board; and industry consolidation is reducing the supply of planes and lowering competition that can help keep fares low.
“Right now we are also dealing with higher fares across the industry, mostly due to fuel costs. American is currently holding a wholesale airfare sale to try to help, but even these sale prices are not cheap,” Reiter said in an email.
According to Reiter, CBMR extended the deadline for its early season packages to be more consistent with the ski industry and better match the ski season in Crested Butte. For now CBMR is continuing to market its early season packages, and both the resort and the RTA will keep an eye on pacing as Crested Butte nears the ski season.