The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Most likely earmarked for winter FirstTracks service
By Mark Reaman
The Mountain Express bus system has learned it will receive a six-figure grant that likely will go toward helping with its winter FirstTracks program. The Federal Transit Administration grant facilitated through the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is part of a program designed to support rural public transit.
While the grant award can be used for any operating expense by the transit organization, Mountain Express managing director Jeremy Herzog said he assumes the money will be used to ensure continuity of the FirstTracks service. Ultimately it is up to the Mountain Express board of directors.
“This is a huge win for Mountain Express. I would imagine with winter FirstTracks increasing ridership, improving coverage of public transport and even achieving better operational efficiency (cost per rider went down), those were the kind of metrics the FTA was looking at,” he said of the grant rationale. “Even with the competitive nature of the program, our consultants of Fehr and Peers thought it was a very strong application.”
Only $500,000 was available throughout the state with the grant so it was very competitive. Herzog was excited to be a major recipient by getting $102,025. “The funds can be used for eligible operating expenses, such as administrative or operating staff wages, employee benefits, fuel, insurances, etc.,” he said. “We get the money starting in 2025, which is fantastic! It may take a few months to get the contract in place, but I assume we’ll start seeing cash early in 2026.”
While FirstTracks costs more than operating the old bus route in both summer and winter, it has significantly increased ridership in north Mt. Crested Butte. “Had we run the old Columbine Snodgrass bus route in 2025, it would have cost us about $233,000, although we wouldn’t have had the staffing levels to run it,” Herzog explained. “Instead, First Tracks cost $450,000 and is operated through Downtowner. This grant funding comes with a 100% local match requirement, so the FTA has effectively provided gap funding of the difference between the bus route and on-demand program. FirstTracks does not have its own budget and is evaluated alongside all of our other services by myself and the board of directors.”
The funding is considered to be “in perpetuity” so it will help with the Mountain Express budget into the future.
“We are in the very preliminary stages of our 2026 budget,” Herzog stated. “But on the heels of roughly flat sales tax projections and continued increases in inflationary pressures like a 14% increase in our employee health care costs, we were looking at a possible $200,000 deficit to address. This shrinks that rough projection to a little under $100,000 instead, which is what we’ll discuss next week at the joint town council dinner and then an upcoming board meeting as well.”
Herzog was clear that FirstTracks has been a success but there is a big difference between summer and winter use. “The winter service has seen an obvious massive bump in ridership. Even though the old bus route ran for 17 weeks in the summer, and FirstTracks only ran for 12 weeks this summer, ridership has stayed around 6,000 people,” he noted. “With a fairly inactivated base area, free parking and the tendency of people to want to walk or hop on their bike, the summer route just hasn’t been as successful.
“With FirstTracks, we have demonstrated not only can we positively affect change and innovate transit offerings in the North Valley, but also compete for the funding to do so,” Herzog concluded. “Other than the funding we were awarded in 2007 for our facility, this may be the first competitive FTA grant we have won. Winter FirstTracks has performed exceptionally well by all available metrics. It’s increased ridership from about 22,000 people on the old bus route, to almost 52,000 riders this past ski season. We have also dropped the cost per passenger from $9.18 to $7.91. About half of the FirstTracks riders are community members who never had access to the old bus route. Especially now that we have bridged the funding gap, it feels like a win-win to me.”
The Mountain Express board will discuss alternatives to close the now smaller projected budget deficit. Among alternatives being discussed are more summer and fall service cutbacks, the elimination of the “elf bus” and discussion over how to fund the Late Night Taxi.
