The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Choosing to reduce core Mountain Express bus service and get rid of spring and fall routes? Eliminating the back-up buses that run during the busy ski season weekends and holidays? Reducing summer routes to every 40 minutes? All are in play as the Mountain Express staff and board of directors are currently debating how to stay ahead of a growing budget deficit. The debate is a certainly needed and appropriate but at the moment it seems that one of the things (not the only thing but a big thing) responsible for putting the bus system in a six-figure budget crunch is not being talked about as a potential cutback or pivot option: the increasingly popular but expensive FirstTracks.
The Mt. CB council spent a long time mulling over the situation last week and the Crested Butte council and Mountain Express board will do it all again next week in their meetings. Basically, the transit agency has $1.4 million in operating reserves right now. The proposed budget shows a shortfall of $282,000 and the board instructed managing director Jeremy Herzog to come back with a budget that had a smaller, $70K shortfall at most. He did. It is drastic. His suggestions would carve out just under $400,000 next year so the board gets to decide where to take the scalpel. If they choose to lose ski season backup buses, and you ski a busy Saturday pow day in March and want to get to work downtown, you might get on a bus sometime in April given the lines that would form when the lifts stop spinning for the day.
Up in Mt. CB, the council was clear they disliked the budget cutting options. Understandable. They preferred to pursue more money by asking CBMR owner Vail Resorts for a financial hand along with Crested Butte and themselves. Cool — but none of those entities had a stellar revenue or visitor year last winter and none are anticipating a tidal wave of extra money this coming ski season. Still, Mountain Express is one of the foundations of our winter infrastructure so it can’t just be put out to pasture. Tough choices.
The elephant in the Mt CB room last week was FirstTracks. FirstTracks is the Uber-like on-demand taxi service covering the area of Mt. CB north of the Mt. CB commercial district. It was brought in to replace some underperforming bus routes. It provides last mile service as it can pick you up at your house on Paradise Road and drop you off at the main Base Area or someone’s house on Walking Deer Lane for a dance party or private dinner gathering. It works really well most of the time (the waits can sometimes get long during morning or afternoon powder days) and the service gets rave reviews. It is undoubtably an operational success story. It is the prime rib entrée of the Mountain Express bus system while the old bus system is 73% lean hamburger from Walmart.
When first implemented it more than doubled ridership from north Mt. CB from about 21,000 riders on the bus to 49,000 but it cost significantly more than buses. Statistics shared at the Mt. CB council meeting showed FirstTracks supplied 52,562 rides at a cost of $480,746 in the winter of 2025. The Three Seasons bus loop cost $238,225 and supplied 37,959 rides. That’s about $6.28 per passenger cost versus $9.25 for FirstTracks. What’s the ROI on that prime rib compared to the burger?
Summer FirstTracks cost per passenger is significantly higher but that is funded by Mt. CB admissions tax, so isn’t part of the general budget. It does show there can be some out-of-the-box funding possible.
When FirstTracks was first being considered, there were some rumblings about the increased costs and what it would mean for the long-term budget. Looking back to 2024, Mt. CB councilmember Steve Morris asked Herzog after the initial FirstTracks winter season: “Is it sustainable moving forward with Mountain Express’s current operating budget?”
“From a financial perspective, the cost of running the FirstTracks program was roughly $700,000. The old bus routes cost $400,000, so it was an additional spend,” said Herzog. “We are able to afford that service because we saw incredible sales tax over the last couple years. In terms of future sustainability, that’s a good question that I don’t know if we have the answer to yet.”
The answer is becoming clearer as the budget rubber hits the road and sales wasn’t incredible last year.
Now, I would bet that some of the same people who loudly objected to the bus being replaced by the colorful FirstTracks vans would now loudly object to the colorful vans being replaced by the bus if that decision was made. Maybe the better pivot is for the Mountain Express to absorb FirstTracks so it is not subsidizing a for-profit business where profit is part of the equation. Are there enough savings if the system is brought in-house to soften the budget punch? The template is established. The vans are there (or could be replaced). The highly rated drivers are here and could continue their excellent work with a different signature on their paycheck. Jeremy indicated this week that “Winter First tracks is far too successful and we’re focusing elsewhere on less efficient/utilized routes.” He indicated there is no interest from the board to include FirstTracks in the deficit discussion.
While everyone would love to see last mile service all around the valley along with service to places like Meridian Lake or the Brush Creek trailhead, money matters. FirstTracks is a success, but it is a prime rib entrée. Can we keep ordering prime rib and still pay the regular bills? Maybe. Had the board not ordered and gotten used to prime rib a few years ago, would there still be more money in the wallet? Probably.
Discussing service cuts to the agency’s core mission while not including discussion of a possible cutback to the most expensive service sector in the system focused on just north Mt. CB seems a bit odd. Yeah, look for more revenue with CBMR, the towns, the DDA. Consider the use of more admissions tax. Really dig into potential cutbacks. But don’t underestimate the possible unintended consequences to Mountain Express staff if things like year-round work potential is cut by eliminating off-season routes. FirstTrack works and has increased ridership in north Mt. CB — and Lord knows everyone in the valley including me probably wants it as well —but why is it untouchable to even be in the discission?
There is no magic wand to solve the financial problem. Hard decisions are hard. If you ordered the prime rib and you like it so much that it’s never coming off the menu, the wallet gets thin fast. And it might be worth it to keep the prime rib on the order, but to not even be discussing the financial elephant in the room doesn’t seem the right thing to do.
—Mark Reaman
