GMT considers shedding rural routes

Editor’s Note: Changes are coming to Green Mountain Transit’s service, including Waterbury bus routes. We share a Dec. 9 story by Times Argus reporter David Delcore here. Roundabout Correspondent Sandy Yusen filed this local sidebar as well. 

December 13, 2024  |  By David Delcore  |  Times Argus Staff Writer

A GMT bus makes a stop in downtown Waterbury. Photo by Gordon Miller

The Green Mountain Transit board is weighing whether to pivot away from its central Vermont operations, even as it has signaled plans to reduce the frequency of the weekday route that runs between Montpelier and Burlington.

Recently approved reductions to the Montpelier LINK Express won’t go into effect until next March — more than a month after the GMT board must decide whether to recommend a structural change that would transfer its “rural operations,” including the one serving Washington County, to other nonprofit providers.

GMT General Manager Clayton Clark said that decision hasn’t been made, but could be next month if two other boards are willing to facilitate a multi-year transition that would theoretically enable GMT to return to its “urban roots.”

Both boards — one that governs Tri-Valley Transit and the other Rural Community Transportation — are expected to discuss a proposal that would expand their rural footprints and enable cash-strapped GMT to focus on its Chittenden County operations.

It would be a back-to-the-future move for GMT, which was operating as the Chittenden County Transit Authority when Wheels Transportation Inc. — the successor to the Central Vermont Transportation Authority — abruptly filed for bankruptcy in 2003. With buses serving the Barre-Montpelier area idle, CCTA quickly agreed to pick up first some, and, eventually all, of the routes under a separate nonprofit: the Green Mountain Transit Agency. A merger in 2011 created a single entity Clark described as the public transit equivalent of a “unicorn.”

Outside of California, Clark said, he knows of only one other transit authority that operates both urban and rural routes, which rely on separate sources of federal funds that must be separately accounted for.

Operating similar, but in key ways distinctly different, operations have strained GMT, which Clark noted has experienced a 42% reduction in its managerial staff over the last 12 years.

“We’re providing more service than we can effectively manage,” he said, noting that adding staff isn’t an option for an organization that used pandemic-related federal funding to postpone the fiscal cliff that has finally arrived.

A financial forecast that anticipates a $1.4 million budget shortfall triggered a series of service reductions in Chittenden County that were implemented last week, the decision to reduce the Link Express in March, and an as yet unspecified service reduction in June.

Clark said those reductions are designed to resolve an immediate problem, while the plan recently recommended by a consultant could be a long-term solution.

Clark said the good news is public transportation is in a better place than it was when Wheels went bankrupt in 2003 and CCTA was the only viable provider that could step in and fill the void.

“It just shows the transit sector is healthier now and that the other rural providers have the capacity to step in and take over the service,” he said.

The plan under consideration would, if approved, transfer GMT’s Washington County operations, as well as the seasonal service it provides the Sugarbush ski resort, to TVT, while shifting its rural service in Franklin County and seasonal service in Stowe to RCT.

It would be an expansion for both rural service providers and a retraction for GMT, which would theoretically be left with the urban service it has long operated in Chittenden County.

Clark said GMT could continue to operate the Link Express, while requesting financial contributions for the rural communities it serves, or turn the route between Montpelier and Burlington over to TVT.

A final report including recommended changes must be submitted to the Legislature by Feb. 1, 2025, though the transition date now being discussed is July 1, 2026.

That assumes all three affected boards can agree, the state Agency of Transportation endorses the idea and lawmakers approve it.

“We aren’t there yet,” Clark said, noting the topic would likely dominate discussion during the GMT board’s Jan. 7 retreat.

Regardless of the outcome of those discussions, Clark said, the Link Express will be pared back from 11 daily runs to seven. The change will be more pronounced in Waterbury than in Montpelier. Currently, two of the 11 daily runs are partial routes between Waterbury and Burlington. The other nine run between Montpelier and Burlington.

Though the schedule hasn’t been finalized, Clark said it won’t include any partial routes. That’s a net loss of four routes for Waterbury and two for Montpelier.

Cuts coming to Waterbury bus service

By Sandy Yusen | Correspondent 

In March, Green Mountain Transit plans reductions in the Montpelier Link Express bus service between Burlington and Montpelier which stops in Waterbury. 

According to GMT General Manager Clayton Clark and Director of Planning Chris Damiani, two full and two partial daily runs on this route will be cut, leaving seven full trips daily between Burlington and Montpelier with stops in Waterbury. 

The new timetable has not yet been finalized but the new schedule will include three morning runs, one midday, and three in the afternoon/evening. GMT has not indicated which will stop at the Waterbury Park & Ride and State Office Complex.

GMT officials said they did not have specific figures, but Clark said a key reason for the change is that ridership has dropped to about half of what it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Waterbury Commuter, which runs between Montpelier and Waterbury with stops at the State Office Complex, the train station and the senior center in Waterbury, will not be impacted by these changes and will continue to run on its current schedule, GMT officials said. 

Clark emphasized that the decision to transfer GMT’s rural operations to nonprofit providers is still a proposal. “Ultimately it’s the legislature that makes that decision, not us or VTrans,” Clark said. GMT is structured as a municipality which means that changes to its service area require a charter change that needs legislative approval.

GMT meanwhile continues to rely on financial support from the communities it serves. GMT has requested $2,382 from Waterbury for 2025, the same amount Waterbury voters approved this year.