As mentioned yesterday in Part One, the Mountain Express Transit — the MET — now provides fare-free service to seniors over age 60, and to veterans.
When I sat down, a few days ago, with Kevin Bruce, Director of the County-funded Mountain Express Transit system, we discussed the idea that Archuleta County could provide free bus service for everyone — or maybe, service on a ‘donations accepted’ basis.
The Archuleta Board of County Commissioners is well aware that Archuleta County was ranked, last year, as having the highest cost of living in Southwest Colorado…
…and the BOCC also understands that ‘transportation’ is one of the costs of living in a community like Pagosa Springs, where the most affordable homes are the furthest from jobs and services.
According to Mr. Bruce, now that seniors and vets are riding for free, the MET expects to collect maybe $7,000 in fares next year.
The proposed 2024 budget for running the MET, meanwhile, is about $434,000, mainly in salaries and benefits. Wages and benefits are projected to increase from $135,000 this year, to $336,000 next year.
In Part One, we looked at one of the graphs that Mr. Bruce had shared with the BOCC last month.
This chart compares the ridership during the summer months in 2022 and 2023. In 2022 (blue) the MET allowed all riders to ride free. In 2023 (black), June, July and August were all “zero fare” for all riders, thanks to Colorado’s “Zero Fare for Better Air” program. The July 2023 ridership was nearly double, compared the the previous year… and June and August also saw significant increases.
Obviously, we could interpret this data to mean that the MET could greatly increase its ridership by letting everyone ride free. When I asked County Commissioner Warren Brown to comment on a ‘year-round zero fares for everyone’ program, he offered a few thoughts.
“You know, as Archuleta County goes through our growing pains, I think public transit is of vital importance for our community as a whole. As you know, we’ve expanded our service to Arboles; we have a trip that goes to Durango…
“And then, in town, we are getting busier all the time. So I think if we could find a way to fund our transit system, that would replace the fees that are collected from the riders, I think that would be a positive.
“I really look forward to working with the Town Council, and collectively come up with a way to fund this idea… and I would even like to see us work with our local ski resort, to see if they would be interested in partnering, for rides to their ski resort.
“These are not unique ideas. Many communities have them. But it’s all a part of growing up as a community, I think.”
Commissioner Brown’s mention of the Town Council brings up an interesting point. In 2010, in the midst of the Great Recession downturn and a challenging financial period for local governments, the Town Council allocated $25,000 to help subsidize the MET. That same year, the Town budget totaled about $13.3 million, including some large construction projects..
If we look at 2023 Town budget, we see an estimate of $16.4 million to be spent this year. $7,250 was allocated to support the MET; a noticeably smaller amount than in 2010, but also, about the same amount Mr. Bruce thought we could expect in “Fare Box” income in 2024, now that vets and seniors are riding free.
We can consider, perhaps, the overall needs of the community, as suggested by this question.
The proposed Archuleta County budget shows $434,000 allocated to the MET for 2024. But there are some strange numbers in the proposed budget. More about that, in a moment.
One key question. Do we want our community to be completely gentrified, as we’ve seen happen in other Colorado resort towns? I suspect some people would be just fine with that outcome, and certain actions taken — or not taken — by our state and local governments have encouraged gentrification.
As Commissioner Brown notes, Archuleta County is going through some “growing pains”, and some of the pain is falling most heavily on working households… seniors living on fixed incomes… folks with health issues… folks who can’t afford their own vehicles… and disabled individuals.
Providing transportation for those folks, via a community-supported transit system, started up in 2002 when the County established the Mountain Express Transit as part of its Public Works Department. In 2004, the cost for the MET operations was about $72,000. In 2014, the budget was still about the same: $73,000, with about $32,000 shown as “Fare Box” revenues.
To try and formulate a clear picture of what the MET costs the community, I took a look at the proposed budget for 2024… and found some numbers that cannot be correct?
Here’s how the ‘Revenues’ section of the draft budget for the MET looks. Note the wild variations in the “Fare Box” revenues… a roller coaster ride varying from $4,500 to $84,056…
A few other interesting details. The County is hoping to build a transportation facility to improve bus service, and has obtained grants worth about $5.5 million for that purpose. The project might break ground in the spring in Harman Park, near the new County Courthouse. We see those funds in the chart above.
We might also note that the financial support for seniors, coming from the San Juan Basin Area Agency on Aging (SJBAAA) has apparently been another roller coaster. Likewise, the federal transportation grants line.
I reached out to the County staff for clarifications, but haven’t yet heard back…