Eagle County’s Core Transit had a big summer. Now it’s looking ahead to winter

Following summer success, the newly rebranded Core Transit plans to go into its winter schedule with minimal changes. But the cogs are already turning for some potential midwinter service increases.

Core Transit Director of Transportation Dave Snyder took input on the subject from the Core Transit board of directors during its meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 14.

Reflecting on July

Core Transit had a very successful July, consistently following through on its expanded, fare-free service and appearing to draw more riders as a result. All the while, ECO Transit and Eagle Valley Transportation Authority staff and board members prepared to become one, with the transition officially occurring on Aug. 4.

Core Transit provided 40% more service — counted in bus routes — this summer over last summer.                 

For the first time in a long time, Core Transit’s system to count riders on the buses was fully functional in July, allowing for an accurate ridership count. The numbers show that ridership went up 61% this July over last July, and 16% year-to-date over last year.

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Just 13 out of 4,356 standard Core Transit trips and 7 out of 1,924 trips on the SP Plus contracted service were missed in July.

At the moment, Core Transit is fully staffed with bus drivers, with exactly 50 operators for 50 positions to run its scheduled trips. Another set of prospective drivers will begin training on Sept. 3, and some seasonal drivers from last winter will return in time to work the winter schedule.

Contracted service provider SP Plus is also more than fully staffed with nine operators and is due to receive some leased buses soon, which are expected to fill gaps in the service (Core Transit substituted in for 132 of the service’s scheduled trips in July). 

Winter schedule plans

As this summer’s schedule looked a lot like the standard winter bus schedule, “we don’t anticipate a huge expansion for winter,” Snyder said. “Really what we’re looking at is a refinement of what we’re doing, and focusing on the peak problems where we had overload factors.”

Included in what the service riders can expect is that the Vail-Beaver Creek Express will run at 20-minute intervals this winter. To alleviate some of the overflow during the busiest times, two looper buses will also be implemented at the decision of the road supervisors.

Service increases are in the works

Though the winter schedule may begin with minimal changes, Core Transit staff are working on strategically crafting more changes to make.

Over the past two weeks, a Core Transit staff member has spent 25 hours riding the buses with current operators and talking to passengers and operators about their ideal service improvements for the winter.

During the meeting, Snyder asked the board of directors for input on the subject.

Amy Phillips, the Core Transit board chair who serves as the mayor of Avon, asked whether staff had considered “bifurcating (the) Highway 6 (route) during peak times,” and suggested splitting the Highway 6 route at the Avon Station stop.

“It seems that many people from downvalley come up and, if they are going into Vail, it’s faster to actually change to a different bus and jump to Vail,” Phillips said. “I have always observed that Highway 6 is PeeWee’s Wild Ride: You get on that thing (bus) and you’re on it for an interminably long period of time.”

When will Core Transit expand service again, and how?

Dave Eickholt, Beaver Creek’s representative to the board, drew a comparison between the ridership statistics Snyder presented and the prediction of increased ridership Core Transit received when the authority started looking into going fare-free.

The 61% increase in passengers this July, Eickholt said, “is in the range of what the consultants thought we would do if we went fare-free. That we’re there already tells me that we’re going to continue to build as word of mouth gets out that we are reliable, we are free and we are a pretty good ride.”

Eickholt asked if Core Transit could try to increase its service, if not at the start of winter, then at least by the end of January or the start of February, as passengers continue to increase.

“I think we can,” Snyder said. “We think we will be OK on operators and on wheels.”

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Five buses will enter Core Transit’s rotation over the next two months, as two refurbished buses return and three leased buses arrive. Two Gillig electric buses — the same kind used by the town of Vail — are due to arrive at the end of October. The bus maintenance contracts that have been in the works for several months are also expected to be ready by the winter, said Tanya Allen, the executive director of Core Transit.

A new class of operators will start training this fall, and of the 20 summer seasonal operators, 14 have elected to become full-time, in addition to the winter seasonal operators from last year who will return, so Core Transit should also have the staff to expand service.

“I think the largest opportunity in unknown quantity is, in the wintertime, the people who recreate in the two mountains,” said Barry Davis, Vail’s representative to the board. “I think that is the problem that we’re continuing to try to solve for — not just a worker schedule, but a recreation schedule.”

Davis asked Core Transit staff “to encourage an environment that fosters creative ideas to start tackling that one.”

“We want this experience to be easier than driving to recreate,” Davis said.

Based on Davis’ words, Phillips suggested adding skier-focused transit on the weekends and holidays. Phillips also asked Core Transit staff to look at the Eagle Park and Ride’s popularity and potentially provide more service from the stop early in the morning.

Allen also mentioned that Core Transit riders have asked about when micro-transit service, such as a bus that circulates between Eagle and Gypsum, might begin. “Not this winter season,” Allen said. “We’re looking at those concepts as part of our planning process, so we’ll be in a position to talk more seriously about getting engaged in that and launching that as we move into next year.”

Core Transit’s summer schedule will run through Nov. 23, and the winter schedule will begin at that time.