ECO Transit is en route to become one with the Eagle Valley Transportation Authority

Big changes are coming to ECO Transit over the next few weeks as the Eagle Valley Transportation Authority prepares to pull ECO Transit under its umbrella on Aug. 4. Buses will be taking on a new look beginning on July 16, but the service, schedule, and current fare-free status will stay the same.

During the Eagle Valley Transportation Authority board meeting on Wednesday, July 10, at Avon Town Hall, board members and staff reflected on the first six weeks of expanded fare-free service and discussed the impending transition.

ECO Transit(ion)

Since the Eagle Valley Transportation Authority was created with a ballot measure that passed in Vail, Minturn, Red Cliff, Avon, Beaver Creek, Eagle and unincorporated Eagle County in November 2022, the plan has been to take over from Eagle County as the home organization of ECO Transit. While the transition process has been underway for months, the end date for the transfer is Aug. 4.

ECO Transit employees are already being transitioned under the Eagle Valley Transportation Authority. Beginning July 3, 86 ECO Transit employees started to receive employment offer letters from the transportation authority. Most will be provided with similar benefits and salaries to those they currently have under ECO Transit, with “many individuals” seeing a 1-5% salary increase in the transition, according to the board meeting packet.

Larry Tenenholz, interim director of ECO Transit, will be stepping down from the role, which will be filled by the recent hire of Dave Snyder, who will serve as the transportation authority’s director of transportation.

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Introducing himself during the board meeting, Snyder shared that he is a graduate of West Point and spent 10 years in the United States Army as an infantry officer before pivoting to the transportation business. Snyder has worked in “all forms, transit, motor coach, ambulance, trolley, armored truck,” he said. “You name it, I’ve done it.”

Snyder, who started work on July 8, named some of his top goals as building trust with team members and the community, creating scalable systems for growth, and developing and mentoring staff.

How did ECO Transit’s first fare-free month go?

During the meeting, Tenenholz presented ECO Transit’s June data. June was the first full month of expanded fare-free and increased service, which began on May 19.

ECO Transit’s expanded fare-free service saw the Minturn and U.S. Highway 6 routes go fully fare-free, and the Valley route went fare-free except for those boarding or departing in Gypsum.

Without the use of fare boxes, which formerly provided an automatic count of riders as they boarded the bus, ECO Transit drivers are currently charged with counting their passengers in addition to their other duties. Because of that, Tenenholz said, ridership accounting has not been completely accurate.

Despite the challenge of counting, Tenenholz presented that ridership increased by 14.1% in June 2024 over June 2023, an increase of over 11,000 riders across the ECO Transit system.

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While the contracted service from SP Plus, which provides service on the Vail-Beaver Creek Express route, continued to struggle in consistency, missing 45 trips, ECO Transit was able to cover 42 of the missed trips. Including ECO Transit trips, as well, there were eight trips missed in June out of nearly 6,000 scheduled, or 0.001%.

“There was some thought about taking some service back from them (SP Plus) to help them,” but SP Plus asked for the opportunity to try to do better, Tenenholz said.

SP Plus is leasing five buses that are due to arrive in August, which should help fill gaps in the schedule when their buses need to undergo maintenance.

Tenenholz also spoke about the broader successful changes that have occurred since the transportation authority was created.

Since Tenenholz started in the interim director position in April 2023, provided bus service has increased by 43%, he said. The planned fare-free expansion also took place significantly earlier than initially scheduled, beginning in May rather than as expected in November.

Tenenholz commended the board for listening to its constituents and trusting its staff to provide service that met the lofty goals of increased and fare-free service.

“People have passed this tax, they want this service, and so you have allowed us to increase this,” Tenenholz said.

Standing at the podium facing the board, Tenenholz then turned around to look at the ECO Transit staff present at the meeting.

“I want to thank everybody on the ECO side,” he said. “Everybody has had a part in this, from our VTC staff down at the Vail Information Booth, those folks, to our operators, to our dispatch, our road sups (supervisors) …our cleaning crew, our maintenance crew — everybody has worked together to get this done.”

Behind the scenes

Tenenholz also presented to the board on some of ECO Transit’s behind-the-scenes indicators of success that members of the public might not see.

One is ECO Transit’s employee turnover rate, which is relatively low compared to the transit industry in general, which usually has a high employee turnover rate, Tenenholz said. ECO Transit’s turnover rate, without accounting for retirees and seasonal workers, is 9.1%.

“That’s tremendous,” Tenenholz said.

Another is ECO Transit’s commercial driver licensing program. ECO Transit provides training and testing for new operator hires to obtain a commercial license. This year, 43 ECO Transit operators received their commercial licenses through their employers.

The service was also offered to other local organizations that require employees to have commercial driver’s licenses. 100 employees of local, non-ECO Transit community organizations obtained their licenses through ECO Transit, including employees of local towns, the Eagle County School District, Gypsum Fire Protection District, and the SWAT team, Tenenholz said.

On the bus maintenance front, ECO Transit has struggled, with having enough technicians and limited space to work on buses leading to 49% of buses out of service on average in the second quarter of 2024. Tenenholz said that slow progress is being made. 

The ECO Transit fleet maintenance department recently hired another technician after nearly nine months of the job being posted, Tenenholz said. The goal is to hire enough technicians to reduce the bus-to-technician ratio to six to eight buses per technician per day, down from its current number of 10.2.

The July 10 meeting marked Tenenholz’s last presentation to the board, and the room, including board members, ECO Transit staff and members of the public, applauded him for his service.