Green Mountain Transit made temporary changes to several routes in northwestern and central Vermont this month, reducing the frequency of service on two lines in Burlington and on express routes connecting the Queen City with Montpelier and St. Albans.
The changes were developed earlier this year in response to the Omicron variant, and they allow the company to have more drivers available to fill in if other drivers call out sick, according to Jamie Smith, the company’s marketing and planning director.
The new schedules took effect March 7 and will last until mid-June.
Some bus riders and officials in Burlington said they were concerned by the reduction in service, adding that service should not be cut, but rather increased in order to make public transportation more attractive to commuters in the region.
Around Burlington, Green Mountain Transit reduced the frequency of bus service during what’s considered peak hours — 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. — on both the No. 6 Shelburne Road route and the No. 7 North Avenue route. There’s now half an hour between buses on those routes at peak times, versus 20 minutes previously.
The No. 6 runs between Shelburne and downtown Burlington, while the No. 7 connects downtown with the city’s New North End. Collectively, there are about 17,500 housing units within a quarter-mile of these two routes, according to documents provided to the company’s board of commissioners this month.
The company also eliminated four daily trips on the Montpelier LINK Express that runs between the capital and Burlington, and eliminated one of two trips in the morning and afternoon from the LINK Express route between Burlington and St. Albans.
Service also was reduced to one morning and one evening run on the No. 36 commuter route between Burlington and Jeffersonville.
Kevin Pounds, who lives on North Avenue and rides the bus to work — and also uses it to take his children to school — said the reduction in service has been a “minor inconvenience,” leading to some changes in his family’s morning schedule.
But he said he can understand the need for service changes during the pandemic, and he feels it’s hard to complain when the service is free to use.
Green Mountain Transit routes have been operating fare-free since 2020, subsidized by federal and state stimulus funding.
For Dan Castrigano, who said he prefers to travel around the region on Green Mountain Transit buses, rather than a car, to reduce his carbon footprint, it’s been frustrating to wait longer in between buses now, especially if he happens to just miss one.
“Good service has 15 minutes or fewer between buses,” Castrigano said. “(Bus service) has to be not only brought back to where it was — but dramatically increased.”
While this month’s service changes are temporary, Smith said Green Mountain Transit is considering some permanent schedule changes ahead of the 2023 fiscal year, which starts July 1.
That includes 30-minute headways between buses on the No. 6 Shelburne Road route, as well as the four fewer buses on the Montpelier LINK.
These proposed changes are set to go before public hearings, Smith said, which she expects will take place sometime in the next few weeks. She noted the company also held multiple public hearings, in February, about the recent temporary changes.
Smith said ridership on the LINK services has not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels as it has on the company’s local routes, which she chalked up to more people choosing to work from home. For instance, Smith said Montpelier LINK Express ridership is 69% lower now than it was before the pandemic.
Per documents provided to the Green Mountain Transit’s board, ridership on the company’s Chittenden County routes hovered around 140,000 passengers per month in the first two months of 2022, which is slightly higher than it was in March 2020.
In response to a question, Smith said the service changes were not necessarily spurred by a lack of bus drivers. Jon Moore, Green Mountain Transit’s general manager, has said the company has struggled to fill driving positions during the pandemic.
Rather, Smith said it’s often difficult for the company to move drivers between different routes because drivers bid on shifts in advance. But by moving some drivers into shifts where they’re on call, she said, the company could plug any large gaps in service.
“We’re trying to minimize impacts on the local services,” Smith said.
Burlington East District City Councilor Jack Hanson, who’s also the executive director of a local environmental advocacy organization, Run on Climate, said he was concerned to hear about the recent changes in Green Mountain Transit’s service.
The No. 6 and No. 7 routes traverse important commuter corridors, he said, and service should be as frequent as possible in order to entice more people out of their cars.
“To take out service during rush hour is not a step in the right direction,” Hanson said.
One step in the right direction, Hanson noted, would be for the Legislature to approve the funding for another year of free fares on the company’s buses.
On Tuesday afternoon, the House Transportation Committee unanimously voted out the transportation money bill, which includes funding for fare-free transit in FY23.
Rep. Curt McCormack, D-Burlington, who’s on the Transportation Committee, voiced his support for that funding this week.
“The best thing we can do to increase ridership,” McCormack said in an interview, “is to have it remain fare-free.”
Correction: There are no schedule changes on the No. 2 Essex route, Green Mountain Transit says. An earlier version of this story included that route.
