Green Mountain Transit’s board of commissioners approved a plan Tuesday to cut service on one of its commuter bus lines and combine two other commuter lines into one. The move advances some, though not all, of the second of three phases of reductions the agency has proposed to fill an expected gap in its operating budget.
The changes will impact service between Chittenden and Washington counties in March 2025 and between Chittenden and Franklin counties that June. They’ll follow a first phase of reductions that the board approved last month — mostly to weekend bus services in the Burlington area — and which is set to begin in early December.
Board members also voted Tuesday to ask many of the municipalities Green Mountain Transit serves to fund, if needed, a one-time assessment covering some of the agency’s personnel costs, though it’s ultimately up to local leaders whether to pitch in.
The latest service changes include, by March, a reduction in the number of daily trips on the No. 86 Montpelier LINK Express — which connects the capital city with Waterbury and downtown Burlington — from 11 trips in each direction to seven trips each way.
A revised route schedule hasn’t been finalized, according to Chris Damiani, Green Mountain Transit’s director of planning, though he said riders can expect three runs in the morning, one around midday and three in the evening. He said the agency plans to cut trips that have the lowest ridership, noting overall usage of the service has fallen significantly since commuting patterns changed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Clayton Clark, the agency’s general manager, emphasized Tuesday that there are no plans to shut down the Montpelier LINK service entirely — something the agency had floated in recent months but that riders decried at a public forum in September.
By June 2025, the agency plans to combine two existing commuter lines — the No. 96 St. Albans LINK Express, which connects that city with Burlington, and the No. 56 Milton Commuter, which runs between that town and the Queen City — into a single service. The new route will carry riders between St. Albans and Burlington through Milton along U.S. Route 7, as opposed to an existing route that takes Interstate 89 instead.
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It’s possible that the redrawn service will make fewer stops in the St. Albans area, agency leaders said, but those plans haven’t been finalized yet, either.
Combining the routes will save money by reducing the number of buses and drivers necessary for service north of Burlington, Clark said in an interview. The changes won’t reduce the overall frequency of bus service to and from those communities.
“These changes that we’re talking about aren’t just loss, loss, loss. In many ways, it’s about increasing efficiencies,” said Mike Scanlan, a board member representing South Burlington, during Tuesday’s meeting. Board members noted that they had decided against an earlier plan to cut one daily trip from the revised route, too.
If all three phases of Green Mountain Transit’s August service reduction plan are implemented, it could amount to cutting a quarter of the agency’s local and regional bus service, at least. A third round — which Clark has said would only be necessary in a “worst case” fiscal scenario, and hasn’t yet been implemented — would see three local bus routes in the Burlington area eliminated, among a host of other changes.
In all, cuts are projected to save Green Mountain Transit at least $2 million, or as much as $3 million, if needed.
As it weighed what services to keep, cut or slim down on Tuesday, board members were also looking ahead to the state’s next legislative session, which starts in January. The board doesn’t plan to vote on the final round of service changes until after the new year.
Clark told the board that while the Legislature has tacked additional funding onto the state’s annual transportation budget in recent years to buoy Green Mountain Transit’s finances, last week’s election — which saw a wave of incumbent state lawmakers unseated over anxieties about state spending and affordability — has made him less confident in the agency’s prospects for financial support in the upcoming session.
Green Mountain Transit is due to send lawmakers a report this week that lays out its challenges — which it says are rooted in limited staff capacity — and calls on the Legislature to create a new funding mechanism for its service and other public transportation providers in the state, such as higher state registration fees for certain types of vehicles or a new road usage fee on delivery vehicles.
It’s not the first report in recent years to suggest such policy changes. But Clark told the board Tuesday that, after last week’s results, those proposals now seem “very out of touch with the moment,” noting Republican Gov. Phil Scott — who will likely be emboldened by GOP gains — has “very stated” opposition to raising fees.
“My worry is that the Legislature would just look at us and say, ‘Hey, you’ve taken no action to solve your own problem,’” Clark said. “And that would be harmful for us.”
After hearing Clark’s concern, the board voted to ask municipalities that already help fund Green Mountain Transit’s services to pay a “special assessment” totaling about $300,000 in the 2026 fiscal year, which starts next July. The money would largely fund staff buyouts next fiscal year in the event the agency needs to reduce its workforce in order to save more money, Clark said in an interview, among other minor costs.
The assessment would be divvied up between communities based on how much bus service they receive, Clark said, adding it’s possible the cities and towns would need to pay less, or not pay at all, depending on the realities of the agency’s finances. Local officials in every impacted municipality have to approve the special charge before it can take effect, though, something Clark noted could be a difficult sell as the agency reduces service in the region at the same time.
The board also voted Tuesday to increase, by 5%, the share of the cost of paratransit services — which are provided to people unable to use Green Mountain Transit’s main bus system because of a disability — that’s paid by certain municipalities, too.
Right now, the agency generally splits that cost 50-50 with local governments where residents get access to those services, which it provides through a Colchester-based contractor. The board’s vote shifts that cost burden slightly more onto municipalities, Clark said, which will further help plug the gap in the agency’s operating budget.
Chapin Spencer, a board member who is also the city of Burlington’s public works director, called the board’s decisions on Tuesday “a balancing act.”
“There’s a desire to work with our communities not to put an undue burden that they can’t plan for,” he said. “And, there’s a desire to telegraph to the Legislature that we’re stepping up to serve the needs of the transit community.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Green Mountain Transit to move forward with further bus service reductions.