Every morning at 7 a.m., Road Runner Stage Lines rumbles to a start from the Durango Transit Center on west Eighth Street, bound for Grand Junction.
Born of a three-way partnership of the Colorado Department of Transportation, Southern Ute Community Action Programs and Greyhound, the daily bus service is approaching its two-year anniversary, and operators say the route is viable enough to stick around.
“It’s doing what we hoped,” said Mike Timlin, CDOT bus operations manager. “It’s a very important option for residents of Southwest Colorado to connect with the intercity bus network. This kind of route will never make money, but it’s sustainable.”
That’s because for most of its passengers, Stage Lines is the only practical option.
“I go to Grand Junction to see my dad, who lives in a nursing home, and my mom lives with my brother there. I can’t afford to fly,” Cheryl Cyphers said Thursday as she departed on her third Stage Lines trip. “The price is good, and I hope it never stops.”
In 2011, Greyhound discontinued what was deemed an unprofitable route from Salt Lake City to Albuquerque that included stops in Grand Junction and Durango.
But in July 2014, Southern Ute Community Action Programs re-established service to that corridor of Southwest Colorado with one 473-mile round-trip, seven days a week. It includes stops in Mancos, Cortez, Dolores, Rico, Telluride, Placerville, Ridgway, Montrose and Delta.
From Grand Junction, passengers can catch buses to Denver and beyond the same day via state and national transit services.
When the bus departed the Durango Transit Center on a chilly and still-dark Thursday morning, it held a smattering of passengers, which SUCAP program director Peter Tregillus said is not unusual.
The bus was in operation for the last five months of 2014. Compared with the same time period last year, ridership increased by 73 percent from 2,045 to 3,540 passengers. In 2015, the route operated with a $365,000 Federal Transit Administration grant, and ticket revenue produced $119,651.
The first two months of 2016 reflect a total of 927 boardings, which Tregillus said is healthy given there were nine days the route was out of service after the bus was rear-ended by another vehicle in January. There were no injuries.
“We feel we are doing a pretty good job in terms of building up the service,” Tregillus said.
On slow days, Stage Lines carries eight to 12 people total in both directions, with 30 to 35 on good days, he said.
But low ridership numbers are not necessarily proportionate to the need for the service.
Scott Henning, a broadcast engineer for KSJD, travels to Cortez irregularly. Stage Lines has greatly simplified that trip:
“I don’t drive,” he said.
Both regular and infrequent passengers run the gamut: Southwest Community College and Pueblo Community College commuters, Fort Lewis and Colorado Mesa University college kids going to and from school, divorcees on their way to pick up their children for the weekend.
The diverse needs drove the partnering entities to reinstate a ground transportation alternative to airfare. The former Greyhound service left Durango at 6 p.m. and didn’t reach Grand Junction until nearly midnight, mandating an overnight stay.
“People lost access to a national network,” Timlin said. “It was an important piece to a statewide program.”
Flat or decreasing funding for transportation is a nationwide issue, and it’s a problem for Road Runner. This year, it received a federal subsidy of $305,000.
It’s also struggling with lower gas prices.
In 2008, when gas prices spiked, so did ridership on Road Runner’s local commuter routes. With prices now less than $2 locally and nationally for the past 25 days, bus services expect to lose passengers who find driving more affordable.
It also is hiring a new transit director after Clayton Richter died last month.
By year’s end, Stage Lines hopes to buy two new coaches for backup, which will be smaller and easier to navigate through mountain passes.
The money would come from state FASTER funds approved in 2011 for transit projects.
Stage Lines is shooting for $150,000 in ticket sales in 2016.
jpace@durangoherald.com
