The city of Durango’s transit service provides comprehensive and convenient transportation for city residents and visitors via its trolley, loop and Opportunity and Buzz buses. Between these options, it is easy to access any destination in city limits without the hassle or expense of driving and parking – or physical exertion.
Signature among the city’s transit offerings is its Main Avenue trolley service, which shuttles riders from the Iron Horse Inn to the Transit Center at 20-minute intervals. Before January, the trolley was free to all comers and, as such, boasted a high volume of users with a costly bottom line. When the city imposed a $1 fee on trolley riders, the numbers plummeted. This indicates that a needed service is no longer accessible to a significant segment of transit users. The city should fine-tune its fare structure to rebalance its priorities.
Cost-effectiveness is important, but it must be weighed against larger community goals. In 2012, the city adopted a multi-modal transportation master plan that aims to create “an accessible, interconnected, attractive and safe system of transit routes, walkways and bikeways throughout the city,” with specific attention paid to “transportation equity,” namely “by promoting safety and mobility options for persons of all income levels, abilities and ages.” The plan’s measure of success is that “a middle-school age child would be able to access transit, walk or bike independently throughout the city of Durango and its environs. The vision of the Multi-Modal Transportation Master Plan is to ensure that this is achievable.” The free trolley was a key component of achieving that vision. The $1 fare has compromised it.
Ridership over the first four months of the year plummeted 35 percent compared to 2014 figures. That drop has ramifications for those who formerly used the trolley and no longer do with as much frequency – many of whom were the middle-school-aged children the city aims to serve with its multi-modal plan. Students at Mountain and Miller middle schools, as well as Durango High School, were frequent trolley riders who are certainly affected by the $1 rate.
Though Amber Blake, the city’s sustainability and transportation director, said last year’s numbers are artificially inflated because of people taking multiple free trolley rides, the reality is just the opposite: The free trolley was a beloved and well-used service that achieved the city’s multi-modal transit goals.
With a dramatic decrease in ridership linked to a drastic increase in fees, the city is undermining its stated transportation goals and leaving vulnerable populations with fewer options for getting around town. If the intent is to attract grant-funding by demonstrating financial viability, there is room for a recalibrated fee structure somewhere between free and $1 for each trolley ride. Imposing a more accessible fare on trolley riders – students, visitors, low-income earners among them – could meet the city’s dual priorities of providing multi-modal transportation options for all and ensuring that they are financially viable. If the intent is to kill the trolley program, justified by low ridership and high cost, then the city should not change a thing. The former option is preferable and is in line with a visionary transit plan that captures the city’s worthy transportation-related goals.
