Public transportation providers in La Plata County continue to face barriers amid goals to expand their services.

La Plata County commissioners and staff members met with area transportation leaders Monday in a public work session to discuss gaps in public transportation and the county’s role in addressing them. Agency leaders expressed a need for greater funding and additional drivers while targeting regional cooperation to expand services and meet the needs of La Plata County and Southwest Colorado’s residents.

“We have barriers – isolation barriers, funding barriers. Everything’s a barrier in transportation, and it’s not paperwork,” said Patrick Davis, transportation manager for the Southwest Center for Independence. “It’s a losing battle and it’s hard.”

Davis; Sarah Hill, the transportation director for the city of Durango; Jay Rhodes, transportation division director for the Southern Colorado Community Action Agency (which operates Road Runner Transit); and Vicki Maestas, director of the Durango-La Plata Senior Center, gave presentations to the commissioners about their services, the challenges they must confront and the ways the county can help.

Hill identified increased bus frequency and expanded hours and service areas as priorities Durango Transit needs to address. She noted that Durango Transit’s 2021 ridership survey showed more county residents are using the service.

“It’s going to be important to connect people all over La Plata County to Durango and then increase service hours,” she said. “We operate until 8:40 p.m. That leaves a lot of service industry people stranded in the evening and it’s just not as convenient and helpful as we would want it to be.”

However, the two problems that rose to the top for the transportation providers were less straightforward. Funding and driver shortages were the greatest concerns shared by the agency leaders.

“You’ll probably hear the same thing from all of us on this one: Funding is going to be a repeated issue,” Hill said. “In addition to finding dedicated and sustainable operating funding, capital funding is a growing need as well.”

Davis and the Southwest Center for Independence’s Southwest Rides Program provide accessible transportation for those with disabilities, veterans and older adults, helping them get to and from the services they need.

But funding is a limiting factor and can lead to the Southwest Rides Program offering fewer services later in the year as money runs out, he said.

“It would be nice to be able to find a funding source where we have enough capital that would always carry us through,” Davis said.

Likewise, Hill highlighted the discrepancy between Durango Transit’s revenue and its operating budget. Durango Transit brings in about $1.5 million in revenue from federal operating grants, Durango’s lodgers tax, service contracts and fares. However, its operating budget is $2.6 million. Durango Transit uses parking revenue to fill the gap, she said.

“It’s not sustainable. It’s not the long-term solution. But that’s kind of the state of affairs for now,” she said.

With hopes of expanding to meet the needs of Durango and La Plata County, finances will become only more important.

“I think we’re all in agreeance. The challenges are funding and one of our greatest challenges like most employers is finding qualified employees,” Davis said.

Both Davis and Maestas have been unable to hire the additional drivers they need, and they currently cannot meet the financial incentives that Hill and Durango Transit have used such as bonuses to attract drivers.

And yet, for six months, Durango Transit received zero applications for driver positions, Hill said.

Rhodes told commissioners Road Runner Transit is also experiencing a driver shortage, which has forced it to alter its plans for service.

“If one of my two drivers goes out, I have no one to cover for them. That’s very difficult when we’re trying to meet that demand and provide those services,” Maestas said.

Durango Transit is fully staffed, but Southwest Rides is short three drivers, Durango-La Plata Senior Center two drivers and Road Runner Transit one.

“We have one full-time position that needs to be filled, but our biggest deficit is getting drivers in to cover the expansions that we’re trying to do,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes has been trying to bring back Road Runner’s fixed route services that was lost during the pandemic, but he has been unable to do so without the drivers he needs.

“I would have brought that back a month ago, but I can’t find the drivers to do it,” he said.

The transit leaders and county commissioners discussed potential solutions, including expanding access to commercial driver training for applicants without a commercial license and even creating a regional driver training program.

County commissioner Matt Salka supported efforts to expand training locally and lobby the state for changes in regulations.

“There’s a lot of room for collaboration on the (commercial driver’s license) training, and I would stress to you all, bring us this information,” he said. “How can we change this at the state level? To me, this is a no-brainer.”

Other solutions the agency leaders proposed to alleviate hurdles public transportation in the county faces included convenient park-and-ride lots to connect county residents with Durango Transit and a regional facility where all of the transportation providers could store their buses and conduct maintenance.

Central to any solution is greater cooperation between the transportation agencies.

“We have really great relationships built with all the other transit providers and it really is a matter of coordinating and finding funding to meet some of those service gaps,” Hill said.

That includes partnering to expand services beyond Durango, but also working to limit any overlaps in services. Salka questioned the logic of investing in each of the transit operations if there are redundancies in their services.

“Why put all this money in each group to do the same exact service when we will all benefit from one another?” he asked.

Rhodes acknowledged that the transit bodies need to work together more, but also argued that the county has a meaningful role to play in addressing transportation gaps.

“The only way we’re going to fill some of those gaps that are in Vallecito or are out on these county roads is with your assistance,” he said.

Commissioner Marsha Porter-Norton said what the county desperately needs is a comprehensive transit plan to help guide the county’s efforts. Tuesday’s meeting was a step in that direction.

“I hope out of today we can facilitate, prompt (and) ask for a countywide plan,” she said. “There’s so many good things happening, so how can we stitch them together?”

ahannon@durangoherald.com