Effective Monday, Road Runner Transit will suspend its third run between Bayfield and Durango.
Earmarked for elimination is the bus that leaves the Pine River Library at 11 a.m. and arrives at the Durango Transit Center at 11:40 a.m. The return bus leaves the Transit Center at 11:55 a.m. and arrives at the Bayfield library at 12:35 p.m.
All runs are Monday through Friday and originate or end at either the Bayfield library or the Durango Transit Center.
Transit officials said the run was cut for economic reasons.
Two earlier runs between Durango and Bayfield are unaffected.
A bus leaves the Bayfield library at 6:50 a.m., arriving at the Durango Transit Center at 7:28 a.m. The return leaves at 7:38 a.m. and arrives in Bayfield at 8:23 a.m.
Another morning run leaves Bayfield at 8:40 a.m., arriving in Durango at 9:20 a.m. The bus returns at 9:35 a.m. and arrives in Bayfield at 10:20 a.m.
An afternoon bus leaves Bayfield at 4:30 p.m., arriving in Durango at 5:08 p.m. The return leaves Durango at 5:18 p.m. and arrives in Bayfield at 5:58 p.m.
“We are sorry for any inconvenience to our many loyal customers,” Clayton Richter, manager of the Road Runner division of Southern Ute Community Action Programs, or SUCAP, said in a statement. “But this action is necessary to maintain some level of service on the Bayfield route.”
Peter Tregillus, the SUCAP program developer, said service was reduced in 2012 after three years of funding cuts from the town of Bayfield and La Plata County.
“When the 2008 financial crisis and recession reduced county and town revenue, we understood the situation then and proposed funding reductions in the interest of longer-term stability,” Tregillus said.
Tregillus said SUCAP is providing as much service as it can within fiscal restraints. It can’t operate at a deficit, he said.
