‘A big change:’ Core Transit on track to have 75% of its fleet operational by end of month
Electric buses, out of service for years, set to make a return
Core Transit/Courtesy photo
2024 has been a big year for Core Transit. The organization introduced fare-free bus service across most of its stops in May, combined the Eagle Valley Transportation Authority and ECO Transit in August, and has upped its ridership by 25% compared to 2023.
But as Core Transit has grown and expanded its service offerings, one element of its service equation has consistently lagged behind: The mechanical condition of its buses.
This month, that will finally start to change.
Vehicle maintenance provider, Transdev, started work in December
Core Transit’s fleet of buses, which were inherited from ECO Transit, have historically suffered from a lack of maintenance. Over the past year-and-a-half, as many as half of Core Transit’s buses have been out of service at any given time, largely due to the impacts of deferred maintenance.
At the same time, ECO Transit struggled to hire mechanics. Heading into last winter, ECO Transit had a too-low ratio of one mechanic per every nine buses, and half as many bus repair bays as needed for its fleet of 42 buses.
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Core Transit ultimately decided to contract a vehicle maintenance service to work on its vehicles, and began working on a contract as ECO Transit last February. Transdev, the provider Core Transit selected, was supposed to start work earlier this year. Due to a series of delays, the provider’s start date was pushed back by several months.
In December, however, Transdev entered the scene.
“The big news is that Transdev is up and running,” Dave Snyder, Core Transit’s director of transportation said to the board during its Dec. 11 meeting. “They’ve started to give us buses back, and we’ve got two refurb(ished) buses coming in in the next couple weeks.”
In another big change, Core Transit’s three electric buses, which have been largely offline since they arrived, are due to make a comeback this month.
“The electric buses are being worked on now with the Clever system,” Snyder said. “They’ll be ready for service next week.”
The electric buses have struggled with software issues — Proterra, the company that made the buses, filed for bankruptcy in August 2023 — as well as mechanical challenges related to running electric buses over longer distances. In the second quarter of 2023, all three electric buses were out of service for 88 out of 90 days.
The introduction of Transdev will significantly increase the number of Core Transit buses available for service.
“I’d anticipate by the end of this month we’re probably going to have 70 to 75% operational in the fleet, which is a big change,” Snyder said.
Ridership numbers remain elevated
2024 has been a huge growth year for Core Transit’s ridership numbers. As of the end of November, Core Transit had a 25% increase in ridership, year-to-date, over 2023.
But November itself showed only a 3% increase from 2023 to 2024, with about 3,000 more riders taking Core Transit this year.
“If you look at that compared to November of 2023, it’s not a lot higher, which is unusual compared to previous months. The one exception is, in November of last year, we had five days of the Vail-Beaver Creek Express, so that inflates that number because obviously we didn’t go to the winter schedule until Dec. 1,” Snyder said.
Last year, the Vail-Beaver Creek Express, Core Transit’s first line to go fare-free, was its most popular line when comparing the number of riders to the number of hours the service was offered.
November was also “another very solid month of coverage,” for service, Snyder said.
Out of nearly 5,000 scheduled directly operated Core Transit trips, only three were missed. These were “related to minor mechanical issues,” Snyder said.
The contractor SP Plus, which supplements Core Transit’s service by providing more than 1,000 additional trips, missed nine trips, but with Core operators’ help, only four trips were missed.
SP Plus was supposed to have new buses delivered in November, but the buses have yet to be delivered, so the service is continuing to use its existing fleet. When the new buses arrive over the next month, they will match the rest of the Core Transit fleet with the Core Transit logo on their sides.
Core Transit’s winter schedule started on Dec. 1, with a relatively similar amount of service to its summer schedule after service was increased significantly in May and the return of the Vail-Beaver Creek Express.
So far, winter service has run smoothly. “We have not canceled any runs. We have covered everything,” Snyder said.
Core Transit’s hiring is going well
After spending several months in need of operators, Core Transit has had to form a waitlist for new bus driver candidates.
95% of its targeted 62 operator positions are filled, with 50 full-time, eight seasonal and one part-time driver. Another nine were in training as of Dec. 11, and three of those have now entered the workforce. There are also currently four people on the waitlist for a full-time driving position with Core Transit.
“We’re looking really solid,” Snyder said.
SP Plus has 10 drivers to fill its need for eight drivers and has three in its hiring pipeline.
How Core Transit can boost driver morale
Snyder took a few minutes during the meeting to touch on how Core Transit can support strong morale among its operators.
“There are a lot of things that in my mind, as the director of transportation, go into that,” Snyder said.
Compensation and benefits are one important piece of the puzzle, Snyder said. “But also, from an operational standpoint, making sure we’re putting good schedules together so we’re not burning out operators,” he said.
Developing a strong maintenance system to prevent vehicle issues is another way to keep drivers happy, so they can maintain trust in their vehicles and avoid spending precious shift time dealing with switching out buses.
“The better we are at getting our vehicles running properly and having more than the spares, the less gyrations you go through having to swap out buses, and that can be a problem with operators if they’re not feeling comfortable with the buses,” Snyder said.
