Area ponders free bus system
SANDPOINT — If the right votes fall into place in Ponderay, Bonner County could be hitting the road on a free bus system.
According to District 1 mobility manager Cliff Warren, who presented the program at the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce meeting Thursday, the pending vote on the Ponderay resort city hotel tax is all that stands in the way of the planned two-bus system operated through the city by Northern Lynx Transit. If the tax passes, the cities of Dover, Sandpoint, Ponderay and Kootenai will have the necessary money to receive additional grants for the service, bringing the total funds up to $537,000. With that kind of money, the cities would be able to keep the bus in operation 12 hours a day and seven days a week without charging customers a dime for the first two or three years.
“Northern Lynx Transit needs to offer free services for a few years to build up ridership and prove itself,” Warren said.
“After that, if they were to start charging a dollar for people to ride, they would be more likely to accept that.”
Warren also noted that the act of charging for the bus service carries a need for ticket printers, payment machines and other expenses, creating overhead that a free service avoids.
“It might be that there’s really no way to profit from the service, and it will remain free,” he said.
The bus program already has its time table planned out. With one bus already ordered, Warren says they aim to hire staff in October, set final routes in November, start single-bus service in December, order a second bus in January, and have full two-bus service implemented by April.
Several members Bonner County business community expressed excitement at the economic impact of a bus system.
Representatives of Schweitzer Mountain said they hoped to link the city bus system with their shuttle service to the ski slopes.
“City residents would get a free bus system, and the cities would be able to publicize the fact that if you come to Bonner County, you can get everywhere you want to go without bringing a vehicle with you,” Warren said. “It’s a win-win-win-win all the way down the line.”
However, the current program still requires some revising.
Warren outlined a tentative bus route that stretches from Dover to Kootenai, but said that alterations are necessary to hit all major stops efficiently.
“Right now, we have some loops in our route when it’s always preferable to have a straight line,” he said, illustrating how riders who wanted to move from downtown Sandpoint to the library would have to go all the way to Dover and back under the current route set-up.
But much of the planning is for nothing if the Ponderay hotel tax doesn’t pass. Under those conditions, the bus program loses its grant funding, shrinking the current half-million program to $87,000.
“We’d have one bus and $87,000 to fund it,” Warren said. “A contraction of services doesn’t begin to describe what would happen.