JACKSON, Wyo. — Public transportation between Jackson and Jackson Hole Airport will be available this winter season following approval from the Town and County to contribute the remaining balance of $6,400 to fund the START bus airport shuttle.
START Bus Transit Operations Director Bruce Abel presented the funding solution to the Town and County during the Aug. 5 joint information meeting, asking for the Boards to approve a $275,000 budget amendment.
Abel and START staff worked with the Jackson Hole Airport and the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board to secure a majority of the funding for the program, which the Town and County said they supported conceptually, but couldn’t fund alone.
The Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board can contribute $70,000 using funding from a grant they received, pending approval from the Board on Aug. 8. The Jackson Hole Airport also agreed to purchase Universal Passes for their employees, contributing $30,000 and the Wyoming Department of Transportation/Federal Transit Administration 5311 grant awarded to START has an $83,600 balance that can be used for the program.
The airport will also provide $45,000 through a combination of funding and staff time for outreach and communications functions for the shuttle.
Abel estimates fare collections to bring in $85,000 in revenue, so with the Town and County splitting $6,400 based on their joint department 46/54 split, the total service cost is met at $275,000.
The START airport shuttle pilot program ran from Dec. 16, 2023 through April 14 with one bus conducting 18 trips per day from four stops in Jackson to the Airport every hour from 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily. One-way fares were $10 for adults, $5 for kids 12 and under, $5 for seniors and people with disabilities and free for kids under eight.
A number of data points were collected and crunched, gauging ridership, on-time performance, customer satisfaction and farebox recovery.
“We met the financial and customer satisfaction goals [for the pilot program],” Abel said on Monday, noting that he expects ridership to grow over time.
According to the staff report, the ridership goal of 175-200 passengers per day was nearly met with 160-170 passengers per day. Rider surveys found that 99% of respondents rate their experience with the service as satisfied or very satisfied.
Ty Hoath, START Board Chair, was also at Monday’s meeting. He shared his support for the program and brought up the need for long-term funding.
“I do want to encourage you to think about what long-term looks like,” Hoath said. “It is anticipated that we will grow into this program in two or three years, so what does funding of this particular program not look like today, but until it is fully self-sustainable?”
Abel said the next steps for his department are putting together job offers, housing and training for staff to support the service.
The airport shuttle pilot program was the only public transportation option to the airport in recent history. In 2018 the Ride2Fly program was defunded after five years. The program was replaced by Taxi2Fly which was also canceled in 2020.
