NAMPA, Idaho — Public transportation service in Nampa faces potential reductions or even elimination, as four options are being presented to the public for feedback.
Sebastian Griffin, District 6 Nampa City Councilman, recently experienced using the Valley Regional Transit buses firsthand, traveling from his home to Boise for law school.
Griffin noted that during his commute home, only about 10 people were on the bus, with just two riders, including himself, continuing to Nampa.
"This is a significant amount of money that we're expensing for a system, in my opinion, that isn't worth its cost," Griffin said.
Nampa City Council has asked Valley Regional Transit to provide for scenarios for them to consider: maintaining current service, increasing it, reducing it, or eliminating it.
Stephen Hunt, development director at VRT, expressed concern over the complexities in funding public transit across the Treasure Valley, stating, "Well, that's one of the most challenging parts about the way public transit is funded in the Treasure Valley is each individual jurisdiction makes funding decisions about what they're going to support transit every year. And so as we try to make forecasts or as we try to plan for the future and say, well, we're going to grow the system so that you have more options to travel between the communities and then one community decides that they can't that year for whatever reason, it does have an impact on the other adjacent communities"
According to Hunt, increasing VRT's services fourfold could lead to an eightfold rise in ridership, primarily due to higher bus frequency and more stops.
However, current ridership in Nampa remains low. During a visit to the College of Western Idaho, no passengers boarded or disembarked three buses, which came 36 minutes apart.
Riders can share their thoughts on the potential service changes at the Nampa Public Library on May 6.
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