BOISE, Idaho — A popular way to get from downtown Boise to Albertsons stadium on game days is no more. Matt Sizemore talked to Valley Regional Transit about their decision to discontinue their role with the Bronco Game Day Shuttle.
The Treasure Valley loves it's Boise State football, and on game days, tens of thousands of fans pack Albertsons Stadium hoping to witness a big win for the Broncos. During the 2023 season, fans had a new way to get from downtown to the stadium through a pilot program.
"It was very successful, we had 10,000 rides, the people who rode it told us it was a really great service. They both enjoyed using it and told us they were interested in other Valley Regional Transit services as a result," said Valley Regional Transit CEO Elaine Clegg.
That's around 5,000 people that were hauled to and from Albertsons Stadium last season using the Game Day Shuttle service, and all for free. But it's not the first time riders have used VRT to get around town for big events.
"We've been experimenting, like I've said, for the last five years with supplemental services in general, we've offered this kind of service to Treefort since 2017, we've done other kinds of services, extensions of existing routes, for instance, to serve Oktoberfest in Meridian last year, and Hyde Park Street Fair in Boise this year," said Clegg.
But as previously mentioned, the Game Day Shuttle was a pilot program for VRT, who in it's first year, knew it might not work out in the long term.
"The way that we had to design it and pay for it really wasn't sustainable from a staffing standpoint, and one of the things that we identified in this pilot is that if we can't really sustain it, we shouldn't be continuing it," said Clegg.
And so, after a season of various studies, public outreach, and several satisfied game-day riders, Valley Regional Transit has made the bittersweet decision to discontinue the Game Day Shuttle, one that may not have been easy, but they say was necessary.
"We've heard from the community that they really valued it and it's hard to walk away from something like that, but we have to be concerned about our ability to sustain it. We think that there is a great future for supplemental services. A lot of public transportation agencies provide these services around the country. This is really our first foray into it and so looking forward, I think we'll find our place and what the appropriate place is," said Clegg.
