GRTC spokeswoman Carrie Rose Pace (Photo courtesy GRTC)
The Greater Richmond Transit Co. (GRTC) has undergone massive change since the pandemic hit in March 2020.
To reduce contact between drivers and riders at fare boxes, rides are now free. Last year, the General Assembly created the Central Virginia Transportation Authority (CVTA), establishing a dedicated funding stream for GRTC. And Chesterfield, long resistant to adopting mass transit, launched its first local bus service line in decades and has plans to expand routes.
Nelson Reveley, director of operations for the nonprofit advocacy group RVA Rapid Transit, says GRTC’s ridership number have remained steady in the pandemic. “That really highlights, and is a testament to, how crucial public transit is, and how much of an essential service it is,” he says.
Subsidized by federal funding, GRTC will offer free fares through at least next June. Faith Walker, RVA Rapid Transit’s director of community outreach, says 54% of GRTC’s ridership makes less than $25,000 a year, and 24% makes less than $10,000 a year. Bus fares are a significant expense for these groups.
“It’s not making sense for us to tax the most vulnerable Richmonders,” she says.
In 2019, GRTC netted about $5.6 million in fares. Carrie Rose Pace, GRTC spokeswoman, says it is working to keep fares free once federal funding ends.
With the creation of the CVTA, an estimated $28 million to $32 million generated from new sales and gas taxes will be allocated annually to GRTC. That funding will be used to maintain existing service and expand coverage in the region, including in Chesterfield County.
Though Chesterfield first provided limited local express service in 2001, those lines have been largely discontinued. In March 2020, a pilot line was established in in Chesterfield on U.S. Route 1. On Sept. 13, 2021, that line merged with another, now running from Brightpoint Community College’s Chester campus to Richmond’s Highland Park neighborhood.
Though it still must be approved by the CVTA, line extensions into Chesterfield are in the works along Midlothian Turnpike and Belmont, Hopkins and Iron Bridge roads to begin next year.
But despite plans to expand, GRTC is worried it may run into staffing issues similar to what it experienced last fall and winter and may have to cut service. GRTC has reduced service on commuter lines that have seen low ridership since the pandemic started, and it conducted a “minor realignment” to make other routes more efficient.
In addition to concerns about COVID-19, staffing has been affected by retirements and high demand for workers with commercial driver’s licenses.
The prospect of not having enough drivers led Mayor Levar Stoney to send a letter to the GRTC board in September, expressing alarm that up to 20% of GRTC service could be cut: “The city does not agree with moving forward with the service cuts in December, and we respectfully request that you seek an alternative to the service reductions.”
GRTC has attempted to combat staffing issues with sign-on bonuses for new drivers and mechanics. “We are forecasting that [cuts are] a reasonable expectation again,” Rose Pace says, though a 20% cut is a worst-case scenario. “Throughout the pandemic, GRTC has been adjusting services as needed.”
