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START board proposes summer Teton Village Express peak service and a vanpool pilot; joint boards give conditional support
Summary
START transit leadership asked the joint boards to consider reinstating two service enhancements for FY26—a summer peak Teton Village Express run and a vanpool pilot—citing afternoon crowding and the potential to scale vanpooling with employer partners. Town and county officials signaled conditional support and asked staff to return with details.
START, the local transit operator, asked the Jackson Town Council and Teton County commissioners to consider two service reinstatements for FY26: added peak-hour capacity on the Teton Village Express during summer afternoons and a Vanpool pilot program to provide targeted commuter options.
START Director Bruce Abel and transportation staff told the joint meeting that the village express experienced crowding, particularly on afternoon peak trips, and that the operator sometimes had to run an extra bus when a supervisor or spare operator was available. Abel described the first priority as adding peak-hour summer relief on the 5:10 p.m. run to prevent riders from being left behind. Transportation manager Charlotte Frye described the proposed Vanpool program as a three-way cost-share pilot (employee, employer, public third) that could be scaled up over two years; a consultant estimate placed the public third of an initial, small-scale pilot at roughly $54,400 for FY26.
Officials discussed whether a vanpool pilot could substitute for adding the village express peak run. Staff said vanpools can provide flexibility for nontraditional hours and may reduce bus demand long-term, but a vanpool pilot could not be stood up quickly enough to address immediate summer crowding; the village express capacity problem was described as an immediate operational issue for summer 2025. Several elected officials supported both solutions as complementary: use additional peak bus service to meet short-term season demand and stand up a vanpool program to provide flexible, cost-effective service over the next 12to24 months.
Commissioners and council members asked for flexibility in START operations as staffing levels change. START staff asked the elected boards for permission to adjust service in-season (for example, altering evening frequencies) without returning to the joint boards for every minor schedule tweak, and they said that flexibility would help them respond to hiring realities while maintaining service quality.
There was general, conditional support from both boards for the START boardprioritizing the village express peak relief and the vanpool pilot; staff will return to each jurisdiction with cost and funding-source details as part of ongoing budget adoption processes.
If approved in final budgets, START staff said the vanpool program would be initiated with employer partnerships (hospital, school district, mountain employers) and a small fleet that could be scaled, and that the village express modification would add peak-hour capacity to avoid overcrowding.
