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Ridership down overall; demand‑response rising as Valley Transit works to fill driver shortages
Summary
Valley Transit reported a year‑to‑date fixed‑route ridership decline (~11%); fixed route had about 45,000 rides in November (down 6%) and December (up 4%). Demand‑response rose (+4% in November, +13% in December). Staff said driver shortages prompted a temporary pause in recruitment while training completes.
Valley Transit staff reported mixed ridership trends and an ongoing driver recruitment challenge at the board meeting.
Kristen said fixed‑route ridership was about 45,000 passengers in November (down about 6% compared with the prior year) and roughly 45,000 in December (up about 4% from the prior year), leaving the year‑to‑date total down roughly 11% from the previous year. On the demand‑response side, Kristen said November saw about 7,400 passengers (about a 4% increase) and December about 8,100 passengers (about a 13% increase). "We do continue to see growth in both the Connector and Valley Transit 2 services, which suggests that some of our riders may be shifting from the fixed route to the demand response options," she said.
Ron Torrance reviewed fourth‑quarter Key Performance Indicators. For fixed route, on‑time performance targets were about 90%; results for the quarter were 86%, 87% and 82%, with the December dip attributed to construction and weather. Miles between major system failures exceeded the 7,500 target in each month. Passenger complaints per 100,000 trips were below the target threshold.
On workforce, Torrance said the agency has struggled with driver shortages: the target staffing level is roughly 24 full‑time drivers, the agency dipped to about 17 at one point, and there are currently 28 employees in the pipeline though several are still in training. "We just had a maintenance utility worker position filled full time," Torrance said; he added the agency paused further driver recruitment temporarily to focus on training existing candidates and has posted two new positions: a part‑time recruitment specialist and an administrative support specialist for finance.
Board members asked for historical ridership trends that include at least one pre‑COVID year to provide context; staff said they will pull historical data as the software allows.
