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Valley Transit board reviews historical ridership trends, cites COVID and driver shortages
Summary
Staff presented ridership data showing a sharp drop after 2020 and partial recovery interrupted by service reductions tied to driver shortages; the board discussed metrics such as riders-per-hour and the role of connector services in recent changes.
Valley Transit staff presented a historical ridership review at the March Board meeting, describing how pre-pandemic annual ridership (around 900,000 to 1,000,000 rides) fell with COVID in 2020 and was further affected by subsequent service reductions tied to staffing shortages.
Dave told the Board the agency began tracking back to 2019 and saw ridership decline sharply in 2020 "because we began to see significant changes in our ridership" after COVID. He said the agency removed peak bus service in 2021 and reduced evening and some Saturday service in 2024 because of driver shortages. "When we remove service, we know we're gonna lose riders," he said. The Board discussed evaluating performance with riders-per-hour as a complement to total riders; one member noted the system had cut about "29 hours a week of service," which affects total-ridership comparisons.
Staff also described newer "connector" services that grew about 45% from 2024 to 2025, but cautioned that the connector's base is small and cannot fully offset lost bus riders. "A 41% increase is still a small number of the increase," Dave said, adding the connector did not make up the loss of bus riders. Commissioners and staff agreed that restoring frequency, if and when staffing allows, would likely bring riders back but not on a one-for-one basis.
The Board was told the Transit Development Plan (TDP) will be presented to the Board in coming weeks and will recommend priorities for service restoration when hiring allows. Staff clarified accounting terms, including revenue hours (scheduled in-service hours) versus non-revenue hours like deadhead or training, to inform future performance discussions.
The Board did not take formal action on ridership at this meeting; staff will use the TDP feedback to frame service-restoration scenarios and report back to the Board.
