(The following story by Bruce Edwards appeared on the Rutland Herald website on April 15.)
RUTLAND, Vt. — Vermont may spend millions of dollars on new rail cars to upgrade its Amtrak service. At the same time, state and local officials are concerned about budget cuts in Washington that would spell the end of commuter air service in Rutland. There’s also federal money available to support municipal bus service throughout the state.
But when it comes to the only interstate bus service, Vermont Transit Lines has a disadvantage. The company is competing against publicly subsidized transportation, said Chris Andreasson, the bus company’s general manager.
Looming on the horizon is an upgrade to Amtrak’s Vermonter service on the eastern side of the state. The state is considering spending $17.5 million on state-of-the art self-propelled diesel rail cars that would allow Amtrak to increase its schedule from St. Albans through White River Junction to New York City from one to two roundtrips a day.
That’s a particularly disconcerting development for Vermont Transit, which operates along the same corridor of the state. Both services are comparable on price and while the new trains have more elbow room and creature comforts, the bus has the advantage of more trips to New York, Andreasson said.
But Vermont Transit would lose much of that advantage, he said, if Amtrak adds a second roundtrip.
“With us, we’ve got three trips, people have more choice,” he said. “But now Amtrak is going to add that second schedule and that one advantage that we have is not going to be so advantageous any more.”
Andreasson took his concerns to Montpelier, addressing both the House and Senate transportation committees.
“Here we have taxpayer money used again to fund our competition, and this time it’s $17.5 million” Andreasson said. “If I got a third of that, they could ride my buses for free.”
To prove his point about the value of Vermont Transit, Andreasson told lawmakers that they could hop on a bus at “White River Junction, go to Boston, get on Amtrak in Boston and get into New York faster than you would if you got on the Vermonter here in White River.”
Mass transit alternatives like Vermont Transit and Amtrak will play a more important role in the future as a way to reduce emissions that contribute to global warming, said Agency of Transportation Secretary Neale Lunderville.
“I see a lot of that demand increasing in the future especially as we see gas prices getting up near $3 a gallon again,” Lunderville said.
Financing the purchase of new rail cars, Lunderville said, is a way to keep train travel a viable option for Vermonters.
Asked whether the state should also subsidize a private company like Vermont Transit, Lunderville said he was unsure whether the state could use federal funds to do that.
“We want Vermont Transit as part of the options and choices Vermonters have but it’s a tight time to look to subsidize additional modes of transportation right now,” he said.
Financially, Vermont Transit, a wholly owned subsidiary of Greyhound Lines Inc., is in better shape today than two years ago when it was forced to eliminate service along the Route 7 corridor from Burlington to Albany, N.Y.
“Right now we’re holding our own … it looks pretty promising,” Andreasson said, adding the company hopes to post a profit at the end of its fiscal year.
Vermont Transit carries 650,000 passengers a year, Andreasson said, with a route system that extends to Montreal, Boston, New York and into Maine.
He said on the route between White River Junction and Springfield. Mass., Vermont Transit carried more than 77,000 passengers last year, more than Amtrak’s Ethan Allen and Vermonter routes combined.
Like Lunderville at AOT, Andreasson agreed that there is a growing public awareness that mass transit has a role to play in combating global warming.
“I think there’s an elevated consciousness out there that if there is a way to keep the automobile at home and to use public transportation, folks will try to do that,” he said.
One trouble spot for Vermont Transit is the Rutland to White River Junction segment, which loses between $65,000 and $70,000 a year. Andreasson said the bus departs Rutland for Boston at 11:15 a.m., each day with an average of only seven to eight passengers on board. The return trip has the same number of passengers.
Passengers change in White River Junction for New York City, arriving there at 7:50 p.m., a clear disadvantage against Amtrak’s Ethan Allen which leaves Rutland at 8 a.m. and arrives at Penn Station at 1:25 p.m.
Vermont Transit, which has 60 full-time employees, was purchased by Greyhound in 1975.