MORGANTOWN – In the world of public transit, a reduction in funding typically translates directly to a reduction in service.
So when the Mountain Line Transit Authority learned that the city of Morgantown was scaling back its support for bus service by 16%, from $356,500 to $300,000, in the upcoming 2027 fiscal year, the initial reaction was to begin exploring commensurate cuts to service within the city.
The transit board voted to that end during a special meeting held in March and tasked CEO Maria Smith with puzzling out how it could be accomplished.
It’s since had a change of heart on the matter.
While cutting service, prompting an outcry from riders, is traditionally the only leverage the transit authority has to encourage local government support, the pawns in that strategy are the people relying on the rides.
“I think it was initially more of an emotional reaction, like, yeah, this really sucks. We wish they could hear from our riders on how important it is, but we didn’t want to hurt [the riders] either,” Smith said. “So, you know, it’s a good amount of money, but we’re going to see what we can do just to keep the routes running and basically absorb it … So, we’re not going to be cutting service.”
Morgantown Communications Director Brad Riffee said Mountain Line’s reduced allocation was one of many difficult decisions made in light of “the realities of available funding and the need for careful, intentional fiscal planning.”
“This was a challenging budget year, but one that was necessary to responsibly position the city for long-term sustainability. The approach taken was thoughtful and as evenhanded as possible, with all departments and community partners asked to share in the responsibility of aligning spending with available resources,” Riffee said, explaining the city is still providing $300,000 for Mountain Line in the upcoming fiscal year with no restrictions on where or how it’s utilized.
At first glance, $56,500 doesn’t seem like a significant hit for a transit authority with an annual budget hovering around $8 million.
But based on Mountain Line’s $72.75 per hour cost to put a bus on the road, it equates to about 777 hours of service.
Further, the impact is doubled.
“The thing with that is when we get local funds, we can draw down federal funds to match. And for operations, it’s 50-50. So when the city cuts that $56,500, that’s also $56,500 less in federal funds that we’re going to be able to draw,” Smith said.
Meaning the actual impact to Mountain Line’s budget is $113,000, which equates to 1,553 hours of service over the course of a year.
One of the reasons Mountain Line is willing and able to absorb the city reduction is the countywide transit levy, which makes up more than $2.2 million of its budget annually, and, in turn, counts as local funding to help draw additional federal support.
The levy was initially passed in 2016 in reaction to the elimination of public transit funding coming from the county and was meant to cover the loss of county support, increase service hours, expand coverage to keep pace with growing portions of the county, and provide $500,000 annually toward vehicle replacement.
The levy represented a significant increase in funding for Mountain Line but has resulted in “a huge jump in service,” according to Smith, noting what was essentially an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. transit service now covers a larger area with more frequent service running later into the day, seven days a week.
And it’s all reflected in the budget.
“We’re pretty much dollar for dollar, right? I calculate that out. The city pays this, and this is the number of hours. WVU has their contract. This is the number of hours they pay for. This is the number of hours the levy pays for, etcetera,” Smith said. “If I make cuts in the budget, that’s good for this year, but the cost to provide that service next year is going to increase, and it’ll go up again the next year.”
Even so, announcing any service reductions while asking the voters to renew a levy every four years is a risky proposition – particularly as the transit levy narrowly surpassed the 60% majority needed when it was renewed with 62.4% of the vote in 2024.
“It kind of came down to, you know, we have the levy. Covering the city wasn’t part of the levy, but we wouldn’t dare want to cut service if we were able to do something else,” Smith said. “That’s what the board is saying. They just haven’t said how we’re going to do it yet.”
Among the ways Mountain Line is looking to offset the reduction in city funding is by addressing inefficiencies placed on its service in 2018 when the city required Mountain Line to quickly vacate its downtown Garrett Street depot to make way for a forthcoming riverfront revitalization project.
According to The Dominion Post archive, relocating the hub to the Westover terminal necessitated changes to 18 bus routes, including the creation of the eastern and northern circulators to account for the added time and distance.
“When we moved from downtown to Westover as our main hub, we have a lot of routes that are traveling that distance from downtown to Westover just so people can transfer here and they’re going straight back,” Smith said. “If we had a downtown hub again, then we could ebb and flow everything from that point.”
She continued.
“We’re going to be conducting a route efficiency study, which is going to take a look at all of our routes. One of the key points to that is looking at a downtown hub. So, we’re still kind of testing out the city to see if there’s interest in having us in the downtown area again.”
A downtown hub could be as minimal as a long right-of-way or a portion of a city block where buses can pull in and pull off.
“It could be very big. I mean, dream scenario, we could do a public-private partnership and have a little shop or market and transit come together so the riders have something to do while they’re waiting. That would be lovely. That’s the dream. I’m really just asking for, you know, a place where we can have all the buses come in, passengers can transfer from one route to another, and then it flushes out from there. It can be very simple and not take up a whole lot of room.”
