Transfort, the transit agency owned by the City of Fort Collins, will resume service on a key route that connects Colorado State University to the South Transit Center on Monday, Feb. 27.
Route 19 operates along Shields Street and Harmony Road Between CSU’s Campus Transit Center (CTC) and the South Transit Center (STC), with stops near Front Range Community College. Service on this route was suspended on Aug. 15, 2022, as part of other system reductions due to staff shortages.
“We understand that route 19 provides a critical service for the community and students attending school along this corridor,” said Kaley Zeisel, interim Transfort director. “Staffing levels are slowly improving and, today, we are able to resume service on this route. However, we are still at 80% of our operator staff level, and without a steady increase in hiring, we may need to reduce service levels again in the future.”
Route 19 will operate once per hour between 6:45 a.m. and 7:15 p.m. Monday through Friday. Previously, 30-minute frequency was offered at peak morning and afternoon times, but that will not resume at this time.
The first northbound departure from STC is at 6:45 a.m.; the first southbound departure from CTC is at 7:15 a.m. The last northbound departure from STC is at 6:45 p.m., and the last southbound departure from CTC is at 7:15 p.m.
When making the decision to reduce service, Transfort takes an analytical approach, looking at ridership, service area and connections to identify reductions or suspensions that will have the least impact to the least number of customers. Other routes still affected by service suspensions or reductions include routes 2, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 16, HORN & MAX.
Transfort has taken steps to improve staffing levels by increasing operator starting salaries and adding hiring incentives as well as improving pay structure and classification designations.
“As we train new operators, we are hopeful that our current hiring rate will prevent us from having to further reduce routes, but at the same time, the industry overall has seen high levels of retirement since the pandemic, which has also had an impact on maintaining service levels at Transfort,” Zeisel said.
Passengers are encouraged to stay up to date with service changes by subscribing to receive real-time email or text alerts for the routes they choose at ridetransfort.com/subscribe.
All Transfort service continues to be fare-free under an emergency order signed in March 2020. Transfort is also in the final stages of a study that will help determine if Transfort service can be fare-free permanently.
For more information about Transfort, visit www.ridetransfort.com. For Route 19 specific information, visit http://www.ridetransfort.com/routes/route-19.
