“We take seriously Flathead County’s concerns and thank them for their hard work and dedication to partnering with us to provide the service for the past thirteen years,” said Mow. “Learning about the challenges our partner faced made us realize that we need to explore new models for our transit-system operations. The cancellation of the agreement provides us with an opportunity to develop the next generation of the system. Now is the time to reset and think about what makes sense for the future.”
The National Park Service established the park’s transit system to reduce vehicle congestion during the years-long rehabilitation of the Going-to-the-Sun Road that began in 2007. That rehabilitation is now complete. The park is currently engaged in a planning effort through its Going-to-the-Sun Road Corridor Management Plan that explores opportunities to expand its shuttle system. This planning effort is an important incremental step in reviewing shuttle system operations and financial sustainability into the future.
Following their vote today, the Flathead County Commissioners sent a letter to Jeff Mow that cited several reasons as to why they will be discontinuing the shuttle service. This includes safety issues as a result of the age of the fleet, not enough buses to serve the demand, uncovered operating costs, and lack of any benefits to the Flathead communities. You can click here to read the full letter.
Jeff
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