 Okay, so let's get started. Welcome everybody. Just a couple housekeeping items for folks on Zoom for our meeting notes purposes. If you wouldn't mind putting your name and contact information in the chat that would be really helpful. We do have a short presentation I will share my screen here in just a moment. I do encourage folks to use the reactions feature the hand raised feature in Zoom if you do have questions. And lastly, depending on how long the meeting goes. We do have a couple folks in the room who have taken the pine street bus to get here and we'll probably hear comments from those folks. I'm sure that they are able to get out to the pine street bus. Before it leaves at 640. So, with that, I'm going to share my screen. Is everybody able to see my screen. So I just included this, we did have one meeting last night today is the second public meeting to discuss some permanent service changes. And we do have a third meeting tomorrow from three o'clock to six o'clock p.m. at our Montpelier transit center for any folks who are link writers who want to step by we will. We have been gathering data for the last week and a half on proposed or preferred link schedules so any folks who filled out that survey, we will be posting recording in progress schedule. Tomorrow, and we'll have a copy of it with us at the Montpelier transit center. Okay, so I've included a little timeline here. This kind of gives a picture of where GMT has been for the last couple years. COVID has brought a lot of things to a lot of people and what it sort of did for GMT was mask. Some of the financial issues that we were having prior to the pandemic. The pandemic starts back in February 2020. At that time, the GMT board of commissioners approved the staff going out to a public process for service modifications on the one will listed a few s extension, the sixth Shelburne Road and the seven North Avenue, and what that was was a permanent service in the midday. And then March 2020 happened, and we all know that everything kind of went haywire and GMT put some COVID related service suspensions in place at that time. Until of 2020, we had gone through the public hearing process for the service changes that we brought to the board in February, and the board of commissioners approved those permanent service modifications at that time. June 2020 those service changes went into effect so that was again the 30 minute midday service on the four core routes. February 2021, we had been operating that service for six or so months, and we were beginning to have college students returning to Burlington and we were experiencing heavy overcrowding issues capacity issues on the one Williston and the s extension routes so at that time, we implemented 20 minute reimplemented 20 minute service in the midday on the one and the two, and we kept 30 minute service operating in the midday on the sixth and the seven. And then we operated that schedule in June 2021 we removed the color coding of our service routes which, if anybody was familiar with our next gen plan those have gone into place about a year prior. August 2021. We took, we brought back the suspended commuter and link run so we had suspended a fair amount of commuter and link service. In March of 2020 so we brought that back in August of 2021. And then flash forward to this March, March seven. We had some temporary coven related service changes into place. That was about the time that the Omicron variant was starting to become rampant in our area and we were, we don't have the flexibility with our staffing to move drivers from wrap to wrap. They made some temporary changes to allow us to have more reserve driver shifts in that way if we were seeing high absences due to coven. We could shift drivers to certain areas of the service and have reliable service throughout the day and not miss large gaps. At that time we also proposed a temporary schedule 30 minute peak service on the sixth Shelburne and seven or five so our peak service time is 6am to 9am and 3pm to 6pm and so this 30 minute service all day. So before we talk about the goal. I just want to bring you down to the bottom of this slide, which is, it is past January, the GMT Board of Commissioners did approve our FY 23 budget, assuming the resumption affairs, and with a decrease in service hours of 4.6%. And so that's what we've been working toward this goal as we approach our new fiscal year which starts July one. So the goal of the service changes is really to balance the current and future demand of our service and to be able to provide reliable service that's meeting our operational and our financial constraints. I included this slide. GMT is a business we're not exempt from some of the same pressures that other folks are experiencing with our budget and including our fuel prices which have gone up considerably in the last few weeks and they, we have a $4 per gallon price tag right now that was not budgeted in our current fiscal year budget. We've seen a wage increase of about 2.5%. An insurance increase of 6%. And since the beginning since March 2020, we haven't been collecting a fare from passengers and so we are based on our current risk riderships receiving about $600,000 less fare revenue than we were pre pandemic. We do also have an ADA program that has rising costs every year that fluctuates community to community but that service does continue to grow and cost. In the real issue that we have right now is a lack of non federal match GMT does have federal funds that we that are available to us but we need a 50% non federal match to be able to draw those funds down. And so it's this lack in non federal match that's really affecting our budget at this time. And then workforce development challenges, skilled mechanics and CDL drivers have been a problematic area for us to recruit. With threats, there are definitely opportunities as well. High gas prices are a benefit to transit ridership it definitely increases transit rider transit demand. There are several micro transit projects being explored in the state, this is a new type of transportation in our state that allows some sort of on demand flexible options instead of the traditional fixed group service. And it really helps with a first mile last mile solution so folks who don't live immediately on the fixed route have more options with this type of service. The state climate action plan definitely brings increased awareness of climate impacts of transportation and increases transit demand. And it also potentially has some funding opportunities for public transportation. The infrastructure for investment jobs act provides an increase in federal funding, including funding for fleet electrification. So those are, you know, exciting opportunities that's exciting that that money is available so that's a future opportunity for us. And then it allows GMT the opportunity to really explore some private and public partnerships. We're working with local businesses to try to increase some of that non federal funding that we were talking about, which would allow us to draw down more federal dollars. So, today we're going to talk a little bit about the number six Shelburne and the seven North Avenue routes, two of our local routes in March. On the 7th, we did put a temporary service plan in place which what moved to 30 minute headways in the am and the pampi periods. And so what we've been exploring is, you know, what will this do to the service overall, and it does increase the number of boardings per run, which is more efficient service. And decreases the number of vehicles needed for peak service which eliminates some of the pressures on our maintenance staff and on the fleet. So that our busiest ridership period in 2021, which was August through October, and we just looked at what the ridership per run looked like on 20 minute service and then projected ridership or load capacity. If we had moved to 30 minute service so as you can see from the proposed numbers they're not ridership projections but we were just simply trying to see if moving to 30 minute service would cause capacity issues. On board our vehicle. And from this analysis you can see that it really wouldn't. So I'll sit there for a second. The next section of the presentation is about the Montpelier link express so I'm happy to I'm sure there are lots of questions about our local service. So I'm just going to pause a moment and open it up for for questions at this point on the Shelburne and the North Avenue. I work on home as I live on Riverside out it takes me an hour to get home in the morning if I get to Shelburne I've been walking up to taking time to do but I should not feel compelled to do I get to work 40 minutes early. And you're going to decrease it at night I work night. I don't have to put my job degrees at night. I mean is this the nighttime service you talk about getting rid of you. We're not talking about we're moving any more service than we're operating today. We're just talking about making the changes that went into effect in March, permanent moving. Yeah, no. Now, I have everything to do with the way to on that phone station and because they from my phone by the 12 at 25 minutes. I'm tired. I want to go home. No. So is the current schedule not working very well it sounds like. I'm killing myself walking those. I'm not doing the show. Right. I'm not doing that. I mean it's taking an hour and you come. We do understand the frustration and I guess I should have prefaced this by saying, you know, before we get to service reductions we do explore every other option budgetarily. We have made lots of internal changes to make our organization as lean as we possibly can at this point. And so this isn't our first action we certainly don't look to service reductions. We know that this is hard for folks and you know where we're sensitive to that. And, you know, we're, we're trying to find every other avenue but this is unfortunately the point that we've gotten to budgetarily where, you know, there isn't really another place for us to look. Are you taking questions from people online now as well. Yes. Yeah I have a question about I see in the thing you sent out six daily supplemental trips continue to operate on school days. There's, there's neighborhood buses that go around those take the students but they don't really take adults. What would those be the six daily supplemental trips what times would those be. So there are supplement I didn't bring a bus mapping to guide down with me on the North Avenue we have Chris can you. Yes, so the times there's a 650. There's a 750 there's a 710 and 810 in the morning and then in the afternoon, I'm going to be with the downtown train and center 250 310 and 320. And these trips are on the in the published schedule. And I don't I do want to clarify clarify one thing that you mentioned the trips that do operate in and around the neighborhoods. Those trips for for the academic school year are open to the general public and they are available for folks to take as well. Even though they just stop at the schools you could take those and get off at random stocks. You can take them, and a lot of them do go into the downtown transit center area. And those bus those trips are actually in the back of our bus stop and get as well so if there is one that meets your needs that goes to where you're going. It's open to the general public. Yeah, so, so I'm just making that clear so a neighborhood bus that's rolling through and I know that the neighborhood bus. I work at a school. If I know the neighborhood bus is going to go to the school that I'm working at. So I can, the bus will pick me up even though that I'm not a student. Yes, yep. Okay, I just want to make that clear. Sure, I can't see who they are. Okay, Dale. So I just wanted to bounce off the comment that was made by the person who's there speaking live. You know, I know that last night's meeting was at the Miller Center in the new north end and I took a look at what it would take for me to get there by bus from my home in the south end. I just had to leave home at 430 in order to get to that six o'clock meeting. And if I stayed from six to seven, I would have gotten home at 820. So it basically would have meant that I had to spend four hours out of the house for a one hour meeting. You know, there's this online option I totally appreciate that I actually I could have made it down to the GMT headquarters here in the south end. But I just think that that can maybe, you know, give you an example of what the impact is. And the main reason that it was going to take so long was that I had to wait 25 minutes to change from the six to the seven at the downtown transit center because the six would have gotten me in at 505 and I would have had to wait until 530 for the next bus. That's what the difference of that 20 minute service to 30 minute service. That's the impact it has on, you know, what you would hope would be a simple trip. Yes, we recognize that Dale, and we totally understand the frustration around moving to 30 minute service. The first person is Monica. Monica. Hi. Thanks for having this meeting. I am. I ride the number seven bus to and from downtown I actually need to get to UVM. And I see your numbers and I see that you have to save money, but I see that the afternoon outbound peak hours like with 30 minute service you're going to 28 passengers on the bus. And I'm not sure how many, you know, at what point to cut off and say, we're going to run more buses because pre pandemic. You know, if you're a commuter, you ran that bus every 15 minutes, which was nice. And then that got reduced and okay 20 minutes is better. But it's like if one of the buses is late or you just barely miss one of the bus now that it's, we have to wait 30 minutes for the next one. It just doesn't make it very convenient. So for the specials buses, your bus and kids to hunt middle school. And I, you said you ran a 658 I'm assuming those are times that leaves downtown 658 710. You just moved the 740 number seven bus in the morning to go at 730 the 740 bus got kids there perfectly right just before 8am. And the 658 710 and 810. None of those are convenient for kids to get there right before school that two buses get away before and the 810 gets them after school starts. And then there was a gentleman the first online person who asked questions. He said, he was asking if he can take a special bus. Well, a few years ago a specials bus would never stop for an adult. They would just wave, you know, wave at you see you later, you're waiting at a bus stop. Those are some issues I have, I think that there should be a commuter bus for the new North End to UV a medical center and UVM I think there's a lot of people at both those places that live here in the new North End and I've suggested this to our city counselors I see Mark Barlow's on the call. So that's something that would make car usage go down and hopefully ridership on buses go up. So those are some of my comments. Thank you. Thank you, Monica. And I will. There's a lot of question about the neighborhood buses. There still is a bus in the new North End of Burlington that gets pun students to school before eight o'clock. The 650 the 710 and the 810 trips that I was referring to are directly in the North Avenue schedule. Those are North Avenue trips, not, not neighborhood trippers. Oh, okay, those are number seven buses. Correct. Oh, okay. Okay. Thank you. That was a misunderstanding. Um, but I guess the other question is like the specials buses. It's really hard to figure out when they run and then even when we get to your website and get the schedule, it doesn't seem like they show up when they're supposed to. Yes, those are I fully recognize those schedules are a little bit confusing. And so we do have we've been talking a lot about those internally and how to improve those for the next academic school year. So that is something that we're working on it is something that we recognize. We're not as many defined times in those schedules because of the way that they operate in the way that they travel. But we'll take a look at that and try to make those more clear for the next school year. Great. Thank you. The next person is Evan. Evan. Thank you. My question has to do also with transfers I commute every day from when you ski to Shelburne. And it didn't sound so bad at first but in the last month it's really wrapped havoc on my commute. Just whether I'm writing the nine or the two to get there. The wait for the six is always 25 minutes or 30 minutes. My question is whether anyone's looked at or if there's a way even with the 30 minute frequency to at least make transfer times line up better. Yes. I mean the short answer is yes we can take a look at the schedules and see what we have built in there for layover time and see if we can better make them. The schedule to get in as the time street is leaving I mean the river side, but you could have after on the show or two to 10 minutes late, which you could adjust the bus schedule for traffic on the way. That's the simple thing that you can do. We do certainly look at that. But what time does it really actually get there. We do have the ability to monitor that we do have a system where we do monitor that we use that system to make adjustments to future schedules so we look at if we run late and we look at if we run early. And then we do use that data to make adjustments to the schedule. Certainly there's a lot happening on Shelburne road right now which I think is causing some of the delay, and we can take a look at that as well. The next person is Lucy. Lucy. Hi, thanks. Yeah, I'm curious when I'm looking at the proposed 30 minute service for number seven afternoon peak what what is the maximum number of people that can fit on the bus. 60. 66 Oh, 60. Yes. I think that 60 people on those buses. Yeah. Wow. Okay. I lived in a place. When I was in the Peace Corps where, you know, I know it's complicated and I know it's it impacts the budget but to have to wait a half an hour makes a really big difference versus 15 or 20 minutes on any. Anybody who's who's waiting in any weather and I just think that it's it's going the wrong direction to switch back to 30 minute service when, you know, it doesn't. If, you know, if it's shorter keeps somebody could say I'm going to get out there and the longest I'll have to wait is, you know, 15 or 20 minutes versus, you know, half hour if you miss it you're in big trouble but I do think that I know that money is huge and it's a complicated system you're in but if you can look into longer range planning around the impact of having a smaller vehicles that run more often I think it could help a lot more people get around get to work and get to places they need to go. And I do have a comment about the fees but I think it sounds like we're going to do that a little later. We were not going to talk about the fees. I'm happy to if you have a question. Well, I don't have a question I just think it's it's really a big mistake to go back to charging for buses in terms of environmental people being able to jump on the bus, I think has made a huge difference that it's not costing people for folks who are really strapped and there's people who need to be able to get places and to be able to get on the bus with their mask on and not have to pay. I think is huge and I think it's really important to look at other sources of funding and try to keep this a free service so that we get as many people riding and getting out of their cars or, you know, getting places people who don't have cars, and I have to to worry about the cost of that I think it's it's huge. I know environmental impact for you know people riding the bus more is going to help. And I know you guys have huge budget concerns to but to be as creative as you can about keeping this a free free service I think would be great. Appreciate you listening to us tonight. Thank you. I just quickly mentioned on the fair free piece. There is a proposal in the legislature that the state would provide GMT the funding to continue the fair free service and FY 23 were a strong supporter of that. We ask anyone else who's a supporter to reach out to your elected officials at the state level and advocate for that funding. But not only would that allow us to stay fair free if we did receive that funding. Like Jamie mentioned, our issue right now is not a lack of federal funding but a lack of local funding. If we get the money for the fairs we could also avoid the service reduction so that's so very much at play it's certainly not a slam dunk. It's not a process that we can support but that we can't influence in terms of their their decision making. So there is still a chance that the service reductions won't have to happen. And for anyone that's willing to reach out to their elected state officials I think that would be a great help. Okay so now's the moment to do that otherwise if if that doesn't pass and that funding doesn't pass when were you thinking of raising fees or putting feedback on. We are looking at July 11 as a start that we would start collecting bears again. Okay. All right so we all need to reach out to our legislators ASAP. Especially in the Senate the house has already approved the transportation bill with the funding. So reach out to your state senators. I think that would be a big help I think to be able to continue the fair free and hopefully avoid the service reductions. Okay thank you for telling us that. Thanks a bunch. Appreciate you. As we talk about that process and that timeline. We are proceeding assuming that we will have to make these service reductions until we hear otherwise about that funding that john speaking about. Because of our sort of internal process and so you know I appreciate everybody coming and making comments today and hopefully. We won't have to proceed down this path but that's that sort of gives you an understanding of why we're here today why we're still sort of moving forward we won't care about that funding likely until May. Yeah, GMT is hoping for the basketball we're planning for the worst and you know that's going to position right now. If you can get help get the word out to to encourage people to contact their state senators I think that would be helpful I'll definitely spread the word to appreciate you know I think that that's a big deal knowing that that could make make the difference to keeping the buses free and the service running as it is. Great. Thank you Lucy for your comments. The next person is Marlena. Hi, I'm Marlena Compton, and full disclosure, I also work at Katma that I am here personally as someone who requires the number six Shelburne bus to get to my job in when you ski. I ride the bus twice a week and tell her the other days that I work. And these changes would highly impact my ability to be able to get to work and to get home. I am in a one car family that is not going to be changing. This is quite an impact. And I also require the six of I want to do any grocery shopping during the week. And even on the weekend like currently I'm just completely stranded on Sundays because there is no six down in South Burlington where I live. And I have concerns about like increasing these times. I'm kind of aware of what's going on in the legislature and it, it looks, it looks awfully like the Senate is going to block this fair free money because they're concerned that the public will begin to expect fair funds out which I personally don't think is bad. I'm not sure exactly like, I can't quote anyone on that, but it does look like the fears are going to be brought back, unless there is quite a lot of, you know, agitation from the public but in the case that the fairs are returned. I'm concerned about the impact that this will have even further on slowing down the bus because as you know if you have to take fairs. It does create a delay in the buses. So that that's my concern. Thank you very much. Thanks Marlena. Next up is Sandy hamburger. Hi. I will just echo what Lucy and Marlena said I agree with them totally. And I could add increasing going back. We need to keep the fairs free for so many different reasons. But among the others, I remember an article, oh, months ago where they, they figured out that stopping a bus, helping someone would change to use the machines that collect the money. Those cost money. So it's actually cost effective to have free, free fairs. And I haven't looked at the figures but that's what it said and that's something to look into an argument. And I'm so glad that I got all the information from the other two women. I totally totally agree with what they said, and I'll stop there. Thank you Sandy, we don't disagree with anything you're saying, but we appreciate comments. Next up is Ben. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. I think one thing I think I just want to say real quick after listening everybody is, it would be it would be great to have no fair when you ride on the bus. But in reality, it's hard to say yet for public transportation is free. Like I'm sure Boston people saying the same thing New Yorkers saying the same thing everywhere people are saying let's travel travel for free. And I know that it's kind of hard to request that. But my question really actually was a couple months ago, the number seven during times where it seemed to be peak rides, they might have had a couple more rides then could there potentially be any sort of setup where it would be like 20 minute ride service from maybe seven to nine and then it can go back to the 30 minute rides from the times that aren't as popular. It's not even be those times exactly but I realized that the bus can't fit everyone schedule perfectly, but if it was able to look at the majority of people when they rode, and maybe was able to use a 20 minute schedule during those hour or to and then went back to the 30 minutes throughout the rest of the day that might still be able to help the people who are trying to get to work or from work, and yet still go towards the new proposal you guys are having right here. Thank you, Ben. Yes, well, we're, you know, we're exploring all options I will note with the number seven bus specifically. There are periods of time in the morning where we are operating 20 minute service and some 10 minute headway frequencies as well with those supplemental trips that we were talking about. So it works around 630 in the morning, and then you know ends around 830. Yeah, those will be every 20 minutes. They're not every 20 minutes right now summer 20 minutes summer 10 minutes but they're all part of the number seven schedule. So if you have access to that schedule. Those trips are in there. We'll look at spreading those out. Yeah, we're going to take a look. We'll put those in there to reduce some of the capacity concerns in the morning, but we'll look at spreading this out and hopefully we can get to a 20 minute, leaving every 20 minutes with those supplemental trips. Thank you. Next up is Michael Arnold. Oh, so thanks. I think we all sort of realized the budgetary concerns that you're facing, but I'm curious why, why we're 100% relying on sort of this Senate local match instead of, you know, providing plans to, you know, local officials, many of whom have publicly stated support for addressing transit options, and you're asking like the city of Burlington and the city of South Burlington to increase their local match to provide more service, since these are, you know, our local representatives who are most, you know, engaged in concern with our issues here. Over the past couple months, you know, with like the Windows key at bike lane, you know, maybe four or five city counselors have publicly stated they want increased service on that Windows key out of quarter, which, you know, the seven serves. So when we have all these public officials and members of the public saying we want increased transit service. Why hasn't GMT created a plan to, you know, offer that service, you know, even if the public has to pay some increased cost. Thanks. That's a great question we have done some recent outreach to our municipal partners. When we go through our budget process. Our board and GMT staff is certainly sensitive that our member municipalities pay using property tax dollars which are overburden as it is. So, in FY 23, we do, we will collect a 4% increase across the board from our member municipalities. We do collect about $3 million annually from our local communities, including about 1.6 million from the city of Burlington so the problem is that our costs with fuel wages and insurance alone are really outpacing that 4% increase that we've been approved by our board to assess. If there's additional opportunity to collect more local money, we will explore that but it is difficult for communities to come up with that based on the over reliance on the property tax. So these stats challenging right now is our ADA program, similar to our fixed route services their costs are increasing as well with fuel especially. So the assessment increases to our local communities have been much higher than they historically have been. So we're trying to balance a few different things budgetarily, which certainly complicates the total equation but we are having ongoing conversations. about municipalities but with some of our institutional partners, trying to find non federal match anywhere that we possibly can. Thanks I just like to point out that other municipalities, you know, like, you know, who are relatively comparable like if it can New York fund their transit systems over four times per capita the rate that Burlington contributes to GMT, and you have a considerably higher ridership per capita, while running less buses just because they run them more frequently. So I think that if you could make some explicit service alternatives and present them to public officials who are actually elected representatives, and allow them to make that, you know, to choose whether to cut service or to increase, you know, increase their increased service or keep to the same levels, that would be a much better process than you know having this done by, you know, appointees who aren't elected. Thanks. Next up is Sarah. Hi, can you hear me. Yes. So, yeah, I mean, I am a person who does rely on the bus to get around, along with many of my friends and I don't have that much to say but I did just want to voice my opposition for cuts to the bus routes because, you know, if buses are underutilized, then the only way to expand them is to simply stop, not cut them and by cutting them, as many people have voiced, people's jobs can be at pretty high risk. Only having stops every 30 minutes can definitely be the difference between being on time and seriously late to work. And I just feel that people who can't afford to depend on cars in our car dependent society need life to be more convenient and not less so at the expense of convenience for cars and also just so much research has proven that making bus routes fare free increases ridership and timeliness of buses so I think that the choice is pretty clear. And I really hope that everyone will consider. Thanks. Thank you Sarah. Next up is representative McCormick. Can you hear me. Yes. Okay, good. Thank you very much for having this hearing and it's, it's a very, very friendly hearing and I want to add my voice to the support of a fair free, and also of restoring the service that's been cut. You know, in terms of increasing ridership, those are two things are going to be contrary to that as, as you know, a little bit of the politics going on now. When the bill, the big bill we call the T bill stands for the transportation program bill. It's, it's the budget for transportation it's pushing a billion dollars now. And we put 1.4 million and for fair free. And unfortunately, at the end, when the bill was still in the house and my committee I'm on the transportation committee. And when the bill was still here. We're going to take that out. So we, we had the compromise. And as, as you folks have probably heard GMT that we kept fair free in there for GMT, except for the link service that wound up only cost us $167 rest that we're going to get. And, you know, the link service is different. It's the much longer rides I ride it. I wrote it yesterday, down here to Montpelier. So the fairs would come back on the link but not the rest of GMT. And as far as who the lobby I think we want to ask people to also contact their house members also because as this bill comes back I don't know what shape it's going to be in. So it will be a conference committee, and you're right it'll be, if not may. I think we're going to be out by the first week of May so by the last week in April this month. We should know how, at least how we're doing on the fair free. And then on the, on the service cuts, which, you know, we didn't know about when we have the bill in the house, but the Senate knows and we do have senators working hard to try to restore that. But they really do need to hear from folks. Senator Tom Chittenden is a member of the Transportation Committee and he's in the Senate, and he represents Chittenden County. So, he's already with the program but it wouldn't hurt for him to hear from people, and the other senators as well, all six of our senators, and you have represented them. I represent the old North End and downtown. The more that people hear from from folks back home on this, the better. So, again, I just want to thank you. Oh, when somebody brought up the local contribution. I want to disagree with that. I think what we want to move to on the local distribution is the state picking that up as well. And I think that's been something that some of your board members have talked to me about. And I think that makes sense to property taxes. It's just the worst tax in the world. And that's where the money comes from with for the local contributions. And I know that then I know the board knows this that some some towns have a hard time raising that money. So the state should pick that up too. I don't think we could do that this year. This year it's going to be fair free to fight for and money to restore the cut service services. But next year, let's work on the state taking, taking up what is now the local share. And so thank you very much. Thank you. Next up is David. Hi. So my name is David. I'm a senior at UVM and a Burlington resident. I really appreciate GMT offering space tonight for public comment on this really concerning proposal and also for their tremendous service to our community. I'm falling in because as someone who regularly rides GMT to get groceries and commute across town, I'm really deeply concerned about these proposed busing cuts and especially the possibility of bus fares being reinstated. You know, despite its notable successes, you know, Vermont has been pretty impotent in terms of responding to the climate crisis by transitioning away from, you know, this dominant car centric model of transportation. And further, you know, in light of the COVID pandemic and ongoing austerity measures, working class remote there is more than ever need accessible and convenient transportation options to get to their jobs and provide for their needs. Vermont's poor and working class communities have suffered enough from the commodification of basic interstate transportation. It seems to go on the offensive, not the defensive, in terms of creating a flourishing sustainable public transportation system to replace widespread car usage are changing climate doesn't afford us time to stall. So I strongly urge GMT to reject this proposal and take whatever steps necessary to ensure fair free and accessible public transportation in our community. Okay, that's all. Thank you for the chance to speak. Thank you, David. I'm just going to quickly pause on the zoom we do have a bus coming to our facility in a few minutes I just want to recognize anybody in the room who might have anything else to say. Any other comments okay I just wanted to be sensitive of your time and not make you wait for the 640. Okay. Okay. Next up is Jean. I've been relying on the bus ever since I had to give up my car about four or five years ago. And here's my ticket and I really don't mind paying some for fair. But when you change the shuttle bus from every 15 minutes to every 45 minutes that made my life really more complicated. I hope that you can return to at least every half hour for the shuttle bus. But I do use the Shelburne road bus occasionally and the North Ave bus. When the weather's better I can get out more easily I'm a senior citizen and so I am relying on the buses and I really thought the bus system was wonderful I live on East Ave and they used to be a bus along East Ave but I guess they took it off because of the traffic. So I hope that they climb up to the hospital and get the shuttle bus and that's very helpful for me. So I hope that's, I hope you can improve that. But changing from, you know, 20 minutes to 30 minutes is a big deal. And I hope you don't lessen the bus trips anymore. I don't mind paying a little now that I'm a senior that discount was very good. I even bought a ticket before you said they weren't needed anymore and I don't know if I should hold on to it. Okay. Thank you. I would hold on to it for now but hopefully you won't need it. Oh, it will still be good after two or three years. All right. Next up is Richard Watts. Everybody I love you can see me. Thank you for the providing the service and I hope we can keep it going I ride the bus every day. I live in Heinsberg and when I come into town it's really great to have these loops that are exist in town and as you all know I will do my best to encourage more people to take advantage of this wonderful option. I'm one of those people who have given up a car and so really rely on the bus and then I can use my bike sometimes in between and I have a lot of advantages of my schedule but still, I just really believe in what you're doing right now. Thank you so much. I would like Kurt's suggestion and I'm going to do that email all those folks and try and chime in here. So please, if we can figure out a way to go. Thank you Richard. That was everyone in line. Okay, so I'm just going to move forward in the presentation I just have a couple more slides as it relates to the Montpelier link express service. Again, in on March 7 we did reduce link service by four runs, and we are proposing to continue that however, we recognize that the current schedule doesn't meet everybody's needs. So we have been conducting a public comment survey for folks to date we've had 143 passengers take that survey, and the data that we're collecting is, you know folks ideal, start and end times when they want to be leave their, their origin, when they get to their destination in the morning and in the afternoon and so we are right in the middle of looking at all of that data. And I hope that we'll have a schedule to post tomorrow for that. And again we'll be at the Montpelier transit center from three to 6pm tomorrow to discuss the Montpelier link with folks. So we have two folks in line I think for them up here right first up was Graham. Graham. Hello, my name is Graham sheriff. I work at UVM and I live in Montpelier. Normally, I would take the 86 link express three or four times a week. Like everybody else the opportunity to share some input here. I'm also disappointed though that the cuts were made to the link express and to other routes. Before having any consultation with riders. I'm also disappointed by the lack of meaningful notification I've learned that my bus was canceled when it when I was sat in the park and ride at the Montpelier Department of Labor and the bus never came. And as I've talked with other riders on the 86 link. It's kind of laughable how many other people have had exactly the same experience. GMT makes changes to schedules I think you need to make a much more earnest efforts to communicate changes in advance. Regarding the changes that I'm concerned about I'm, as I say, I would normally take the link three or four times a week I'm not actually a GMT rider at the moment because my bus has been cut. I can't take the link. I appreciate that the type of the specific timings for link services are going to be reconsidered with this additional data that's going to be gathered. My particular concern is that the 752 northbound from Montpelier to Burlington was cut because that's the only bus that I can take after dropping off my kids at school. So my household is one where I cannot just switch to an earlier service. When I've been in communication with GMT about why that particular service was cuts, given based on, I haven't seen any load analysis but based on my own observations. It seems to me like there are a good many more riders on the 752 than say the 555. So I've inquired why that particular service was chosen for discontinuation. I've been told that that was due to staffing issues in Burlington, and that seems like a short term issue and one where the finances should be in place within the budget to resolve. So, I'm still very unclear on why, on how that selection was made. I've been talking about fares. For me, the question of fairs is moot because there's no service that I can take so for my two senses that the services need to be in place before giving consideration to what what happens with fares. If you cut services. GMT's locked into a smaller slate of services, and I don't see how you grow ridership I don't see how you grow the budget that way. So, I look forward to seeing what schedule emerges from the data further on Pila willing. Thanks. Thank you, Graham. Next up is down. Thank you. So, um, I commuted on the link from Burlington to Montpelier five days a week for around five years leading up to the start of the pandemic in March 2020 and I will say actually when the pandemic started and like a lot of other people I switched to working at home. I really missed that daily ride because it was a pleasure. And I still miss it and I started going back to my office about two, three weeks ago and was dismayed to find out, not just that several roots have been cut, but also that all but one of the roots in the morning detours off the interstate to go through Waterbury so you didn't just cut the Burlington Montpelier roots you also cut the Burlington Waterbury roots so that now people who are going to Montpelier have to go through Waterbury. And that's about 1015 minutes onto the ride. It also makes the ride. You know a lot more stop and go a lot less comfortable and relaxing and, and, you know, it's going to be hard. If there's only, you know, if that's the only choice it's going to be hard to go back to commuting by bus five days a week. When I've got a car sitting in my driveway. So if you want to be serving that mission of getting people out of cars and reducing traffic on the road reducing parking stress in Montpelier reducing greenhouse gases. The service quality needs to be there the quantity, the number of choices for for people like the previous speaker and myself and also the quality so I filled out the survey, but there wasn't anywhere to say that a bus that goes through Waterbury is not as good as a bus that goes, you know straight Burlington Richmond Montpelier. So that's another choice and I wish it had been. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Jenny. Hi, thank you. Thank you for having this meeting and letting us all speak to these issues I ride the Montpelier link express before the pandemic I used to ride probably three to even five days a week. I know that ridership is down on that route when I've taken it now certainly there's nowhere near as many people as there used to be. However, I was dismayed that both the morning bus and the evening bus I used to take were eliminated. I work for the state at the National Life Building. And as you may know, many state workers work from 745 to 430. And the bus that used to leave in the morning from Burlington at 645 is currently gone, which means a choice of either trying to get a super early bus to get there terribly early that goes through Waterbury, or getting there after eight o'clock which technically makes me late. And then the evening route going home I used to take the 445 that currently also was eliminated. If I get off at 430 currently I have to wait until 520 for a bus that's almost an hour after I get off and after a long day. That's just horrible. You said you're you're considering, you know, doing different things with the time and everything but I just wanted to say I'm sure you're aware there's there's hundreds and hundreds of state workers in Montpelier and so many of them work that 745 to 430 schedule. And depending on their office they may not have the ability to change their hours. The times of when people are starting and finishing would be just excellent. Thank you very much. Thank you, Jenny. That's it for folks in life. Okay. So, just a really brief public hearing timeline so we're on the second step right now conducting these meetings. Once again, we have another tomorrow from three to 6pm. The next steps from there is gathering all of our public feedback and creating a report for our GMT Board of Commissioners to see to consider and to vote on April 19, either for or against implementing service changes. Those service changes would go into effect in June. I'm not sure I'm sharing my screen so I can see people. So that that's where we are in terms of timeline right now. I'm happy to answer any additional questions or if anybody else has anything they'd like to add for public feedback. We're happy to hear from from any and all of you. Matthew has raised that Matthew. Yes, yes GMT Councilman and women. Yes, I have a concern about the accessibility part of it. It just feedback and knowing I live in the most rural part of the, you know, state of in Grand Ave County of Auburn Vermont and everybody knows that that rural parts of of Vermont, you know, need more busing services. But just, you know, for accessibility standpoint is limited, limiting these options basically under funds that ADA, American with Disabilities Act, you know, objectives if you do that. As you know, as federally mandated to actually uphold these rules and laws. I understand companies have their own, you know, way of looking at things. Are we really serving true justice to people that actually need accessible, more affordable transportation options, especially in rural parts of the state of Vermont, whereas you may see as, you know, transportation for a percent of, you know, citizens that need this these services, like people with disabilities, senior citizens and veterans where, you know, in some limited capacity, actually need these services. Is there a ways that we could move forward, knowing that the system we have was not built for everyone. How can we achieve these goals and achieve where we want to go forward. Move forward with Vermont with the transportation sector. Thank you. Thank you, Matthew. Okay, it appears that nobody else has any comments and GMT doesn't have any more presentation so we're happy to hear more. I'm happy to put my email in the chat. If anybody has any public comment that they'd like to provide between now and early next week, please feel free to reach out. And if anything comes up any questions come up for you, please feel free to reach out to me and I'm happy to answer those questions for you. And thank you all for joining us. This was a really great turnout. We're happy to see all of you. Thank you. Thank you.