CAT to begin to expand service in FY2025; Route 11 stop at the Center promised for October

As 2024 continues to wheel along, Charlottesville Area Transit has new resources intended to move the agency out of reduced service caused by the pandemic and toward expanded capacity. 

At the June 27, 2024 meeting of the Regional Transit Partnership, CAT Director Garland Williams said increases in the city’s budget for fiscal year 2025 allows for the hiring of a procurement specialist, a transit planning manager, and eight new transit operators.

“It’s not exactly what we need but we’re getting closer and this is a marked improvement from where we were and where we will be,” Williams said. 

Williams said there will also be three new full-time customer service agents which will allow the Downtown Transit Center to be staffed six days a week. There are now 99.5 full-time equivalents working for CAT, up from 94 in the last fiscal year. 

From fiscal year 2019 to fiscal year 2024, CAT’s budget has increased from $9.9 million to $14.3 million. There’s another increase this year to $15.1 million.

Williams said this is the first year that CAT will operate under a unionized environment and that will increase the costs of providing the service. The new fiscal year will also come with some new equipment. 

“We have 40 buses and we are increasing that number by 5,” Williams said. “We are disposing of some of our existing [fleet]. We are adding two battery-electric [vehicles].” 

There will also be three new diesel buses purchased this year. Williams also said ridership had increased to 1.5 million in FY2024. 

One capital project that will get underway this fiscal year are bus stop improvements, eleven of which will be in Albemarle County and thirteen in the city. The total cost is about $324,000. 

Williams said this fiscal year, CAT will begin to make some of the route changes that have already been through the public process. Council originally saw the amended routes in the spring of 2021 and reconfirmed them with adoption of CAT’s transit strategic plan in June. 

These changes will include doubling service on the current Route 6 that travels between Willoughby Shopping Center, the Downtown Transit Center, and the University of Virginia Medical Center via Prospect Avenue and Crescent Halls. 

Williams said there is also room in the budget to finally make the adjustment for Route 11 to travel to the Center at Belvedere. That was discussed as part of the city’s capital contribution in the 2010’s.

“We have our consultant who guarantees me that they are going to have our schedules done by September which means that in September we will be able to post those and by October at the latest we will actually be putting in service,” Williams said.

Williams added Council will need to adopt an ordinance allowing city buses to be on the private property at the Center at Belvedere. 

Mike Murphy, the CEO of Jaunt also presented his budget for FY25 to the Regional Transit Partnership. He said one issue is the inability to match wages paid by CAT to its unionized workforce. One of the first things he did in the position was to establish a classification and compensation system to help increase wages for long-term operators. 

“We are about caught up to the starting pay on operators where we were about 18 percent lagging when I joined in January,” Murphy said. “However, the rate of escalation that’s called for in the union contract we can’t match so we will fall behind naturally again. Our scales at the top end roughly align but it is just that folks will get there a lot faster in the CAT system.” 

To view both of the presentations as well as the full meeting, take a look on YouTube:

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