Charlottesville City Council learns of plan to hire at least 42 new bus drivers over next four years

As Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders continues to develop a proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins next July, he is holding a series of work sessions with the five members of City Council to go over some of the big drivers.

“The goal would be to help you begin to see how easy or not so easy it is to pull the budget together and of course bring you a balanced budget, which is what I’m required to do,” Sanders said. “But the desire that I have for you is just to highlight in these budget briefs progress that we’re making, challenges that we are facing, and opportunities that we might be seeing

The topic for discussion on December 1, 2025 was transportation, an area where the city has struggled to deliver on projects and a frequent topic at public comment periods. (view the presentation)

The City of Charlottesville is the sole owner of Charlottesville Area Transit, an agency that has steadily lost ridership over the past dozen years. In 2013, CAT reported 2,405,151 annual trips to the Federal Transit Administration. That dropped to 1,871,952 in 2019 and plunged to 617,010 in the pandemic year of 2021.

Ridership has rebounded slightly. In 2024, CAT reported 1,353,061 rides. There has been no Sunday service since March 2020. Only the first phase of a long-planned “system optimization” has been implemented and CAT Director Garland Williams had originally said that would require a total of 82 drivers.

This summer, Williams increased that number to 108 drivers and added that Sunday buses would not begin until there are at least 90 operators. He delivered detailed budget information to Council in July 2025 as I reported previously.

“We have heard loud and clear that there is a push and a desire for there to be more drivers, therefore enhanced service,” Sanders said. “So we have identified in the FY27 budget the opportunity for us to phase in changes over the next four years.”

There are currently 66 drivers. The idea would be to add ten or eleven drivers a year and phase them in to achieve the magic number of 108. That will be an additional $3.4 million over the four year period, according to budget director Krisy Hammill. However, that figure will likely be higher because collective bargaining will increase the base rate each year.

Changes would be implemented when the first wave is hired and there are a total of 76 including 15-minute service on high-ridership lines like Route 7 and the bus route that uses a trolley-style bus.

Another priority that will require additional spending is the conversion of buses to alternative fuel sources. Council has previously agreed to pilot the use of both hydrogen-fuel cell and battery-electric vehicles and Sanders said this will be addressed in the FY2027 budget.

Sanders also said the goal is to continue to have CAT be fare-free, something in place since the pandemic.

Sanders said under his administration, the city has begun to build sidewalks with a new concrete crew and design is underway for more. He reported on the “quickbuilds” project where intersections and roadway sections are modified using low-cost techniques. Much of this is in the service of making it safer for more public school students to walk to class.

“We have photo traffic enforcement in three school zones that we have not had before,” Sanders said. “We’re still working to perfect that system and make sure that people really honor the fact that there are young people traveling at early times of the day and need them to pay attention to them.”

Another transportation priority is implementation of a transition plan to become compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The adopted budget for FY26 allocated $700,000 toward projects such as curb ramps with an additional $2 million a year programed in the capital improvement program through FY2030.

“That is simply a down payment because that transition plan identified well over $150 million worth of improvements that need to occur across the city,” Sanders said.

Toward the end of his project, Sanders identified three specific projects that are having issues.

• Sanders said the East High Streetscape has been stuck but staff has found a way to move it forward without additional money. He did not elaborate further. According to the latest project report, the revised estimate for the project is $15.666 million, $5.4 million over the previous estimate. The city began work on this in July 2016 according to an entry on the city’s website.
• Bids for the Meadowcreek Valley Trail have come in over budget despite additional funding allocated to the project. There is a current cost estimate of $3.5 million. Council will take action in January.
• A proposed bridge across Pollocks Branch has to be moved due to the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s construction at South First Street. Sanders said the project has to be rescoped with a new survey. There is no entry on the city’s transportation and mobility page.

The next budget briefing is on December 15 and will cover affordable housing. There will be a joint meeting with the School Board on December 18.

Before you go: Paid subscribers cover the cost of conducting research for this article which was originally published in the December 10, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement.  You can either subscribe through Substack, make a monthly contribution through Patreon, or consider becoming a sponsor. The goal of Town Crier Productions is to increase awareness about what is happening at the local, regional, state, and federal government levels. Please share the work with others if you want people to know things.