Napa Vine bus ridership making slow post-pandemic comeback

Napa County's Vine bus system continues a slow bounce-back from the COVID-19 pandemic, with plenty of room for more bounce and the possibility that free or reduced fares might become a springboard.

Ridership for the 2023-24 fiscal year, which ended June 30, rose 7% to 523,759 riders. That's a little more than the ridership of more than a million, before the pandemic, according to the Napa Valley Transportation Authority.

Vine Transit isn't the only mass transit system facing challenges. A recent Federal Transit Administration report looked at more than 500 transit agencies nationwide and found ridership levels for September 2023 were only 74% of pre-pandemic, September 2019 levels.

Napa Mayor Scott Sedgley has a proposal. He would like the NVTA to explore eliminating fares on the Vine, a policy Petaluma Transit began last July for a one-year pilot program.

"No tickets, no passes, no cash — just show up and ride," says the Petaluma Transit website.

Napa County Supervisor Alfredo Pedroza agreed that the idea of free or reduced fares is worth exploring.

"It would be interesting to know the budget implications on that, but also the tradeoff on what we could do for ridership," Pedroza said.

But that idea wasn't on the agenda for the Napa transit agency's Sept. 18 NVTA board meeting where Sedgley made his suggestion. The idea of free or cheap fares is slated for debate at the Oct. 16 meeting by the local elected officials from the county its five cities who sit on the board.

NVTA staff will look at the Petaluma model, the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit model that offers free fares to youths and seniors, and the SolTrans model in south Solano County that includes free fares for youths, according to Rebecca Schenck, the NVTA program manager. Analysis will include the financial feasibility of doing something similar for the Vine.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission recently surveyed 16,545 riders across 23 Bay Area transit systems. Of those, 309 riders were in Napa County.

Local riders were asked what Vine changes would increase transit use. Fifty-three percent said more frequent service, 29% said more reliable service, and 28% said expanded operating hours.

The NVTA is working on the reliability issue, in particular those times when the bus simply doesn't show up.

Missed trips for Vine bus service grew from 37 for the fourth quarter of 2022-23 to 153 for the last quarter of 2023-24. An NVTA report blamed the bus no-shows on an aging fleet suffering from breakdowns.

The agency has 14 new electric buses on order, but they won't be delivered until 2025. In the meantime, six used buses fueled by compressed natural gas arrived in August to replace older buses that have exceeded their useful lives. In addition, Golden Gate Transit might lease four 2019 hybrid buses.

"These additional, newer buses should help decrease the number of missed trips caused by mechanical issues," an NVTA report said.

Also, the Napa authority, starting Jan. 1, will issue stiff penalties to Vine operator Transdev for missed trips, Schenck said.

Another issue facing the Vine is traffic that slows buses. Between 2014 and 2022, the average bus speed dropped from 29 mph to 25 mph.

One suggested solution is having traffic signals that give buses a priority green light or a reduced waiting time on red. The NVTA is looking at having transit priority signals on Highway 29 in American Canyon, and perhaps also on Trancas and Jefferson streets in the city of Napa.

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