START puts transit expansion on hold until it can house and retain drivers

START’s board is drawing a bright line: no meaningful transit expansion until START can house and keep the people who drive the buses. In its April packet, the board recommended adopting only the FY27 (Year 1) slice of the 5-year Transit Development Plan—and even that only “to the extent included in START’s approved FY27 budget”—while stating that implementing future service elements is constrained by START’s employee housing, retention, and recruitment problems. That framing matters for workforce housing: you can’t run more buses in a housing market that can’t hold the workforce.

The packet documents how board members treated the plan less like an aspirational map and more like a staffing-and-housing reality check. During the March 18 meeting recap, staff told the board headcount, vehicle count, and “housing need to be addressed before service can expand,” and the final motion to recommend the plan removed the airport shuttle from Year 1 and tethered future implementation to housing and budget approvals. See the START Board Regular Meeting Agenda Packet.

On fares, the board’s earlier push to test a $1 price on East Jackson On-Demand got slowed down. Minutes from the April 15 special meeting show the board voted to defer any new on-demand fare structure until a new on-demand contract takes effect in October, citing public-notice and hearing requirements in START’s fare policy—meaning riders (and employers relying on that service) likely won’t see the $1 pilot before FY27 begins.