As city budgets in Idaho continue to face shortages due to legislative actions, transit funding remains a challenge. VRT hosted Canyon County Transit Day on Tuesday, May 6, 2025 to gather community feedback about the future of public transit in Canyon County and work with partners and the public to find a path toward more stable funding.
The City of Nampa’s decisions are especially critical, as changes to Nampa’s transit funding would impact service within Nampa and across Canyon County. This would affect local on-demand rides and specialized services for seniors and individuals with disabilities. It would also impact commuter routes between Caldwell, Nampa, Meridian, and Boise.
The Nampa City Council considered cutting service last year but ultimately voted to maintain service.
In fiscal year 2024 (October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024), VRT provided more than 58,000 trips originating in Canyon County through commuter bus services (Route 40 and 45), an all-day bus route (Route 42), and VRT On-Demand, VRT Access, Beyond Access, VRT Late Night (scheduled ride services), and other specialized programs. See below for more details on services provided.
Local contributions, like those from the City of Nampa, provide the local match that VRT uses to secure federal funding for many local services.
VRT will present these scenarios and community feedback at the City of Nampa’s May 15th Ciy Council Workshop.
View the memo
You can share your feedback on these scenarios directly with the Nampa City Council on through the City Clerk’s office.
Contact Nampa City Clerk
Spring and summer is budget outreach season for VRT. During these seasons we connect and present—often numerous times—with our 25 funding partners. Lacking our own taxing authority, VRT depends on voluntary contributions. We strive to build respect and support by consistently providing solid, specific and current information to our partners. Their voluntary contributions are highly valued, and we respect the gravity of the decision to support us with scarce funding.
An inherent weakness of these disparate annual budget decisions is the impact on our ability to plan for and provide service every year. VRT works to integrate budgets built by dozens of organizations into a connected service network that aligns with our federal responsibilities and provides reliable service to riders. Sometimes, choices to reduce funding catch us by surprise and don’t consider input from constituents affected. As a result, it becomes challenging to make informed, long-term plans to grow a public transportation system that people can count on.
This process is broken. It doesn’t work well for VRT or our partners and it doesn’t serve constituents in ways they need. Most importantly, since so much staff time is used on inefficient budget process and our funding for operations is so unpredictable, it inhibits our ability to do our most important work — providing our best services to the public.
The current model leaves us with inconsistent funding, which makes it nearly impossible to plan and provide reliable transportation services and burdens the strained budgets of our city and county partners. I look forward to working with our state leaders to find common sense solutions that allow all stakeholders a voice in a more consistent and reliable method to fund these vital services.
– Elaine Clegg, CEO
In June of 2024, VRT consolidated routes 40 and 43. Monday through Friday the 40 has four morning and afternoon express trips connecting Caldwell, Nampa, Meridian and Boise.
In June of 2024, VRT added service and changed the routing of the 42 to provide all day local connections between Caldwell, Nampa, Meridian and Boise. Monday through Friday the 42 to runs hourly between 6 am and 8 pm
In June of 2024, VRT added service and changed the routing of the 45 to provide peak connections between CWI, downtown Meridian, West Boise and Boise State University. Monday through Friday the 45 has 3 am trips and 4 pm trips.
In June of 2024, VRT simplified the service are for the 150 which provides on-demand transportation, similar to uber or lyft to the general public throughout Nampa and Caldwell. The service is available Monday through Friday between 6 am and 8 pm.
Access is a paratransit transportation service operated by Valley Regional Transit through the tax support of local municipalities. Designed to complement the fixed-route bus system, this service is available to people who are unable to utilize the fixed-route or on-demand bus systems because of a disability. Eligibility may be limited on a conditional basis, and each trip can be reviewed.
Available in Ada and Canyon Counties, Beyond Access provides no-cost curb-to-curb transportation for older adults and people with disabilities. This service is constrained by limited local funding, which comes primarily from the Area Agency on Aging.
From January 2021 to January 2023, VRT worked with more than 50 community organizations on an initiative called Connected Canyon County. Recognizing the gaps in service, the effort set out to design and implement mobility solutions that improved access to important destinations and activities in Canyon County.
