Early in the legislative session, House Republican leaders unveiled a “Jobs First” agenda, calling job creation the state’s top priority.
House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, said the focus was on “putting men and women in good-paying jobs.”
Lawmakers passed several bills focused on job growth, including reimbursing small businesses for workforce training. But they took no meaningful action on one of the biggest barriers keeping many residents from holding a job: reliable transportation.
They failed to pass a bill intended to improve coordination between public transit agencies, leaving many communities still without bus service, even as the state’s largest transit system is cutting routes.
And lawmakers ended this year’s legislative session without approving new funding to expand the service that helps many state residents get to work and has the potential to help many more.
Andrew Armstead lives in Charleston and has ridden the bus to work for over 35 years. He works as a janitor and makes the two-mile ride five days a week.
Without it, he said, it would be difficult to get to work.
“It’s a short distance, but walking would be murder,” he said. “It’s just too far to walk every day, back and forth.”
But across much of West Virginia, public transportation isn’t an option for many folks.
While Armstead depends on the Kanawha Valley Regional Transportation Authority, many communities across the state have no public transit service at all.
That leaves thousands of West Virginians without reliable ways to get to work, doctors’ appointments and grocery stores.
The state’s largest system is cutting routes
Transit agencies are being forced to cut back even in more populated areas.
Of the states’ 55 counties, 38 have bus service and many routes are limited, running only a few days a week. The KRT is one of the state’s largest systems, serving over one million riders last year across 19 routes in Kanawha County.
Peak ridership runs from 6 to 9 a.m. and 3 to 6 p.m., mostly following the times many people either head to or leave work.
State funding accounted for less than 2% of KRT’s revenue, while the rest comes largely from a county safety levy and federal grants.
To stay within budget, the agency has cut several routes and stopped offering service on Sundays, shifting to more on-demand services.
Allison Wallace, director of communications for KRT, said more funding would help the agency, as most public transit systems operate at a budget deficit.
“If you don’t have public transit, people can’t get to work,” she said. “It’s like a domino effect.”
Public transit is mostly funded with federal dollars
Most public transit in West Virginia relies on federal grants that require a state or local match.
The state’s transit division received about $13 million in federal funding to disburse to local transit agencies across the state. Last year, the state’s transit division asked lawmakers for an additional $2.8 million in matching funds to expand service.
Legislators approved less than half of that request, and Gov. Patrick Morrisey later reduced the appropriation to $750,000.
This year, the governor’s proposed budget keeps state funding flat, appropriating the same amount for public transportation. Morrisey’s office did not respond to questions about public transportation funding.
Several Republican lawmakers introduced the Rural Mobility and Transportation Access Act, which would have created a new grant program for counties with limited transit service.
Josh Holstein, R-Boone, one of the bill’s sponsors, said that many of his constituents, especially seniors, told him they needed more transit options.
“We have a lot of folks that have to drive a long distance to get to a hospital or certain other things,” he said. “And in some cases, half the county has to go to Charleston to see proper care.”
But no committee chair ever put the bill on an agenda, effectively killing the measure for another year.
And if it had advanced, the bill included no new funding to support the state’s transit agencies already serving communities.
Holstein said he left out funding because adding a price tag would have made the bill harder to pass. He said he plans to focus on public transportation again next year.
“If you put a price tag on it, it makes it a little more difficult to get through the process,” he said. “I thought it would be a good start for us to create a framework for grants.”
The Division of Multimodal Transportation Facilities operates the state’s public transit division. The agency determined it would cost $600,000 to implement the new grant program.
For Armstead, the bus is not a policy debate. It’s how he gets to work, appointments and Kroger.
“It means a lot,” he said, “ It would hurt this county badly if they didn’t have the KRT — it would be detrimental to everybody.”