Heavenly, Ridge to contribute more to bus service

By Kathryn Reed

Tahoe Transportation District on Friday is expected to enter agreements with Heavenly Mountain Resort and Ridge Tahoe for those entities to pay more money for bus service.

These two are the main private partners affiliated with the South Shore bus service.

The TTD board will meet Oct. 13 at 9:30am at the Stateline offices to discuss the proposals that were negotiated this summer.

Heavenly for years has been part of the mix because so many skiers, as well as employees, use the bus to get to the slopes.

“Since 2010, Heavenly has contributed $850,000 annually to TTD, which it has used as part of its transit service operations budget. Without a mechanism for annual increases, the real value of the contribution has been reduced through inflation,” the staff report says.

The new contract calls for a $950,000 payment by Heavenly for this fiscal year, which is about 12 percent more than before. Also built into the deal is for an annual 5 percent increase as well as additional increases based on the Consumer Price Index.

The Ridge has been part of the mix since 2010. The time-share company’s contribution has been $140,634 per year.

The new agreement also includes a nearly 12 percent annual increase, the 5 percent ongoing yearly adjustment, and the CPI increase.

In total, TTD provides about 55,000 hours of bus service a year. Most of this is on the South Shore, but it also has commuter routes off the hill in Nevada. The operating budget is about $6.9 million a year.