Bend travelers flying out of the Redmond Airport may soon have an alternative to expensive Ubers, high-priced parking spaces or coordinating early morning rides with friends and family.
Cascades East Transit, Central Oregon’s public transit agency, is pushing to bring a new direct bus service from Bend to the Redmond Municipal Airport. While logistical details still need to be ironed out, the agency hopes to begin the service within the next few months.
In part, that’s possible because the agency is no longer dealing with the shortage of bus drivers that’s plagued the transit system in recent years, said Cascades East Transit Director Bob Townsend. Townsend told the Source the system is in a place where adding the airport line won’t take away from other efforts to improve the local bus system.
“The timing is just right to put a full court press on getting this going,” Townsend said.
The board with Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, which houses the transit agency, authorized the new service earlier this year, Townsend said.
According to Townsend, the plan is to run buses from Bend’s Hawthorne Station to the Redmond Airport terminal every hour starting from about 4 am to 1 pm five days a week, in order to serve people catching early morning flights. If the service goes well, it could be expanded to evening hours, Townsend said. He estimated the ride will cost $15 each way.
If the service comes to fruition, it would become the most affordable way to get to the Redmond Airport, other than riding with friends or family. Even that option has led to increased congestion on the curb outside the terminal as the number of people flying out of Redmond continues to grow each year. Passengers have complained that rideshare prices from Uber and Lyft can soar well above $100, while shuttle services are likely to top $50.
Cascades East Transit buses already swing by the Redmond Airport terminal throughout the day on a fixed route. Bend travelers can take a bus from Bend to the Redmond transit center and transfer buses to get to the airport. But that can be logistically tricky, and buses only run during the daytime.
Townsend stressed that the motivation to install a direct bus to the airport is as much about reducing the number of cars on U.S. Highway 97 as it is convenience for passengers.
“It’s not just about ‘hey, let’s get people to the airport,’” Townsend told the Source. “It’s a need, obviously to get people to the airport, but it has secondary benefits of improving safety and reducing vehicle miles traveled, all the normal things that transit does.”
After less than two years leading the local transit agency, Townsend recently resigned from his post, but told the Source he’s staying on in an interim capacity to help finish some projects.
During his tenure, Townsend sought to grow the transit system by adding new fixed routes in Bend. Earlier this year, the transit system brought back fares from the days before the pandemic.
Unlike fixed routes in town, the Redmond Airport service would sustain itself solely with funds from fees paid by people who use it.
About three quarters of the people who fly out of Redmond come from Bend, said Redmond Airport Director Zachary Bass.
Bass told the Source the airport is on board with getting the transit service running, but still needs to work out logistical questions. One concern, Bass said, is how to run large buses through the pickup and drop off area without interrupting vehicle traffic. The logistics are also complicated by construction of an ongoing terminal expansion project adding 80,000 square feet to the airport, Bass said.
According to Townsend, the airport bus would be about the size of a school bus with the capacity to carry about 25 passengers with luggage. That bus won’t fit through gates near the terminal area, Townsend said, so it will require some other solution for pickup and drop off.
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