On Saturday, July 25th, the stops on route 29 in both directions from Overland and Vista to University and Earle will be inaccessible to buses due to the Iron Man race. Please other stops during this time.
On Saturday, July 25th, the stops for route 2 in both directions from Linden and Broadway to Federal Way and TK will be inaccessible to buses due to the Iron Man race. Please use other stops during this time.
Route 29 Stops at Overland & Owyhee on both sides have been closed and temp stops placed on each side, far side of the intersection.
Route 28 is on small detour at Frank Church High School; The stop on Pro Tech and Salt Creek SEC is closed, we have a temp stop placed crossed the road on Pro Tech and Salt Creek SWC.
The inbound stop at Vista and Sun Rise Rim is closed due to construction. Temp stop has been placed near side in front of the Ramada Inn.
The stop on Latah and Alpine towards MSS is closed for construction and temp stop placed on the far-side of the R&R tracks.
Due to construction, inbound stop at 9th Street is closed
Inbound stop on State and 11th is closed, temporary stop placed at State and 12th near side.
Outbound and inbound will be on long term detour at Fort and 15th area due to construction. No stops will be missed for both routes.
Route 9 OB stop at State and Ellen's Ferry closed. No temp stop placed.
Inbound State and Pierce Park stop closed, no temp placed due to construction.
Route 16: Stops on 1st & Idaho and 1st & Bannock will be closed. Please use the bus stop on Main & 1st.
At their July 15 budget workshop, the Nampa City Council voted to cut all funding for VRT from the FY2027 budget. This cut eliminates all public transit services in Nampa, including Route 40, Route 42, VRT On-Demand, and Access, effective October 12th.
Nampa’s final budget will be adopted on August 17th following a public comment period and public hearing.
Watch the Nampa City Council budget decision (YouTube, approx. 59m:30s)“It’s disheartening to have our budget cut after months of good-faith work on a solution for Nampa, but most tragic is the impact on the thousands of riders who will be left without the service they depend on to get to work, school, and medical care,” said Elaine Clegg, VRT CEO. “Our mission is to the serve the people of this valley — including the residents of Nampa — with the best public transportation possible with the funding provided. We’ll keep doing everything we can to help people get to the places they need to go, and we urge the community to participate in the City’s budget process and make their needs heard.”
If the budget is adopted without VRT funding, all publicly available transit services in Nampa will be removed, including:
| SERVICE | FY2025 |
| 40 Caldwell/Boise Express, which connects the Nampa/Caldwell Boulevard to Boise State and serves Park & Ride lots, the College of Idaho, CWI, the Mile Park & Ride, Wahooz & Roaring Springs, Boise City Hall, and more. | 3,250 boardings in Nampa |
| 42 Happy Day – Towne Square Mall, which connects VRT’s Happy Day Transit Center to Towne Square Mall and serves Park & Ride lots, CWI, the Nampa Civic Center, Saint Alphonsus, Ford Idaho Center, Wahooz & Roaring Springs, Central District Health, and more. | 13,000 boardings in Nampa |
| VRT On-Demand, which allows riders to schedule on-demand trips to be picked up near their location and dropped off near their destination. | 8,484 in Nampa + 9,515 rides between Nampa and Caldwell = 17,999 Nampa-related rides |
| VRT Access, which is a qualification-based service that complements the fixed-route bus system and provides guaranteed service for people who are unable to use VRT’s buses or VRT On-Demand because of a disability. 336 eligible Access riders in Canyon County will lose service. | 1,100 boardings in Nampa |
With these services eliminated, riders in Nampa will have to travel to Caldwell or Meridian to connect VRT transportation options.
Caldwell residents will not be able to travel to Nampa on Route 40, Route 42, or VRT Access.
They will also be able to ride Route 40, which will start at Happy Day Transit Center and travel to downtown Caldwell before heading to Boise.
They will also be able to ride VRT On-Demand in Caldwell and to VRT partner destinations in Nampa, such as St. Luke’s, Saint Alphonsus, and College of Western Idaho (CWI) campuses, including the Main Campus Park & Ride to connect with Route 42.
View proposed service changes
VRT’s qualification-based services – Beyond Access, which serves older adults and people with disabilities, and Rides2Wellness, which provides critical transportation to and from medical appointments – will continue to operate in Nampa.
In FY2025, Beyond Access and Rides2Wellness, provided 10,988 Nampa-related rides. Both services are experiencing capacity constraints while providing the maximum service with existing funding — riders can experience long wait times and unavailable trips as it is. With services cut in Nampa, demand is expected to surge as riders lose access to other VRT services. Riders will face significantly longer waits, more unavailable trips, and, in some cases, no transportation options at all.
No additional funding is available to expand these programs.
Beyond Access in Canyon County is supported by grants from the Southwest Idaho Area Agency on Aging and federal funding, with additional support in Ada County from Boise, Eagle, and Meridian.
Rides2Wellness is supported by donations from St. Luke’s and Saint Alphonsus health systems; earlier this year, both health systems contributed extra funding for Rides2Wellness in response to a sharp increase in demand.
“Our healthcare partners provide sizeable support to ensure patients can get to critical medical appointments with Rides2Wellness. They stepped up this year with significant additional funding for the demand created by cuts to insurance coverage and other healthcare support systems,” added Clegg. “They are already carrying an outsize burden for the costs of these services, with limited capacity to contribute more.”
To date, Nampa has not contributed funding to Beyond Access or Rides2Wellness.
As VRT develops a budget each year, we request funding from cities, counties, and universities in the region to run services and build infrastructure. Lacking our own funding mechanism or taxing authority, we plan for transit services based on voluntary contributions of funding from cities, counties, and other partners in the region.
VRT has worked with the City of Nampa to assess service, ridership, and costs and provide improvements to increase ridership and reduce costs. Nampa asked VRT to find ways to serve more riders and build ridership without increasing our funding request, which was accomplished in our FY2027 funding request.
In May, VRT proposed a service option in Nampa of $857,794, which was 0.6% less than last year at a cost of 42% less per boarding. We estimated that this option, which was achieved by making VRT On-Demand more efficient by using a combination of microtransit (smaller vehicles and vans for shared trips) and ride hail services (like Uber and Lyft for individual trips), would have added 22,000 transit trips in Nampa and made transit available to 3,000 more residents compared to FY25.
View Proposal 1
This proposal – which we anticipate would have resulted in 54,000 total rides from more than 3,000 riders – was rejected, and the Nampa City Council asked VRT to explore ways to reduce our funding request to less than $500,000 while maintaining existing ridership.
In July, VRT staff proposed an updated service option of $498,522 to align with the City Council’s request, a 39% reduction from last year at a cost of 47% less per boarding. We estimated that this option, which was achieved by removing Route 40 from Nampa and using the updated VRT On-Demand service model, would still have resulted in more trips and riders in Nampa compared to today.
View Proposal 2
On July 15th, the Nampa City Council rejected this proposal – which we anticipate would have resulted in 34,000 total rides from 1,710 riders – and voted to cut VRT funding completely, removing all public transit access in the city.
In total, the removal of VRT services from Nampa will result in the loss of 54,000 projected boardings in Nampa and the removal of transit access to more than 3,000 Nampa residents as proposed initially.
PREVIOUS YEAR* |
fy27 Proposal 1 (may) |
% change from FY26 |
fy27 Proposal 2 (july) |
% change from FY25 |
|
| Budget request | $862,948 | $857,794 | -0.6% | $498,522 | -39% |
| Boardings | 30,910 | 53,140 (projected) | 72% | 34,100 (projected) | 9% |
| Riders | 1,510 | 3,060 | 103% | 1,710 | 11% |
| Cost per boarding | $27.92 | $16.11 | -42% | $14.62 | -47% |
*Budget numbers are from FY26; boardings and rider data are from FY25, the last full reporting year
Throughout this budget discussion, VRT received feedback on the proposed changes to transit service in Canyon County via e-mail, social media channels, surveys, an open house, and a public hearing. The public has expressed significant concerns about how a reduction in transit services would impact them.
What we heard from the community
Members of the public can share feedback on how these changes impact them in a variety of ways in the next month. Key dates include:
August 3, 2026: Updated FY2027 Nampa proposed budget is available
View the updated budget: cityofnampa.us/budget
August 4, 2026 (5 p.m.): VRT public hearing at Happy Day Transit Center
View public hearing details: ridevrt.org/nampa-hearing
August 11, 2026: City of Caldwell budget public hearing, council vote and budget adoption
View public hearing details: https://www.cityofcaldwell.org/Government/City-Council/Council-Meetings
August 12, 2026 (noon): Deadline to submit public comments to the Nampa City Clerk
How to comment:
- Contact Nampa City Clerk: https://www.cityofnampa.us/143/City-Clerk
- Online form: https://www.cityofnampa.us/1660/Contact-Us
- Phone: (208) 468-541
August 17 (6 p.m.): City of Nampa budget public hearing, council vote, and budget adoption
How to participate: https://www.cityofnampa.us/1612/Public-Meetings
Riders can also share feedback with VRT via:
All comments received by VRT will be shared with the Nampa Clerk and city council prior to the public comment deadline on August 12th.
Jason Rose, Public Information Officer
jrose@ridevrt.org
(208) 803‑5183
For media resources, logos, and photos, please visit ridevrt.org/press.