As Congress weighs rural air subsidies ... what about rural bus service?

From Pendleton, Oregon, it’s a three-hour drive to Portland — or a 55-minute hop on an 8-seat plane.

That flight exists thanks to the Essential Air Service program, a federal subsidy that was created to keep small communities connected after airline deregulation in the 1970s. But as Essential Air Service gets more expensive — $550 million a year in the lower 48 and Hawaii alone — Congress is weighing whether taxpayers should keep picking up the bill. 

That’s why some transportation experts wonder if we should spend some of those federal dollars on buses instead.

In September, Ken “Buck” Buckley ended up stranded in Eastern Oregon with a broken truck and a literal ton of antler piled in his truck.

“2,400 pounds, about a month’s worth of buying,” said Buckley, who buys and sells deer antlers across the western United States.

Buck called a tow truck. Once the driver saw the trailer filled with antlers, he made an offer. “He said, ‘Give me an additional $500 and I’ll get your antlers to market instead of leaving them on the side of the road.’ I said, ‘Done deal.’”

After selling the antlers, Buckley still needed a new truck. He located one in Portland and planned to take the bus the 300-odd miles to fetch it. But when he got to the nearest bus station, he discovered there was no Greyhound in Eastern Oregon anymore. The route was canceled eight months earlier.

His best option was to instead take a local bus 90 miles to Pendleton, then catch the 55-minute flight.

Boutique Air flies three round trips from Pendleton to Portland every day. “It’s the only essential air service activity in the Pacific Northwest,” said Dan Bandel, manager of Eastern Oregon Regional Airport.

EAS funding ensures people in remote communities can get to family engagements and medical appointments. That’s increasingly important as rural health care facilities shutter.

A one-way ticket runs about $59 — but that’s only because the federal government covers almost 80% of the cost.   

“If it was $250 a person, then it wouldn’t be cost-effective. But (it’s) less than half of that for a family of four to fly,” Bandel said.

On the tiny aircraft, passengers are weighed before boarding. The pilots help load and unload bags. 

There’s no Transportation Security Administration checkpoint. “We like to say your boots and belt stay right where they belong,” Bandel said.

Without the Greyhound service, the bus ride is much longer: nine-and-a-half hours, four transfers, and a comparable ticket cost.

Joseph Schwieterman is a professor of transportation and urban development at DePaul University. He argues that rural intercity buses, properly subsidized, could outperform some essential air service.

“There really is a mismatch … sadly, we’re seeing now places that have essential air service that have no bus service, and that’s really a dysfunctional situation,” he said.

With debates ongoing over EAS funding, Schwieterman emphasizes that bus subsidies can reach more people per dollar. “We feel that a bus is just a bargain … it’s just a fraction of what, of course, an air service would cost,” he said.

For now, the quickest option is still Pendleton’s eight-seater plane — kept alive by an infusion of federal dollars. The Pendleton to Portland flight gets $4.2 million in annual subsidies to serve about 8,000 passengers a year. 

But federal money could also keep buses rolling, linking dozens of towns instead of just one airport. “Boosting subsidies by two or threefold? It’s still a small amount, but you probably could get a national route system that’s covered,” Schwieterman said. 

Oregon is already testing that approach, with plans to subsidize a replacement bus with a combination of state and federal money in eastern Oregon, where Greyhound has pulled out.

The hope is that tickets eventually cover the cost — something unlikely to happen for planes. For now, in Eastern Oregon, subsidies still hold the reins.