TAOS — Last year, it cost $37 to transport one person one-way from the center of Taos to the UNM-Taos Klauer Campus a few miles south on the "blue bus." It cost $39 to do the same between Questa and Red River.

The cost-per-rider is calculated by dividing what is spent to operate the route by the total number of people who use the bus. With relatively few riders moving over relatively long distances, the numbers can look pretty pricey.

But officials with the North Central Regional Transit District — the entity that operates the blue buses in several counties including Santa Fe — say the figures represent what it costs to operate a transit system in a place as sparsely populated as Northern New Mexico.

In fact, these aren't the highest costs per rider in the district. Newly appointed Executive Director Anthony Mortillaro said a route between Chimayó and Las Trampas costs $69 per rider. The route between Chama and Española is $98 per person. The district canceled a route to Alcaldé that cost $82 per rider.

But for those who use the service, the ride is free. And officials argue that a cost/benefit evaluation has to consider more than just the dollars that go into the program. "In those cases where it seems to be costly per person, we have to consider if the social benefits outweigh the costs," Mortillaro said in an interview Tuesday.

The North Central Regional Transit District spans Taos, Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Río Arriba and Los Alamos counties. It is funded by a 1/8 cent gross-receipts tax approved by voters in 2008.

Taos County generates about $770,000 a year to go toward the transit district's $10.3 million operating budget. The district spent about $1.1 million operating Taos County routes and buying buses to serve those routes.

"Rural transit is not cheap," said Dan Barrone, a Taos County commissioner and member of the North Central Regional Transit District board. "This is a (gross receipts tax) that everybody pays countywide. We've got to address countywide how the money is spent. And we want the biggest bang for our buck."

The difficulty, Mortillaro said, is deciding whether a route is worthwhile. Intangibles like the benefit to the community, to indigent residents and to the environment complicate the calculation. "These services may be deemed to be more of a social service, so how do you value that using a strict business model approach?" Mortillaro said.

Bill Knief, project coordinator at UNM-Taos, agrees. He said the college spent years lobbying for the Klauer Campus route. Most of the college's courses are taught at the campus south of Taos, and Knief said it was important to find a "timely and reliable way" for students to get to class.

At $37 per rider, it cost about $6 a mile to move those who rode the bus to and from the school last year. But Knief thinks it's worth it. "Most of the students riding the bus are trying to better themselves through higher education," Knief said. "We think that very much justifies the cost. It's a commitment to education as much as it is a commitment to transportation."

Though the bus runs six round trips a every weekday to and from the Klauer Campus, it stops operating well before evening classes let out. Knief said evening routes were tried, but ridership was dismal. Some students are also upset that the Klauer bus doesn't operate Friday afternoons, forcing them to find another mode of transportation.

The town of Taos operates a separate service — the Chile Line — using a portion of its lodgers tax fund. The bus runs between Taos Pueblo and the Ranchos de Taos Post Office. A one-way fare is 50 cents. It also operates the Taos Express to Santa Fe; a round trip costs $10.

Aside from weighing the cost/benefit of its routes, another question on the minds of transit district officials is whether it is more important to provide service within a county or provide connectivity to places like Española, Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

Last year, the Taos-to-Española route cost $18 per rider. It now has the highest ridership for any route in the county and the cost is probably closer to $13.

There are currently three round trips between Taos and Española, and it takes about one hour and 15 minutes to go one way. But riders headed to Santa Fe must now change buses after a layover in Española. It takes about three hours to get there from Taos.

Getting to Albuquerque is even more time-consuming. A Taoseño headed to Albuquerque strictly using the rural transit district would leave Taos on a weekday at 8:15 a.m., reach Santa Fe at 11:20 a.m., catch the Rail Runner at 1 p.m. and be in Albuquerque a little after 2:30 p.m.

That's six hours and 15 minutes for a trip that takes about two hours and 30 minutes by car. And under the current schedule, riders wouldn't be able to get back to Taos on the bus until the next day.

Though most the ride is free (with the exception of the Rail Runner ticket), officials like Barrone and Mortillaro say its hard to convince people to use public transportation if it's not convenient and timely.

Nearly everyone in rural New Mexico owns a vehicle out of necessity, and Mortillaro acknowledged that persuading someone with a car to take the bus is one of the district's greatest challenges. Despite a marketing and advertising campaign, he said the district doesn't do enough to tout the benefits of taking the bus.

"Not everybody knows we exist," Mortillaro said. "We need to do a better job of getting the word out and encouraging people to ride. I don't think we do a good job at it at all."

Barrone said one way to boost ridership might be to improve service to the capital and other population centers. "I think that would entice more people to ride if we could move people from here to Santa Fe in the same time it takes them in their own car," Barrone said. Mortillaro said the district could look at implementing "express" routes that would drastically cut travel time to cities south of Taos.

Though it's still working out administrative and service issues, Mortillaro said, the district has managed to improve "interconnectivity" across Northern New Mexico in the few years it has existed. But he said a "sophisticated" plan to assess the true value of a route is still being developed.

Mortillaro said a recent push to solicit comments from riders will likely give the district a better idea of who is riding the bus and why. Those comments, combined with an analysis of where money is going, will give district leaders a better idea of how to funnel its resources in the future, Mortillaro said.