GSP, Upstate SC officials want to make it easier to get to and from airport. What to know.

Public transportation to and from the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport has been a challenge transit leaders hope to solve soon.

The Upstate Mobility Alliance was awarded a $100,000 grant from the S.C. Department of Transportation to study whether a transit hub should be established at the airport.

The study also will try to determine whether public transit systems would be able to connect there, which could open up new opportunities for job seekers.

"In the past, there have always been questions about why there is no bus service currently at GSP, but we haven't yet taken a comprehensive and objective look at exactly what type of service could and should look like," said GP McLeer, director of Upstate Mobility Alliance.

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He said a consultant for the study will be chosen in early July, and a report should be finished by December. The report will be used to make informed decisions about future connectivity within the airport's property, he said.

McLeer said the consultant will work with Upstate transit authorities, including Greenlink in Greenville, SPARTA in Spartanburg, CATbus in Clemson, Electric City Transit in Anderson, and GSP Airport.

Upstate Mobility Alliance was created in 2017 as a result of a collaborative effort known as Ten at the Top's "Connecting Our Future." The initiative is to ease traffic congestion and improve the movement of people and goods across the 10-county Upstate region.A 2017 report by Upstate Forever, "Shaping Our Future," projected that by 2040, the 10-county Upstate region's population will reach 1.75 million – a 64% increase since 1990.

Since 2017, Ten at the Top Executive Director Dean Hybl said efforts to get motorists to use public transit have been slow to develop.

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"What we realized very quickly was none of the bus systems then were meeting the needs of their constituents at a high enough level to even consider adding a regional component," Hybl said.

In 2020, the City of Spartanburg found that SPARTA bus ridership declined from 513,430 annual trips in 2013 to 397,546 in 2017 – a five-year decline of 22.5%. SPARTA has eight routes in and around the city.

In Greenville, ridership on Greenlink buses declined sharply in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic but has since risen to pre-pandemic levels. Greenville Link has 12 routes.

McLeer said the GSP transit hub study won't dictate whether local transit systems should expand their service areas, but it will provide details they can use to determine if expansion is feasible.

"They will determine how best to respond, and then at what pace," McLeer said.

One potential suggestion will be the creation of a park-and-ride hub at GSP for local transit systems to connect, McLeer and Hybl said.

"It's something you cannot do today," Hybl said. "This study will give us a chance to dive into that potential – is there viability in that? The airport piece has value, but the value for connectivity in the Upstate is having the potential of a hub where people could connect from Spartanburg, Anderson and Greenville."

He said currently, there are many Upstate employers with good-paying job openings, but having a tough time filling them.

That is partly because job seekers with transportation issues live too far away from those jobs, he said.

"The best job that pays more may be in Spartanburg, but (you) can't get to it," Hybl said. "This could open up job opportunities. It opens up a whole new pool of potential candidates."

The City of Spartanburg recognized the issue of connecting job seekers with jobs outside of the city, and in March 2022 announced a new vanpool service called SWFT (SPARTA Workforce Transit).

Created in partnership with Enterprise, OneSpartanburg, Inc., the United Way of the Piedmont and SC Works of the Upstate, the service provides transportation by van to employers such as Grace Management Group at 951 S. Pine St.

Meanwhile, GSP Airport spokesman Tom Tyra said the airport is constantly looking at ways to improve traffic flow inside the airport property, and outside. A free on-site shuttle service runs throughout the day and evening, and some hotels offer shuttle service to and from the airport for hotel guests.

From 2011 to 2021, passenger activity at GSP increased 109%. More than 2 million passengers travel through the airport each year, a number that is expected to double within 20 years, according to airport officials.

"There's always been a question, why isn't there public transportation to the airport," Tyra said. "No one has explored that in detail. This (study) will do that.

"The Upstate region is going to be growing significantly in the next 30 to 40 years," Tyra added. "As we continue to grow, we've got to find smart ways to move people around the region."

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: GSP, SC officials want to make it easier to get to and from airport