Valley Metro, the municipal bus service, will travel a busy route these next few months, stopping to bathe in municipal pride at one point and making possible watershed management changes at another.

Next month, officials plan to celebrate five decades of bus transit with a series of events that harken back to March 24, 1975, the day the city created Valley Metro through the purchase of a privately owned bus service, Roanoke City Lines.

“NEW BUS SYSTEM,” read an advertisement in The Roanoke Times. 

It welcomed members of the community to an inaugural ceremony at the civic center at noon that day. Valley Metro has carried riders millions of times since, currently giving 120,000-plus rides monthly, at a cost of nearly $15 million a year.

But during the last few weeks, city officials signaled that they want to shake up how Valley Metro is managed.

Roanoke outsources the operation of its bus lines to a private contractor to provide top-to-bottom services, including bus drivers and mechanics, routing, money management, planning and supervision. The contractor supplies a general manager and an assistant.

But now, a restructuring is underway to shift power to City Hall following the contractor’s previously reported struggles with financial management. Roanoke plans to assume control of financial management and hire a director of transit “to provide dedicated leadership and coordination of transit services across the City, ensuring more effective delivery and regional collaboration,” an Oct. 20 report said.

In addition, officials have decided to shop the market for transit management contractors. 

The contract has belonged to only three firms during the life of Valley Metro as a government service, all related by corporate combinations and now part of France-based Transdev. Transdev receives more than $30,000 a month and has been retained through June 30.

The largest private transport company in the United States with operations in 46 states, Transdev has logged a number of successes. In Roanoke, milestones included the opening of the two-year-old Third Street Station, the launch of a smartphone app called VMGO and the start of an after-hours ride service called MetroFLX. It has said it is committed to electrifying the Valley Metro bus fleet. 

But there have also been issues.

A judge in 2013 sentenced a former general manager to 30 days in jail for stealing agency funds and, in 2019, a former bus service employee filed a sexual harassment lawsuit that accused a different former general manager of misconduct.

During the current general manager’s watch, Transdev staff experienced multiple struggles with financial responsibilities. Auditors found money management issues in 2024 and 2025. In response, the city sent one of its finance experts to help and a city staffer still works there.

On Oct. 15, city purchasing put the contract out for bid by issuing a request for proposals, or RFP. The purchasing office gave interested firms until Dec. 1 to apply to run Valley Metro starting July 1. Deputy City Manager Angie O’Brien declined to address a half-dozen questions about the decision to rebid the contract.

Municipal Auditor Drew Harmon said the purchasing team has urged other companies to apply to enter the upcoming competitive bidding process, explaining that city leaders will want to hear from a number of applicants to ensure they’re getting the best service and price. Prior to this step, officials sat down with consultants for advice. They reviewed a number of operational models, before settling on a plan to shift finance, procurement, grants administration, information technology and transit planning out of the purview of the contractor and into City Hall.

The city will solicit new ideas to raise ridership. The application, which refers to the applicant as the “offeror,” states, "Describe how the offeror might make public transit in Roanoke more impactful and/or viable for the long term."

Harmon said it’s likely Transdev will apply in a bid to continue on the job. It will be evaluated alongside and on the same terms as the other applicants. 

Transdev could extend its period of service. Or the city could end up replacing the only company to ever run Valley Metro next summer should Transdev fall to the competition.

All this is happening as Valley Metro’s 50th anniversary celebration approaches, tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 13. General Manager Kevin Price, who works for Transdev, has told officials a series of events will take place.

The location or locations have yet to be announced.