Kellen Appleton is a regular rider on the Advance Transit buses that run in and around her hometown of Lebanon. But recently, Appleton got to thinking: How far could local buses, like the ones she relies on in the Upper Valley, really take her?
Earlier this month, she set out with her housemate, Ana Chambers, to put the question to the test — at least, within the confines of Vermont. The duo rode what they think was the longest-possible trip across the state, within a single day, using only public buses.
The journey, which Appleton documented on Instagram, started just below Vermont’s southwestern corner in Williamstown, Mass. Eleven hours and seven different buses later, they made it to St. Johnsbury, Vt., in the heart of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.
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The goal? To “kind of push the public transit system to its limits,” said Appleton, who works for a regional planning commission based in Weathersfield, in an interview.
There are certainly more convenient ways to get across the state, even using transit. Amtrak runs two trains through Vermont that ultimately connect to New York City, for example, while Greyhound buses traverse the state between Boston and Montreal.
But Appleton said she and Chambers wanted to make their trip as challenging as possible by relying only on public transit that, unlike Amtrak or Greyhound, could not be booked ahead of time. They also wanted to use routes that ran on fixed schedules, which ruled out using microtransit services that can be called on demand.
In all, they paid just a single, $2 fare the entire day — “a bargain, right?” she said.
Appleton and Chambers’ trip started with a 7:15 a.m. ride on The Green Mountain Express’ Purple Line from Williamstown, Mass., north across the state line to Bennington, Vt. From there, they caught a Green Mountain Express Orange Line bus to Manchester, Vt., and then a ride on The Bus, run by the Marble Valley Regional Transit District, into Rutland.
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From Rutland, they took a Tri-Valley Transit bus to Middlebury, Vt., then another bus from that same operator to Burlington. From there, they rode a Green Mountain Transit Montpelier LINK Express bus to the capital. Finally, from Montpelier, they took Rural Community Transportation’s U.S. 2 Commuter to St. Johnsbury, stepping off for the last time at 6:30 p.m.
Appleton said she was pleasantly surprised by how it was possible to make so many different bus connections throughout the state. It was a testament to the local transit agencies, she said, that each bus ran close enough to its listed schedule that she and Chambers could actually stick with the route they’d carefully planned ahead of time.
She noted, though, that some of the agencies’ schedules aligned for a transfer only once a day — or left just minutes to spare — meaning a single substantial delay could have scuttled the plan. That’s hard to complain about for a trip, like theirs, that was fairly impractical by design, she said. But she added that the “fragile” nature of parts of the itinerary underscored how difficult it can be for many people to rely on public transit for their needs.
Having more regularly scheduled bus service, especially serving rural communities, could encourage more intercity trips without a car, Appleton said.
Vermont spends more money on public transit than other similarly rural states, according to a 2021 report, though state lawmakers continue to debate whether to increase that funding in an effort to help the state make progress toward its climate goals.
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Frequent transit service is “something that’s going to help a lot of people take that leap from, ‘I need to have a car to be independent and be a functional person as a part of society,’ to, ‘I can rely on the systems that we’ve put in place here,’” she said.
At the same time, she noted every bus she and Chambers took had at least one other person on board. While many transit routes are scheduled around commuters traveling only in the morning or the evening, she said, the trip was a reminder that there are people who likely don’t have cars, using those services at all times of day.
She documented some of the day’s more memorable characters in an Instagram post. That included a man in Bennington, clad in a rainbow bomber jacket and white stone earrings, who was accompanying his young daughter — herself in a fur coat — on the bus to school. Two friends realized onboard, excitedly, that they were taking the bus to the same destination: a methadone clinic that opened in Bennington earlier this year. Three other riders from the Bennington area, all in high school, spent the ride discussing “the fall of communism,” Appleton recalled.
In Rutland, three friends boarded the bus and, with reggae music playing from a phone, unpacked a very different topic — which version of the video game series “Grand Theft Auto” was the best. Another rider worked at a cafe in Middlebury and, upon being asked if the cafe still served ice cream in October, responded: “Hell yeah we are. Follow me.”
A “harried commuter” with a tattoo of Bernie Sanders boarded in Montpelier, Appleton recalled, traveling with an electric bicycle and “alternating sips of coffee, ginger ale, and water the entire bus ride.” The bus to Burlington, meanwhile, had a student on board who revealed the purpose of his visit to a friend just before stepping off, Appleton wrote: “I’m here to see my BOYFRIEND.”
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The trip, which would take about three hours by car, also gave Appleton and Chambers a new perspective on towns they might have driven through before — but had never been able to take the time to look around, Appleton said. She said the trip was inspired, in part, by a genre of YouTube videos that feature people taking similarly impractical trips on public transportation and sharing the sights along the way.
“Now, I have some touch point, or some anecdote, or have some connection, to (each) place — and that makes me feel like I’m a little bit more at home than I would be otherwise,” she said.
“Was it practical? No. But like, was it a great time? 100%.”
This story was republished with permission from VtDigger, which offers its reporting at no cost to local news organizations through its Community News Sharing Project. To learn more, visit vtdigger.org/community-news-sharing-project.
U.S. Sen. Peter Welch on Friday said the Pentagon had ordered the deployment of the Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing to the Caribbean amid heightened tensions with Venezuela.
According to Welch, the deployment is part of Operation Southern Spear, which has been targeting drug trafficking in the region as President Donald Trump’s administration has sought the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
A Pentagon spokesperson on Friday referred questions to the Vermont Guard.
The 158th Fighter Wing, based in South Burlington, includes 20 F-35A Lightning II fighter jets and approximately 1,000 personnel.
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Joseph Brooks, a spokesperson for the Vermont Guard, told the Globe earlier this week that the unit had been ordered by the Department of Defense to mobilize, but he would not disclose the location or details of the deployment.
Brooks declined to comment further Friday night.
In a written statement, Welch thanked Vermont Guard members for their service but criticized the Trump administration for deploying them.
“I strongly oppose President Trump’s mobilization of the Vermont Air National Guard alongside thousands of other U.S. military units in what appears to be a relentless march to war,” Welch said. “An undeclared war against the Venezuelan regime would be illegal under our Constitution. If this president — or any president — wants to start a war with Venezuela, which has not attacked us and is not a source of the fentanyl that is killing Americans, then he needs to seek authorization from Congress, as the authors of the Constitution intended.”
Details of the deployment remained unclear Friday, though Seven Days, a Burlington newspaper, reported that the unit would be stationed at a recently reopened military base in Puerto Rico. The newspaper said some Vermont Guard members had already headed there to prepare for the deployment.
WINOOSKI, Vt. — A small school district in Vermont was hit with racist and threatening calls and messages after a Somali flag was put up a week ago in response to President Donald Trump referring to Minnesota’s Somali community as “ garbage.”
The Winooski School District began to display the flag Dec. 5 to show solidarity with a student body that includes about 9% people of Somali descent.
“We invited our students and community to come together for a little moment of normalcy in a sea of racist rhetoric nationally,” said Winooski School District Superintendent Wilmer Chavarria, himself a Nicaraguan immigrant. “We felt really good about it until the ugliness came knocking Monday morning.”
The Somali flag was flown alongside the Vermont state flag and beneath the United States flag at a building that includes K-12 classrooms and administrative offices. Somali students cheered and clapped, telling administrators the flag flying meant a great deal to them, he said.
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What ensued was a deluge of phone calls, voicemails and social media posts aimed at district workers and students. Some school phone lines were shut down — along with the district website — as a way to shield staff from harassment. Chavarria said videos of the event did not also show the U.S. and Vermont flags were still up and spread through right-wing social media apps, leaving out the important context.
“Our staff members, our administrators and our community are overwhelmed right now, and they are being viciously attacked. The content of those attacks is extremely, extremely deplorable. I don’t know what other word to use,” Chavarria said Tuesday.
Mukhtar Abdullahi, an immigrant who serves as a multilingual liaison for families in the district who speak Somali and a related dialect, said “no one, no human being, regardless of where they come from, is garbage.” Students have asked if their immigrant parents are safe, he said.
“Regardless of what happens, I know we have a strong community,” Abdullahi said. “And I’m very, very, very thankful to be part of it.”
The district is helping law enforcement investigate the continued threats, Chavarria said, and additional police officers have been stationed at school buildings as a precaution. Winooski is near Burlington, about 93 miles (150 kilometers) south of Montreal, Canada.
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White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson called the calls and messages the school received “the actions of individuals who have nothing to do with” Trump.
“Aliens who come to our country, complain about how much they hate America, fail to contribute to our economy, and refuse to assimilate into our society should not be here,” Jackson said in an email late Thursday. “And American schools should fly American flags.”
Federal authorities last week began an immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota to focus on Somali immigrants living unlawfully in the U.S. Trump has claimed “they contribute nothing ” and said “I don’t want them in our country.” The Minneapolis mayor has defended the newcomers, saying they have started businesses, created jobs and added to the city’s cultural fabric. Most are U.S. citizens and more than half of all Somali people in Minnesota were born in the U.S.
At the school district in Vermont, Chavarria said his position as superintendent gave him authority to fly the flag for up to a week without the school board’s explicit approval.
The school district also held an event with catered Somali food, and Chavarria plans to continue to find ways to celebrate its diversity.
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“I felt sorrow for the students, the families, the little kids that are my responsibility to keep safe. And it’s my responsibility to make them feel like they belong and that this is their country and this is their school district. This is what we do,” he said.
BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Vermont police officers are working overtime shifts along the Canadian border under a federal program that critics say could violate the state’s anti-bias policing laws.
“Up here, we’re so small we rely on our partner agencies,” said Swanton Village Police Chief Matthew Sullivan.
On a recent frosty Friday, Sullivan was patrolling along the Canadian border as part of Homeland Security’s Operation Stonegarden. The chief and other local officers work overtime shifts for the U.S. Border Patrol.
“It acts as a force multiplier because we’re able to put more officers out in these rural areas in Vermont,” Sullivan said.
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During an exclusive ride-along, Sullivan showed us a field where, as recently as last fall, migrants were smuggled across the border. “These people are really being taken advantage of,” he said.
From 2022 to 2023, U.S. Border Patrol encountered just shy of 7,000 people entering the country illegally in the region, more than the previous 11 years combined.
In several instances, police say cars have tried to crash through a gate in Swanton along the border. Others enter from Canada on foot and get picked up by cars with out-of-state plates.
The chief says the illegal crossings strike fear among local parents. “They didn’t feel safe allowing their kids outside to play, which is extremely unfortunate,” Sullivan said.
Through Operation Stonegarden — which was created in the wake of 9/11 — Sullivan and his officers get overtime pay from the feds. “We’re kind of another set of eyes and ears for border patrol,” Sullivan said. His department also gets equipment and training.
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Six agencies in Vermont participate in Stonegarden: The Vermont State Police, Chittenden County Sheriff’s Department, Essex County Sheriff’s Department, Orleans County Sheriff’s Department, Newport City Police Department, and the Swanton Village Police Department. Some three dozen across New England participate in Stonegarden. These agencies collect relatively small amounts from the feds — $760,000 in Vermont, $190,000 in New Hampshire, and $1 million in Maine.
But amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, Stonegarden is under scrutiny.
“This has become quite relevant to a lot of people once again,” said Paul Heintz, a longtime Vermont journalist who now writes for the Boston Globe. “These three states have dramatically different policies when it comes to local law enforcement working with federal law enforcement.”
Vermont has some of the strictest rules about police assisting federal immigration officials. The Fair and Impartial Policing Policy limits cooperation with the feds and says immigration status, language, and proximity to the border cannot be the basis of an investigation.
“Vermonters have made clear through their elected representatives that they want state and local law enforcement to be focusing on state and local issues,” said Lia Ernst with the ACLU of Vermont. She says Stonegarden is crossing the line. “They don’t want their police to be a cog in the mass deportation machinery of any administration but particularly the Trump administration,” Ernst said.
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The ACLU and other critics are concerned that Stonegarden creates a cozy relationship between local police and immigration officials that can be used to enforce the president’s immigration crackdown.
Heintz says the distinction between civil and criminal immigration enforcement can be fluid. In most civil cases in which the feds seek to deport, Vermont law enforcement can’t play a role because it’s against the law. In criminal cases, which local police can enforce, immigrants can be detained and charged.
“An operation may start out appearing to focus on a federal criminal immigration issue and may turn into a civil one over the course of that investigation,” Heintz said.
“There is a lot of nuance to it,” admitted Sullivan. He insists his department is not the long arm of federal law enforcement and is instead focused on crime, including guns, drugs, and human trafficking. However, if someone is caught in the act of crossing the border illegally, that constitutes a crime, and the chief said he calls for federal backup. Though he said that rarely happens.
“It’s a criminal violation to cross the border outside of a port of entry, and technically, we could take action on that. But again, we’re not here to enforce civil immigration while working Stonegarden,” Sullivan said.
