Transportation Bus Burlington is the central focus of
Green Mountain Transit (GMT), which provides bus service within the city and to and from surrounding municipalities. On June 15, 2011, the
Chittenden County Transportation Authority announced that it had changed its charter, effective July 1, 2011, to allow municipalities outside Chittenden County to join CCTA as member communities, thereby allowing CCTA to become Vermont's first regional transit authority. As part of its expansion, the CCTA merged with the
Green Mountain Transit Authority (GMTA), which provided bus service in the Barre-Montpelier area and surrounding communities in central Vermont.
Greyhound provides intercity bus service from the Downtown Transit Center bus station to other communities in Vermont, and to
Montreal's
Gare d'autocars de Montreal and
Boston's
South Station and
Logan International Airport. Premier Coach's
Vermont Translines also provides intercity bus service between Burlington and
Albany, New York, along the
U.S. Route 7 corridor in a partnership with Greyhound, also from the airport.
Rail was built in 1916 by the
Central Vermont Railway and the
Rutland Railroad Burlington is connected to New York City via Amtrak's
Ethan Allen Express, which began serving the city in July 2022. Service is to
Union Station, built on the city's waterfront in 1916. The extension to Burlington was first proposed in 2013 by Vermont governor
Peter Shumlin. Prior to this, the nearest Amtrak station was located about to the east in
Essex Junction, Vermont, which is served by the
Vermonter. Rail service began in Burlington in 1849. From the late nineteenth century to 1953, the
Rutland Railroad provided passenger service on the
Green Mountain Flyer and the
Mount Royal from Burlington to
Troy, New York, with connecting service to
New York City via the
New York Central Railroad. The last passenger train to run north via the
Burlington Tunnel to
Alburgh, a town in the northwest extremity of Vermont, was in June 1938. From 2000 to 2003, the
Champlain Flyer was a commuter service from Burlington south to the town of
Charlotte, Vermont.
Air Air carriers at
Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport (BTV) provide the area with commercial service to major regional hubs and international airports. While scheduled carriers have not traditionally offered scheduled commercial flights to destinations outside the United States, there is a Customs Port of Entry for unscheduled flights. From 2011 to 2018, the only available international commercial flights for BTV were via
Porter Airlines' winter seasonal service to and from
Billy Bishop Airport in
Toronto.
Major roads Burlington is served by one major Interstate highway, along with its spur route into the southern part of the city, and is at the junction of two U.S. highways. Several Vermont state highways also provide routes into and through the Burlington area. •
Interstate 89: Though it does not directly enter the Burlington city limits, I-89 has interchanges in neighboring South Burlington, Winooski, and Colchester that provide access to downtown. •
Interstate 189: I-189 connects I-89 in South Burlington to U.S. 7 at the southern end of Burlington. •
U.S. Route 2 is the main east–west route entering Burlington. After entering the city from the east, westbound U.S. 2 turns north to run concurrently with U.S. 7 towards Winooski and Colchester. The intersection with Interstate 89 is used by 42,000 cars daily. •
U.S. Route 7 is the main north–south route through Burlington. Northbound U.S. 7 joins westbound U.S. 2 in downtown Burlington, and the two routes run concurrently north to Colchester before diverging. •
Vermont Route 127 connects downtown and the Old North End with the New North End and the
town of Colchester. Throughout the New North End, VT-127 is a limited-access highway officially named the Winooski Valley Parkway, though commonly known as the "Burlington Beltline".
Ferry service Burlington is the headquarters of the
Lake Champlain Transportation Company, a privately held company that offers ferry service for the
North Country of
New York state and the
Champlain Valley region of Vermont. One line of year-round 24-hour service is provided from the nearby town of
Grand Isle, Vermont, to
Plattsburgh, New York, with another line of daily service from
Charlotte, Vermont, to
Essex, New York.
Internet The city has
municipal fiber broadband, which provides
telephone,
broadband internet, and
television. In 2008, cable management tried to drop
Al-Jazeera English from the lineup. This was successfully thwarted by protesters and the station was, in 2009, one of three "small cable operators" in the nation to carry this channel.
Electricity Burlington owns its own power company,
Burlington Electric Department. In 2009, the department announced that it would purchase 40% of the output of the 40 MW
Sheffield, Vermont, wind-generated electricity when it became available.
Renewable energy Burlington began operating on
100% renewable energy in 2014 after being a pioneer in the renewable energy sector for decades. The
Burlington Electric Department, which began operating in 1903, originally used
coal as a primary source of energy. However, after experiencing the effects of fluctuating coal prices throughout the second World War, the department slowly began using wood as an energy source because of the price and overall energy efficiency of wood. Since then, the city has experienced a sustainability boom, and today runs on 100% renewable energy. A succession of mayors in the city, along with corresponding public interest, are credited with this change. Gordon Paquette made the decision to completely transition from coal to wood at the McNeil Generating Station in 1977, and Bernie Sanders picked up this momentum of the environmental movement in the small city. This continued with Peter Clavelle, who mandated recycling in the city, and passed a number of bonds which funded energy improvements in infrastructure. In 1995, the city issued the Legacy Plan, which aimed to "go beyond the branding and rhetoric and create actual examples that will resonate and make a difference in people's lives." Today, that plan has come to fruition in many ways. The city operates entirely on energy from the Winooski One Hydro Plant, a series of
wind turbines and solar panels, as well as the sustainably sourced wood burning plant at McNeil Generating Station. This would put the city closer to that net-zero goal, and continues its legacy as a trailblazer for sustainable infrastructure.
Health and social services Burlington is home to
University of Vermont Medical Center, a
tertiary referral hospital for Vermont and the North Country of New York, Level I Trauma Center, and teaching hospital. In 2010, the government banned smoking within of the city's parks and recreational areas.
Howard Center, headquartered in Burlington, provides social services to state residents, and runs Vermont's first and the area's only methadone maintenance program, the Chittenden Clinic.
Signage Burlington City Council unanimously voted on August 8, 2011 a resolution to promote the use of French in municipal public services, in restaurant menus and in second language courses in schools. ==Notable people==