SACRAMENTO REGIONAL TRANSIT DISTRICT

The 'Sacramento Regional Transit District', commonly referred to as the 'RT', is the agency responsible for public transportation in the Sacramento, California area. A It was established on April 1, 1973, as a result of the acquisition of the Sacramento Transit Authority.
The RT operates a large light rail system and connecting bus service in the Sacramento area, covering 418 square miles.

Contents

Bus service

Most popular bus routes

Light rail

Most popular light rail stations

Listing of stations on the Blue Line

Listing of stations on the Gold Line

Future projects

Paratransit

The Neighborhood Ride

See also

References

External links

Bus service

The RT system operates 80 bus routes, as of 2005, with service between 5:00 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. daily. Frequencies range between every 15 and 80 minutes (some express buses run only a few times a day).
Since light rail has opened, buses have generally acted as feeders to light rail routes. Since 2004, with the exception of some neigborhood shuttle vans (see ''The Neighborhood Ride'' below), the bus fleet has consisted exclusively of Orion V standard-floor and Orion VII low-floor coaches powered by compressed natural gas.

Most popular bus routes

The numbers provided are average weekday boardings.

★ Route 81 Florin/65th 4,930^[2]

★ Route 51 Broadway/Stockton 4,000^[2]

★ Route 01 Greenback 3,280^[2]

Light rail

The RT operates a 37.42-mile (60.21 km) light rail system, with two lines, 45 stations, and 76 vehicles (Siemens AG Duewag U2A vehicles and more modern CAF vehicles).^[5] There are 76 vehicles in the entire fleet. Lines on the system operate from 4:30 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. daily, with service every 15 minutes in the day and every 30 minutes at night. The light rail system, with 54,400 daily weekday riders, is the ninth busiest in the United States.

Most popular light rail stations

Numbers provided are average weekday "on & offs"

★ St. Rose of Lima Park 10,100^[6]

★ 16th Street 6,500^[6]

★ Watt/I-80-29th Street 4,600^[6]

The first line, which opened in 1987, was an 18.3-mile (29.4 km) route between Watt/I-80 station in North Sacramento, through downtown, and continuing east on Folsom Blvd. to Butterfield Way station. It was built at a cost of $176 million USD (1987), including the cost of vehicles and maintenance and storage facilities. Much of the line, when it was first built, was single-tracked, though improvements over the 1990s allowed much of the original system to be double-tracked. The line was built mainly using a railroad right-of-way, coupled with use of structures of an abandoned freeway project. A limited portion of the route runs on streets, mainly in downtown Sacramento.
Surprisingly, the line became more popular than anyone anticipated--in fact, so popular that further expansions and improvements were necessary. Two new stations at 39th and 48th streets opened in 1995, and a 2.3-mile (3.7 km) extension to the Mather Field/Mills station opened in 1998. In June 2004, a further extension from Mather Field/Mills to Sunrise was opened.
On September 26, 2003, the South Line opened for 6.3 miles (10.1 km) between the 16th Street station on the Watt/I-80-Downtown-Mather Field/Mills line and a station at Meadowview Road in the south end, which is the first phase of a planned longer 11.2-mile (18.0 km) line to Elk Grove. Much of the extension follows a railroad right-of-way. When it opened, 7 new stops were added to the system. Following a June 2005 reconfiguration of the light rail lines, the South Line merged with the Watt I-80/Downtown line (formerly part of the previous Watt/I-80-Downtown-Sunrise line) effectively combining the old line with the new.

Listing of stations on the Blue Line

Station	Opened	Parking on site	Bike lockers	Transfers
Watt/I-80	1987	Yes	Yes	RT buses 1, 9, 10, 15, 19, 26, 80, 84, 93, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107 Buses to Citrus Heights
Watt/I-80 West	1987	Yes	No	No transfers on site
Roseville Road	1987	Yes	No	No transfers on site
Marconi Arcade	1987	Yes	No	RT buses 18, 25, 86, 87
Swanston	1987	Yes	No	No transfers on site
Royal Oaks	1987	No	No	RT buses 20, 22, 23
Arden/Del Paso	1987	Yes	Yes	RT buses 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 88
Globe	1987	No	No	RT bus 15
Alkali Flat/La Valentina	1987	No	No	RT bus 33
12th & I	1987	No	No	No transfers on site
Cathedral Square (westbound: 10th & K, eastbound: 11th & K)	1987	No	No	No transfers on site
St. Rose of Lima Park (westbound: 7th & K, eastbound: 9th & K)	1987	No	No	Gold Line Many RT buses
7th & Capitol (southbound); 8th & Capitol (northbound)	1987	No	No	Gold Line
8th & O	1987	No	No	Gold Line
Archives Plaza	1987	No	No	Gold Line
13th Street	1987	No	No	Gold Line
16th Street	1987	No	Yes	Gold Line RT buses 6, 63, and 64
Broadway	2003	No	No	RT buses 51, 62, 63, 64
4th Avenue/Wayne Hultgren	2003	No	No	RT bus 62
City College	2003	No	No	RT buses 64, 83
Fruitridge	2003	No	No	RT buses 61, 64, 205, 252
47th Avenue	2003	Yes	No	RT bus 63
Florin	2003	Yes	No	RT buses 54, 65, 81
Meadowview	2003	Yes	No	RT buses 4, 5, 47, 56, 63, 64 Buses to Elk Grove

In June 2005, following a reconfiguration of the light rail system, the Sunrise-Downtown Line (Gold Line) was created (it formerly continued beyond the downtown St. Rose of Lima Park station to Watt/I-80); it runs from St. Rose/K-Street to Sunrise with an extension to the Folsom area that opened on October 15, 2005. On December 8, 2006 it was extended even further to the downtown Amtrak depot (a.k.a. the Sacramento Valley Station); connecting the light rail system to the national rail system for the first time.

Listing of stations on the Gold Line

Station	Opened	Parking on site	Bike lockers	Transfers
Sacramento Valley Station	2006	Yes ($)	No	Amtrak Many RT buses
7th & I/County Center (outbound only)	2007	No	No	Many RT buses
8th & K (inbound only)	2006	No	No	Blue Line Many RT buses
7th & Capitol (outbound); 8th & Capitol (inbound)	1987	No	No	Blue Line
8th & O	1987	No	No	Blue Line
Archives Plaza	1987	No	No	Blue Line
13th Street	1987	No	No	Blue Line
16th Street	1987	No	Yes	Blue Line RT buses 6, 63, and 64
23rd Street	1987	No	Yes	No transfers on site
29th Street	1987	No	No	RT buses 38, 50E, 67, 68
39th Street	1995	No	Yes	RT bus 37
48th Street	1995	No	Yes	No transfers on site
59th Street	1987	No	Yes	No transfers on site
University/65th Street	1987	No	Yes	RT buses 26, 34, 36, 38, 76, 81, 82, 83, 87
Power Inn	1987	Yes	Yes	RT buses 8, 61, 63
College Greens	1987	No	Yes	RT bus 61
Watt/Manlove	1987	Yes	Yes	RT buses 72, 80, 84, 255, 261
Starfire	1987	No	Yes	RT buses 80 and 84
Tiber	1987	No	Yes	No bus transfers on site
Butterfield	1987	Yes	Yes	RT bus 28
Mather Field/Mills	1998	Yes	Yes	RT buses 21, 28, 72, 73, 74, 75
Zinfandel	2004	No	No	RT bus 28
Cordova Town Center	2004	No	No	RT bus 28
Sunrise	2004	Yes	Yes	RT buses 73, 74, 91 Buses to Citrus Heights
Hazel	2005	Yes	No
Iron Point	2005	Yes	No
Glenn	2005	Yes	No
Historic Folsom	2005	Yes	No

Future projects

As mentioned above, the extension to Sutter street in Historic Folsom began service in 2005. On December 8th, 2006 0.7-mile (1,120 m) extension of the existing Gold Line reached the Amtrak station in downtown Sacramento, known as the Sacramento Valley Station. Other future plans also include a light rail line from downtown, via the neighborhood of Natomas, to the Sacramento International Airport, which will open in the future. A planned extension to Roseville, once a top priority, has been on the back burner for years. Extensions to Davis, Elk Grove and other locations are shown on the 20-year plan.

Paratransit

To meet the requirements of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, the RT established a Paratransit service in 1993, which is a door-to-door service for the disabled.

The Neighborhood Ride

In 2006, RT created a new division internally known as "Community Bus Service". Known to the ridership as "The Neighborhood Ride"

★ The Neighborhood Ride shuttles are smaller buses (approximately 35 feet or less in length) that offer residents greater mobility and new transit options on local intra-community trips.

★ The Neighborhood Ride shuttles have regular, pre-designated, pre-scheduled routes, but offer special curb-to-curb service (not to be confused with ADA/paratransit door-to-door service). The shuttles are able to "deviate" travel off route up to ¾ of a mile to pick up and drop off seniors age 62 and older, and disabled passengers who have a valid ADA/paratransit pass.

★ Reservations must be made at least one day in advance. To request a route deviation on The Neighborhood Ride, please call the NEW Phone # (916) 556-0250. The reservation line is open Sunday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

★ Passengers pay only $1.00 per trip (50 cents for passengers paying a discount fare). RT monthly passes, daily passes and transfers are also accepted. Passengers with valid ADA/paratransit passes ride free.

★ All passengers (except for Lifetime Pass holders), including those with valid ADA/paratransit passes, must pay an additional $1.00 for a route deviation.

★ Marked bus stops are located along the route, and printed schedules are available at several locations around Sacramento and on Regional Transit’s Web site.

★ Each shuttle can transport 12-17 passengers and up to two wheelchairs.

See also

★ List of rapid transit systems

References

1. RT at a Glance
2. http://www.sacrt.com/rtfactsheets.stm#Bus%20Operations
3. http://www.sacrt.com/rtfactsheets.stm#Bus%20Operations
4. http://www.sacrt.com/rtfactsheets.stm#Bus%20Operations
5. Sacramento Regional Transit Light Rail FACT SHEET
6. http://www.sacrt.com/rtfactsheets.stm#Light%20Rail%20Operations
7. http://www.sacrt.com/rtfactsheets.stm#Light%20Rail%20Operations
8. http://www.sacrt.com/rtfactsheets.stm#Light%20Rail%20Operations

External links

★ Sacramento Regional Transit District official website

★ Friends of Light Rail, a Sacramento light rail advocacy group

★ Pictures of LRT System at NYC Subway