The San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans) fleet of buses has operated throughout San Mateo County since 1976, after county voters approved the formation of samTrans in 1974 to merge 11 predecessor municipal bus systems.
The San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans) fleet of buses has operated throughout San Mateo County since 1976, after county voters approved the formation of samTrans in 1974 to merge 11 predecessor municipal bus systems.
As of March 2018 [update] , SamTrans operates a total of 379 vehicles in revenue service. [1] SamTrans has two maintenance facilities for its fixed-route bus fleet. SamTrans headquarters are in San Carlos, California, one block southwest from the San Carlos Caltrain station. In addition, two facilities are used by its paratransit operator, MV Transportation: one at Brewster Depot in Redwood City, and another facility in Half Moon Bay.
The samTrans livery is predominantly white with red and blue stripes. Early buses featured linear horizontal stripes, and starting with the 2009 Gillig BRTs, the stripes are curved along the sides. [2] A new variant of the livery was introduced later; the base color is silver, instead of white, and the blue stripe extends from below the front door to the beltline at the rear, with a red stripe starting from the headlight and flowing up to the roof.
Under the California Air Resources Board Innovative Clean Transit regulation adopted in December 2018, public transit agencies in California will gradually transition to a zero-emission bus fleet by 2040. [3] SamTrans has set a goal of transitioning to an all-electric fleet by 2032. [4] SamTrans considers fixed-route vehicles to have a service lifetime of 12 years. [5]
| Mfr & Model | Type | Fleet Numbers | Year Built | Qty | Image | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gillig BRT | 40-ft | 400-490 | 2009 [2] | 91 |  |
|
| 600-649 | 2017 | 50 |  | Standard rear styling | ||
| 40-ft Hybrid | 700-724 | 2013 | 25 |  | ||
| 40-ft | 900-920 | 2014 | 21 |  | ||
| 35-ft | 500-539 | 2010 [2] | 40 |  | 535-539 are assigned to contract runs, operated by MV Transportation | |
| Gillig Low Floor | 29-ft | 2900-2903 | 2009 [2] | 4 |  | No rear door. Operated by MV Transportation. Specifically used on route 17. [6] |
| 2910-2913 | 2013 | No rear door | ||||
| 2950-2961 | 2014 | 12 | ||||
| New Flyer XD60 | 60-ft artic. | 800-854 | 2019 | 55 |  |
| Mfr & Model | Type | Fleet Numbers | Year Built | Qty | Image | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Flyer XE40 (NG) | 40-ft | ? | 2021? [9] | 7 | To be operated on a new route on US 101, serving East Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Francisco International Airport, and San Bruno BART | |
| New Flyer XHE40 | 1000-1009 | 2023? [10] | 10 | To begin service in 2023 | ||
| Gillig Low Floor (battery-electric) | ? | 2023? [10] | 20 | To begin service in 2023 |
| Mfr & Model | Type | Fleet Numbers | Year Built | Qty | Preserved Unit(s) | Last Retired | Image | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Motors Old Look | 35-ft | 200-213; 215-218 | 1947 | 18 | TDH-4507 models acquired from various transit operators in 1976. | |||
| 37' 9" | 214, 219 | 2 | TDH-4801 models acquired from various transit operators in 1976. | |||||
| 30-ft | 242 | 1 | TDH-3501 model acquired from Northgate Transit in 1976. | |||||
| 28-ft | 243 | 1 | TGH-3102 model acquired from Northgate Transit in 1976. | |||||
| General Motors New Look | 35-ft | 100-137; 175-187 | 1960-67 | 51 | 1985 | TDH-4517, -4518, and -4519; T6H-4523N models acquired from various transit operators in 1976; replaced in 1985. | ||
| 40-ft | 151-167; 9801-9849 | 1960-63 | 17 | 1985 | TDH-5301 and -5303; TDM-5303 models acquired from various transit operators in 1976; replaced in 1985. | |||
| Flxible New Look | 40-ft | 150 | 1963 | 1 | 1983 | Acquired from Seattle Metro (ex-778). | ||
| AM General Metropolitan | 35-ft coach | 400-443 | 1977 | 44 | EQ1 (439), [lower-alpha 1] EQ2 (440) [lower-alpha 1] | 1990 | "Earthquake buses" EQ1 and EQ2 were retained in the contingency fleet, [11] replaced by 2017. [12] | |
| 40-ft coach | 500-529 | 30 | ||||||
| Crown-Ikarus 286 | 60-ft articulated | 700–709 | 1980 | 10 | 1992? | Placed in reserve fleet by 1985. | ||
| Flyer D900 | 35-ft coach | 300-359 | 1980 | 60 | 1994 | Some were transferred to Muni to serve in the reserve fleet. They retained the samTrans fleet number with an "R" appended. | ||
| 40-ft coach | 600-652 | 53 | ||||||
| Gillig Phantom | 40-ft coach | 400-437 | 1990 | 38 | 2004 |  | ||
| 600-665; 667-672 | 1998 | 72 | 635, [lower-alpha 2] DR1 (651), DR2 (637) | 2015 | 635, 637 (DR2), and 651 (DR1) retained in contingency fleet for marketing & outreach, replacing AM General EQ1/EQ2 (1977) and Gillig 852 (1984). [12] [11] | |||
| 800-821 | 1983 | 22 | 1998 | |||||
| 850-899 | 1984 | 50 | 852 [lower-alpha 3] | 2003 | 852 replaced as marketing/outreach bus by 635. | |||
| 900-972 | 1993 | 73 | 2010 [2] | Overhauled and life extended to 2008/10. [15] | ||||
| 9890-9895 | 1988 | 6 | 2006 | Initially designated for training service. | ||||
| 35-ft coach | 700-763 | 1993 | 64 | 2010 [2] | Overhauled and life extended to 2008/10. [15] | |||
| 40-ft suburban | 800-810 | 2003 | 11 | 2008 | Ordered without rear doors; originally intended for route REX (Regional EXpress). | |||
| Volvo B10M | 60-ft articulated | 100-114 | 1985 | 15 | 2002-03 | Scrapped | ||
| Neoplan USA AN460A | 60-ft articulated | 116-130 | 1985 | 15 | 2002 | Assigned to contract runs originally operated by Greyhound Peninsula Lines until 1990, Grosvenor Bus Lines until the early 2000's and finally MV Transportation. They sported "9" in front of their fleet numbers. (9)129 was totaled in an accident in 1995 and was scrapped.[2][3] Retired circa 2002-2003. All units were scrapped. | ||
| NFI D60 | 60-ft articulated | 500-539 | 1990 | 40 | 2004 | 500-529 were originally assigned to contract runs, operated by Grosvenor Bus Lines until the early 2000's and later MV Transportation. They sported "9" in front of their fleet numbers. Most units ranging from 509-529 returned to the district shortly before retirement. Retired in 2003-2004. Equipped with Detroit Diesel Series 92 (6V92) engines. [16] | ||
| Gillig Low Floor | 40-ft coach | 300-359 | 2003-04 | 60 | 2017 |  | 300-359 equipped with Detroit Diesel Series 50 engines. [16] | |
| NABI 436 (60-SFW) | 60 ft. High-floor Articulated bus | 100–154 (0200-0254) | 2002 | 55 | 2020 [17] |  | Last NABI 436 buses built. First units entered service on 11/4/2002 and the last units entered service in January 2003. 147-154 were operated by MV Transportation for contracted routes. Later 141-146 were assigned to contracted routes. 137-140 were temporarily assigned to contracted runs, but later returned to the district. | |
| Proterra Catalyst | 40-ft, E2 battery | 725–734 [18] | 2018-20 | 10 | 2020 | First battery electric buses for samTrans. [19] Replica #750 exhibited in Oct 2018. [20] 2 of 2 "Lot 1" (400V) buses accepted, then retired due to technical issues; [21] 6 of 8 "Lot 2" (800V) buses delivered, then returned due to door issues. [21] Remainder of order canceled. [22] |
Caltrain is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley. The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as far as Gilroy. The northern terminus of the line is in San Francisco at 4th and King Streets. Caltrain has 28 regular stops, one limited-service weekday-only stop, one weekend-only stop (Broadway), and one football-only stop (Stanford). While average weekday ridership in 2019 exceeded 63,000, impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been significant: in August 2022, Caltrain had an average weekday ridership of 18,600 passengers.
AC Transit is an Oakland-based public transit agency serving the western portions of Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. AC Transit also operates "Transbay" routes across San Francisco Bay to San Francisco and selected areas in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. AC Transit is constituted as a special district under California law. It is governed by seven elected members. It is not a part of or under the control of Alameda or Contra Costa counties or any local jurisdictions.
Hillsborough Area Regional Transit provides public transportation for Hillsborough County, Florida. The agency provides fixed-route local and express bus service, door-to-door paratransit service (HARTplus), flex-route neighborhood connector service (HARTflex), a lightened version of bus rapid transit (MetroRapid), and manages the TECO Line Streetcar system.
SamTrans is a public transport agency in and around San Mateo, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It provides bus service throughout San Mateo County and into portions of San Francisco and Palo Alto. SamTrans also operates commuter shuttles to BART stations and community shuttles. Service is largely concentrated on the east side of the Santa Cruz Mountains, and, in the central county, I-280, leaving coast-side service south of Pacifica spotty and intermittent.
RTC Transit is the name of the bus system in the Las Vegas metropolitan area of Clark County, Nevada. It is a subsidiary of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada. While it services most of Clark County with regularly scheduled routes, most of the service is in the immediate Las Vegas Valley; outlying places such as Mesquite and Laughlin provide transit services to their residents via the Southern Nevada Transit Coalition, which uses several vehicles acquired from RTC Transit. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 46,406,800, or about 125,300 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2022.
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The Greater Lafayette Public Transportation Corporation (GLPTC) is a municipal corporation founded in 1971 that provides bus services in Tippecanoe County, Indiana under the operating name of CityBus. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 3,597,200, or about 14,500 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2022.
Metrobus is a bus service operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). Its fleet consists of 1,595 buses covering an area of 1,500 square miles (3,900 km2) in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. There are 269 bus routes serving 11,129 stops, including 2,554 bus shelters. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 90,123,200, or about 321,300 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2022.
Ride On is the primary public transportation system in Montgomery County, Maryland. Managed by the Montgomery County Department of Transportation, Ride On serves Montgomery County as well as the community of Langley Park in Prince George's County and Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C. In fiscal 2018, it operated on a US$112.3 million budget. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 13,848,200, or about 43,600 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2022.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority operates a vast fleet of buses for its Metro Bus and Metro Busway services. As of September 2019, Metro has the third largest bus fleet in North America with 2,320 buses.
Metro Transit operates a bus service throughout the City of Madison, Wisconsin, United States and most of its immediate suburbs, including the City of Middleton, Fitchburg, Maple Bluff, Shorewood Hills, Sun Prairie, Verona, and a small portion of McFarland. System-wide, fixed route ridership was 13,385,628 in 2018. Metro Transit also provides supplemental transit services to some Madison middle and high schools. Several schools have switched to yellow buses in 2019. These routes are open to the general public, but have been designed to provide additional services during peak school times. Metro also serves the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus, Eagle Heights University apartments, and some off-campus residential areas, via routes 80, 81, 82, and 84. The "80 routes" are free of charge.
The Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation, branded as IndyGo, is a public transit agency and municipal corporation of the City of Indianapolis in the U.S. state of Indiana. It operates fixed-route buses, bus rapid transit, microtransit, and paratransit services.
Broward County Transit is the public transit agency in Broward County, Florida. It is the second-largest transit system in Florida after Miami-Dade Transit. It currently operates the only public bus system in Broward County. Besides serving Broward County, It also serves portions of Palm Beach County and Miami-Dade County, where it overlaps its service with Miami-Dade Transit and Palm Tran.
The Orion VII was a line of low-floor transit buses available in 30' rigid, 35' rigid, and 40' rigid lengths manufactured by Daimler Buses North America's subsidiary Orion Bus Industries between 2001 and 2013 in three generations. The conventional powered buses, either with longitudinally-mounted diesel or natural gas engines, used a T-drive transmission coupling. A series hybrid variant powered by a diesel-driven generator was also available. The Orion VII replaced the fully low-floor Orion VI and high-floor Orion V buses, and was manufactured until its parent company DaimlerChrysler withdrew from the transit bus market in 2013.
The Gillig Low Floor is a transit bus manufactured by Gillig since 1997. The second low-floor bus design introduced in the United States, the Low Floor originally served as a second product range for the company alongside the Gillig Phantom. As transit bus operators shifted toward low-floor designs, the Low Floor has replaced the Phantom entirely, becoming the sole vehicle platform offered by the company since 2008.
The Seattle trolleybus system forms part of the public transportation network in the city of Seattle, Washington, operated by King County Metro. Originally opened on April 28, 1940, the network consists of 15 routes, with 174 trolleybuses operating on 68 miles (109 km) of two-way parallel overhead lines. As of the fourth quarter of 2022, the system carries riders on an average of 35,400 trips per weekday, comprising about 18 percent of King County Metro's total daily ridership. At present in Seattle, a very common alternative term for trolleybus is trolley.
The New Flyer Xcelsior is a line of transit buses available in 35-foot rigid, 40-foot rigid, and 60-foot articulated nominal lengths manufactured by New Flyer Industries since 2008. In addition to the different available lengths, the buses are sold with a variety of propulsion systems: conventional diesel, compressed natural gas (CNG), diesel-electric hybrid, hydrogen fuel cell, overhead electric wire and battery electric. A future autonomous bus variant was announced in January 2021.
The New Flyer Low Floor is a line of low-floor transit buses that was manufactured by New Flyer Industries between 1991 and 2014. It was available in 30-foot rigid, 35-foot rigid, 40-foot rigid, and 60-foot articulated lengths. In addition to the different available lengths, the buses were sold with a variety of prime movers, ranging from conventional diesel and CNG combustion engines to diesel-electric hybrid, gasoline hybrid, and hydrogen fuel cell. The New Flyer Low Floor was restyled in 2005, resulting in two distinct variants: the Low Floor Restyled (LFR), which largely replaced the conventional Low Floor for transit service, and the Low Floor Advanced (LFA), which was intended for bus rapid transit service. New Flyer introduced the Invero in 1999 with the intent that it would replace the Low Floor line, but few were sold; in 2008, New Flyer introduced the Xcelsior, and the Low Floor line was discontinued by 2014.
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The ENC Axess is a line of low-floor transit buses available in 35-foot and 40-foot nominal lengths manufactured by ENC in Riverside, California starting from 2003. In addition to the different available lengths, the buses are sold with a variety of prime movers, ranging from conventional diesel, LNG/CNG combustion engines, diesel-electric hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell with a traction motor.
