Parent | Council of San Benito County Governments (SBCOG) |
---|---|
Founded | 1975 / 1990 |
Headquarters | 330 Tres Pinos Rd Ste C7 |
Locale | Hollister, CA |
Service type | Bus service, Dial-a-Ride |
Routes | 3 |
Annual ridership | 31,487 (2021) [1] |
Website | Official website |
The San Benito County Local Transportation Authority (LTA) is the public transportation agency of San Benito County, California, immediately south of Silicon Valley (Santa Clara County). LTA provides fixed route inter-county and intra-city service as San Benito County Express; the Intracounty routes connect destinations in Hollister and San Juan Bautista to Gilroy in Santa Clara County, while the Tripper routes connect destinations within Hollister. LTA also provides demand-responsive dial-a-ride service within selected areas of northern San Benito County as County Express On-Demand.
The first public transit agency in San Benito County was named San Tran, which was operated by the City of Hollister from March 1975 to March 1990. In June 1990, the San Benito County Local Transportation Authority (LTA) was created as a joint powers agency by the county and the two incorporated cities, Hollister and San Juan Bautista. [2] : 17
Bus service is exclusive to northern San Benito County, where the LTA operates and administers County Express, providing fixed-route local bus service in the city of Hollister; regional fixed-route bus service between Hollister, San Juan Bautista, and Gilroy; and dial-a-ride service in northern San Benito County.
County Express offers Intercounty routes that connect Hollister and San Juan Bautista to Gilroy, where riders may transfer to Caltrain, Santa Clara VTA, Monterey-Salinas Transit, or Greyhound Buses. [3] The traditional commute direction is north to Gilroy; buses depart from Vets Park in Hollister, traveling through downtown Hollister along California State Route 156 to San Juan Bautista, stopping at Abbe Park and Anzar High School, then continuing north along U.S. 101 to Gilroy. At Gilroy, one of three terminal stops is made: [2] : 34 [4] [5]
Some weekday trips (Caltrain and Gavilan College service) bypass San Juan Bautista by traveling on SR 25. All trips that stop at Gavilan College continue on to the Caltrain depot. [2] : 34
Local bus service in Hollister is branded as the Tripper, [6] which operates a single loop route that runs anti-clockwise and takes approximately 60 minutes to complete. [7] The Intercounty and Tripper routes share a stop near the Hollister branch campus of Gavilan College, at 4th and San Benito.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in California, intracity fixed routes in Hollister used three color-coded lines: red, green, and blue. The green and blue ran in a loop through Hollister, the green line running clockwise and the blue line running counter-clockwise. The red line operated north–south from the south side of the loop, continuing to its terminus near the City of Hollister Municipal Airport. All three routes started from the same point near Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital. [2] : 31
San Benito County, officially the County of San Benito, is a county located in the Coast Range Mountains of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 64,209. The county seat is Hollister.
Hollister is a city in and the county seat of San Benito County, California, in Central California. With a 2020 United States census population of 41,678, Hollister is one of the largest cities in the Monterey Bay Area and a member of the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments. The city is an agricultural town known primarily for its local Blenheim apricots, olive oil, vineyards, pomegranates, and chocolate.
Gilroy is a city in Northern California's Santa Clara County, south of Morgan Hill and north of San Benito County. Gilroy is the southernmost city in the San Francisco Bay Area, with a population of 56,766 as of the 2019 U.S. Census Projections.
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.
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, more commonly known simply as the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), is a special district responsible for public transit services, congestion management, specific highway improvement projects, and countywide transportation planning for Santa Clara County, California. It serves San Jose, California, and the surrounding Silicon Valley. It is one of the governing parties for the Caltrain commuter rail line that serves the county. In 2021, the VTA's public transportation services had a combined ridership of 14,312,200, or about 65,600 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2022.
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.
Dumbarton Express is a regional public transit service in the San Francisco Bay Area connecting Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties via the Dumbarton Bridge, the system's namesake. The bus service is funded by a consortium of five transit agencies. Dumbarton Express is administered by AC Transit and operated under contract by MV Transportation.
The Blue Line is a light rail line in Santa Clara County, California, and part of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) light rail system. It serves 26 stations entirely in the city of San Jose traveling between Baypointe and Santa Teresa stations, stopping at San Jose International Airport, Downtown San Jose, San Jose State University, and the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose along the way. The line connects to Caltrain at Tamien. The Blue Line is one of three lines in the VTA Light Rail system; the other two being the Green Line and the Orange Line.
San Jose Diridon station is the central passenger rail depot for San Jose, California. It also serves as a major intermodal transit center for Santa Clara County and Silicon Valley. The station is named after former Santa Clara County Supervisor Rod Diridon.
The All Nighter is a night bus service network in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Portions of the service shadow the rapid transit and commuter rail services of BART and Caltrain, which are the major rail services between San Francisco, the East Bay, the Peninsula, and San Jose. Neither BART nor Caltrain operate owl service due to overnight track maintenance; the All Nighter network helps fill in this service gap. The slogan is, "Now transit stays up as late as you do!"
Tamien station is an intermodal passenger transportation station in the Tamien neighborhood of central San Jose, California, served by the VTA light rail and the Caltrain commuter rail line, along with bus connections. The station has two elevated island platforms, one for each service. The two platforms are connected by a walkway at ground-level that is below the two platforms. The light rail platform is located in the center median of the State Route 87 freeway just north of the Alma Avenue overpass. The Caltrain platform is located between Lick Avenue and State Route 87, just north of Alma Avenue.
Santa Clara Transit Center is a railway station in downtown Santa Clara, California. It is served by Caltrain, Amtrak Capitol Corridor, and Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) trains. It is the planned terminus for the Silicon Valley BART extension into Santa Clara County. The former station building, constructed in 1863 by the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad, is used by the Edward Peterman Museum of Railroad History.
Gilroy station is a Caltrain station located in Gilroy, California, United States. It is the southernmost terminus of the Caltrain system, and is only served during weekday rush hours in the peak direction, with trains going toward San Francisco in the morning and returning southbound in the evening. The station building was constructed by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1913 and restored in 1998. Future plans call for extended Amtrak Capitol Corridor service to also stop at Gilroy. The station was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2019 as Gilroy Southern Pacific Railroad Depot.
VTA Light Rail is a light rail system in San Jose and nearby cities in Santa Clara County, California. It is operated by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, or VTA, and consists of 42.2 miles (67.9 km) of network comprising three main lines on standard gauge tracks. Originally opened on December 11, 1987, the light rail system has gradually expanded since then, and currently has 60 stations in operation.
The Highway 17 Express is an Amtrak Thruway route provided by a consortium of entities that provides regional service between San Jose and Santa Cruz County in the South Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. The service is so called because it travels on California State Route 17. It is operated by the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District.
The Eastridge Transit Center is a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) bus terminal located at the Eastridge Mall in the Evergreen District of San Jose, California. The station is located alongside Capitol Expressway near Tully Road.
The Orange Line is a light rail line in Santa Clara County, California, and part of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) light rail system. It serves 26 stations in the cities of Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Jose, and Milpitas, traveling between Downtown Mountain View and Alum Rock stations, stopping at Ames Research Center, Great America, and Levi's Stadium along the way. The line connects to Caltrain at Mountain View and to the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system at Milpitas station. The line runs for 20 hours per day on weekdays, with headways of 15 minutes for most of the day. On weekends, the train runs at 20-minute headways for most of the day. After around 8 pm on weekdays and weekends trains run at 30-minute headways.
The Monterey County Rail Extension is a planned commuter rail extension that would bring Caltrain passenger service south of its existing Gilroy, California terminus to Salinas in Monterey County, using the existing Coast Line owned by Union Pacific (UPRR). Implementation of the rail extension will occur over three phases, starting from Salinas and moving north. When construction is complete, there will be four trains operated over the extended line per weekday: two northbound trains that depart from Salinas and travel to San Francisco in the morning, and two southbound trains that return to Salinas in the afternoon.