Headquarters | 110 Vernon Street Santa Cruz, California |
---|---|
Service area | Santa Cruz County |
Service type | |
Stations | Amtrak – METRO Center/Pacific Station, 920 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz 36°58′15.3″N122°01′29.8″W / 36.970917°N 122.024944°W |
Daily ridership | 8,300 (weekdays, Q3 2023) [1] |
Annual ridership | 3,097,100 (2022) [2] |
Website | scmtd |
Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District (SCMTD), or simply Santa Cruz METRO, provides bus service throughout Santa Cruz County, California. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 3,097,100, or about 8,300 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2023.
Santa Cruz METRO also operates the Highway 17 Express service for Amtrak Thruway between the city of Santa Cruz and San Jose Diridon station, in partnership with Amtrak California and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority.
Santa Cruz METRO was created in 1968 as a special district within Santa Cruz County with taxing authority. [3] Service was initially to the cities of Santa Cruz, Capitola and Live Oak. Santa Cruz METRO extended service to Watsonville, Scotts Valley and the San Lorenzo Valley in 1974.
In 1979, voters approved a measure to change the financing of Santa Cruz METRO from a property tax to a 1/2 cent sales tax.
The Amtrak Thruway Highway 17 Express service between Santa Cruz and San Jose started as an emergency bus service after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake closed Highway 17.
A strike in September 2005 lasted for 35 days and stranded up to 23,000 riders. [4]
In 2011 fixed route service was severely cut then restored mere months later. [5]
In 2012 Santa Cruz METRO received grant funding to construct the Judy K. Souza Operations Facility. [6]
Santa Cruz County, officially the County of Santa Cruz, is a county on the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 270,861. The county seat is Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz County comprises the Santa Cruz–Watsonville, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area. The county is on the California Central Coast, south of the San Francisco Bay Area region. The county forms the northern coast of the Monterey Bay, with Monterey County forming the southern coast.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), branded as Metro, is the county agency that plans, operates, and coordinates funding for most of the public transportation system in Los Angeles County, California, the most populated county in the United States.
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 2022, the VTA's public transportation services had a combined ridership of 21,381,600, or about 84,800 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2023.
Los Angeles has a complex multimodal transportation infrastructure, which serves as a regional, national and international hub for passenger and freight traffic. The system includes the United States' largest port complex; an extensive freight and passenger rail infrastructure, including light rail lines and rapid transit lines; numerous airports and bus lines; vehicle for hire companies; and an extensive freeway and road system. People in Los Angeles rely on cars as the dominant mode of transportation, but since 1990 the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has built over one hundred miles (160 km) of light and heavy rail serving more and more parts of Los Angeles and the greater area of Los Angeles County. As a result, Los Angeles was the last major city in the United States to get a permanent rail system installed.
Amtrak Thruway is a system of through-ticketed transportation services to connect passengers with areas not served by Amtrak trains. In most cases these are dedicated motorcoach routes, but can also be non-dedicated intercity bus services, transit buses, vans, taxis, ferry boats and commuter rail trains.
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 Sr.
People in the San Francisco Bay Area rely on a complex multimodal transportation infrastructure consisting of roads, bridges, highways, rail, tunnels, airports, seaports, and bike and pedestrian paths. The development, maintenance, and operation of these different modes of transportation are overseen by various agencies, including the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the Association of Bay Area Governments, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. These and other organizations collectively manage several interstate highways and state routes, eight passenger rail networks, eight trans-bay bridges, transbay ferry service, local and transbay bus service, three international airports, and an extensive network of roads, tunnels, and bike paths.
City of Santa Clarita Transit is a local bus service, administered by the City's transit division, that serves the City of Santa Clarita, California and nearby surrounding unincorporated areas. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 2,111,800, or about 9,000 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2023. Daily operations and maintenance of the fleet are under contract with MV Transportation. City of Santa Clarita Transit routes connect with services operated by Metro and Metrolink.
Chatsworth station is an intermodal passenger transport station in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Chatsworth, United States. It is served by Amtrak inter-city rail service, Metrolink commuter rail service, Los Angeles Metro Busway bus rapid transit, and several transit bus operators.
The Minnesota Valley Transit Authority, also known by the acronym MVTA, is a public transportation agency that serves seven communities in the southern portion of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. The agency provides fixed-route and demand-responsive transit within the service area of the communities and to select destinations in the region.
Bakersfield station is an intermodal facility in Bakersfield, California. It is the southern terminus of Amtrak California's San Joaquins route, with Amtrak Thruway buses continuing to Amtrak stations and bus stops throughout Southern California and Nevada. The station opened with a celebration on July 4, 2000. It contains an 8,300-square-foot (770 m2) train station with two platforms and three tracks, as well as a 17-bay bus station.
Newhall station is an intermodal hub in the Newhall neighborhood of Santa Clarita, California. The station is served by Metrolink's Antelope Valley Line operating between Los Angeles Union Station and Lancaster, Amtrak Thruway buses connecting to/from San Joaquins trains in Bakersfield, and serves as a transfer point in the City of Santa Clarita Transit bus system.
Norwalk Transit is a municipal transit company providing fixed-route and paratransit bus transit services in Norwalk, California, United States, and also operates in portions of Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, La Habra, La Mirada, Santa Fe Springs and Whittier in southeast Los Angeles County and northwestern Orange County. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 851,800, or about 4,000 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2023.
VCTC Intercity is a public transit agency providing bus service in Ventura County, California. It provides an intercity bus service between the cities of Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Santa Paula, and Fillmore in Ventura County, and to communities in neighboring Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties. The agency is part of the Ventura County Transportation Commission, a governmental body that oversees transportation planning and funding in Ventura County. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 349,500, or about 1,400 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2023.
The Santa Fe Passenger Depot, also known as Fresno station, is an historic railroad station and transportation hub in downtown Fresno, California. It is served by San Joaquins inter-city passenger trains, Greyhound inter-city buses, and regional transit services including Fresno Area Express and the Fresno County Rural Transit Agency.
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.
Metro Busway is a system of bus rapid transit (BRT) routes that operate primarily along exclusive or semi-exclusive roadways known locally as a busway or transitway. There are currently two lines serving 29 stations in the system, the G Line in the San Fernando Valley, and the J Line between El Monte, Downtown Los Angeles and Gardena, with some trips continuing to San Pedro. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) operates the system.
Transportation in the Las Vegas Valley including the cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson is a multi-faceted system. The street system is mostly laid out in a north-south/east-west system of roads. While most residents rely on cars, there is a network of bus routes reaching some areas of the county. The Las Vegas Valley, being the one of the largest tourist destinations in the world, has a mass transportation system which favors the Las Vegas Strip.
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.