Parent | Tulare County Association of Governments (TCAG) |
---|---|
Founded | August 17, 2020 |
Service area | Tulare County, California |
Service type | Bus service, Dial-a-Ride |
Routes | 27 [1] |
Destinations | Intercity and local routes in Tulare County |
Hubs | Dinuba Transit Center, Porterville Transit Center, Tulare Transit Center, Visalia Transit Center |
Website | tularecog |
The Tulare County Regional Transit Agency (TCRTA) is a joint powers agency formed by all the cities in Tulare County, California (except Visalia) alongside the county government on August 17, 2020. It operates the public transportation systems within and connecting the respective member agencies, including the legacy systems Dinuba Area Regional Transit (DART, in Dinuba), Porterville Transit (PT, Porterville), Tulare InterModal Express (TIME, in the City of Tulare), and Tulare County Area Transit (TCaT, intercity routes). It is the largest single public transit agency in Tulare County.
The cities of Exeter, Farmersville, Lindsay, Porterville, Tulare, and Woodlake in partnership with the County of Tulare were the initial seven member agencies of TCRTA, which was formed by unanimously adopting the draft by-laws on August 17, 2020. [2] In September 2020, Dinuba joined TCRTA as the eighth member. [3] : 5–6 Collectively, these represent all the cities within Tulare County with the sole exception of Visalia, the largest city and county seat, which has chosen to retain its independent Visalia Transit agency. The consolidation is expected to result in uniform fares, more efficient routes, and easier intercity travel within Tulare County. [4]
Memoranda of understanding (MoU) were signed between TCRTA and the cities of Dinuba, Tulare, and Woodlake at the May 17, 2021 TCRTA Board of Directors meeting, transferring ownership, operation, and administration of public transportation systems in those cities to TCRTA. [5] : 27–44, 53–88 A similar MoU for Porterville signed at the same May meeting effectively allowed that city to provide transit operations and maintenance services for Woodlake. [5] : 45–52 The first legacy system to transition to TCRTA administration was the bus service in Woodlake, starting on July 1, 2021. [6] Porterville Transit loaned several minivans to Woodlake, replacing the minibuses that previously were operated by that city. [4]
TCRTA has assumed operation of legacy fixed routes from Dinuba (DART), Porterville (Porterville Transit), the City of Tulare (TIME), and Tulare County (TCaT). Prefixes designate the legacy system from which the route was inherited.
Route | Name | Legacy system | Terminus | via | Terminus | Typ. headway (mins.) | Notes / Refs. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DC | Dinuba Connection | DART | Dinuba Transit Center | Tulare WORKS, Reedley Shopping Center, Adventist Health Reedley, Reedley College, Palm Village, Reedley DMV | Dinuba Transit Center | 60 (weekday) | Alternative name: Dinuba / Reedley Route [7] [8] |
C10 | North County | TCaT | Visalia (Visalia Transit Center) | Seville, Cutler, East Orosi, Orosi, Sultana | Dinuba (Dinuba Transit Center) | 60 (weekday) 120 (weekend) | [9] [10] |
C20 | South County | TCaT | Tulare (Tulare Transit Center) | Matheny Tract, Tipton, Pixley, Teviston, Earlimart, Delano | Richgrove | 60–90 (weekday) 150 (weekend) | [11] [12] |
C30 | Northeast County | TCaT | Visalia (Visalia Transit Center) | Ivanhoe, Woodlake, Lemon Cove, Three Rivers | Visalia (Visalia Transit Center) | 30 (weekday) 70 (weekend) | [13] [14] |
C40 | Southeast County | TCaT | Visalia (Tulare County Gov't Plaza) | Tulare, Lindsay, Strathmore | Porterville (Porterville Transit Center) | 65 (weekday) 120 (weekend) | Free transfer to Visalia Transit Route 1, connects to Visalia Transit Center [15] [16] |
C50 | Dinuba – London – Traver – Delft Colony | TCaT | Dinuba (Kmart) | London, Traver, Delft Colony, Dinuba Transit Center | Dinuba (Kmart) | 70–240 (wkdy) 60–180 (Sat) | [17] [18] |
C60 | Lindsay | TCaT | Lindsay | Savemart/McDonalds, Wellness Center, E. Tulare Rd & Lafayette Ave, City Hall | Lindsay | 30 (weekday) | [19] [20] |
C70 | Porterville – Springville | TCaT | Porterville (Porterville Transit Center) | Springville | Porterville (Porterville Transit Center) | 360 (weekday) | [21] [22] |
C80 | Porterville – Terra Bella – Ducor | TCaT | Porterville (Porterville Transit Center) | Terra Bella, Ducor | Porterville (Porterville Transit Center) | 360 (weekday) | [23] [24] |
C90 | Lindsay – Strathmore – Plainview – Woodville – Poplar – Porterville | TCaT | Lindsay (McDonalds) | Plainview, Woodville, Cotton Center, Poplar, Strathmore | Porterville (Porterville Transit Center) | 90–270 (weekday) | [25] [26] |
D1 | Dollar Tree – Tropicana Market – Viscaya Gardens | DART | Dinuba Transit Center | Surabian Dr, El Monte Way, Alta Ave | Dinuba Transit Center | 60 (M–Sa) | Western segment of legacy "Jolly Trolley". [7] [27] |
D2 | Senior Center – Northpark Apts – Mercantile Row | DART | Dinuba Transit Center | Alta Ave, Nebraska Ave, El Monte Way | Dinuba Transit Center | 60 (M–Sa) | Previously named "North Route". [7] [28] |
D3 | Jefferson School – Rancho Vista – DPW | DART | Dinuba Transit Center | El Monte Way, Road 88, Kamm Ave, M | Dinuba Transit Center | 60 (M-Sa) | Abbreviated from "South Route". [7] [29] |
D4 | Walmart – Housing Authority – Delgado Park | DART | Dinuba Transit Center | Surabian Dr, El Monte Way, College Ave, Kamm Ave, Greene Ave | Dinuba Transit Center | 60 (M–Sa) | Interior segment of "South Route". [7] [30] |
P1 | Sierra View District Hospital | PT | Porterville Transit Center | South County Justice Center, Porterville High School, Burton Elementary | Porterville Transit Center | 40 | [31] [32] |
P2 | Monache High School | PT | Porterville Transit Center | Porterville Library, Wal-Mart Shopping Center, Porterville Adult School, Monte Vista Elementary | Porterville Transit Center | 40 | [33] [34] |
P3 | East Porterville | PT | Porterville Transit Center | Vallarta Super Market, East Porterville, Alta Vista School, Granite Hills High School, Porterville Municipal Golf Course, Santa Fe Apartments | Porterville Transit Center | 40 | [35] [36] |
P4 | Porterville College | PT | Porterville Transit Center | Porterville Heritage Center, Santa Fe School, LB Learning Center, Porterville Developmental Center, Golden Hills Mobile Estates, Vandalia Elementary, Pioneer Middle School | Porterville Transit Center | 40 | [37] [38] |
P5 | Veterans Park | PT | Porterville Transit Center | Westwood Ave, Target Shopping Center, Government Plaza, Galaxy 9 Theaters, Zalud Park | Porterville Transit Center | 40 | [39] [40] |
P6 | Family HealthCare Network | PT | Porterville Transit Center | Sierra View District Hospital, Lowes and Home Depot Shopping Center, Holiday Inn Express, Porterville Sheltered Workshop | Porterville Transit Center | 40 | [41] [42] |
T1 | North Tulare | TIME | Tulare Transit Center | Regional Medical Center, Sports Park, Pleasant School, Maple School | Tulare Transit Center | 30 (M–Sa) 60 (Sun) | [43] [44] |
T2 | Southeast Tulare | TIME | Tulare Transit Center | Martin Luther King, Bardsley, Blackstone | Tulare Transit Center | 30 (M–Sa) 60 (Sun) | [43] [45] |
T3 | West Tulare | TIME | Tulare Transit Center | Westside Community Health Clinic, Senior Center, Skate Park | Tulare Transit Center | 30 (M–Sa) 60 (Sun) | [43] [46] |
T4 | Northeast Tulare | TIME | Tulare Transit Center | CVS, Target, Walmart | Tulare Transit Center | 30 (M–Sa) 60 (Sun) | [43] [47] |
T5 | Southwest Tulare | TIME | Tulare Transit Center | Bardsley, K St, Hillman Clinic, City Hall | Tulare Transit Center | 30 (M–Sa) 60 (Sun) | [43] [48] |
T7 | East Tulare | TIME | Tulare Transit Center | Mooney, Cos Tulare, Kohn School | Tulare Transit Center | 30 (M–Sa) 60 (Sun) | [43] [49] |
T11X | Tulare to Visalia Express | TIME | Tulare Transit Center | J St, SR 99, SR 198 | Visalia Transit Center | 60 | [43] [50] |
Under Dinuba Area Regional Transit (DART), Dinuba operated four routes, including one longer-distance route ("Dinuba Connection") connecting Dinuba to Reedley in Fresno County, two flexible routes ("North" and "South") allowing deviations to serve dial-a-ride passengers between nominal fixed route stops, and a fare-free single fixed route ("Jolly Trolley") serving popular businesses. [51]
The City of Exeter began operating a dial-a-ride intracity on-demand transit service in 1991. Service to its larger neighbor Visalia is provided by Visalia Transit. [52] On July 1, 2017, Visalia Transit took over intracity dial-a-ride services within Exeter. [53] The steep fare increase, from $1 under Exeter to $2.25 under Visalia, resulted in citizens berating the City Council. [4]
The City of Farmersville also relied on Visalia Transit for public transportation connections to Visalia, with Farmersville compensating Visalia annually from its transportation funding allocation. [54]
Dial-a-ride services within Lindsay were provided under annual agreements with Tulare County. [55] : Res.19-13 TCaT also provided service for circulation within Lindsay (Route 60) [19] and connections to Porterville and the neighboring unincorporated communities of Plainview, Poplar-Cotton Center, Strathmore, and Woodville (Route 90). [25]
Porterville Transit operates six fixed routes within Porterville; there were nine fixed routes prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, with one of the fixed routes providing service to the Tule River Indian Reservation.
The City of Tulare operated the Tulare InterModal Express (TIME) transit service, which provided six fixed routes within Tulare and one express route, jointly operated with Visalia Transit, that connected those two cities. [56] [57] The six fixed routes within Tulare were named for their geographical coverage (#1 Northwest; #2 Southeast; #3 West; #4 Northeast; #5 Southwest; and #7 East); all routes, including Tulare–Visalia service (#11X) met at the central Tulare Transit Center (360 N. K St). [58] Sunday service was added in 2015. [59]
Tulare County Area Transit (TCaT) provided mainly intercity routes, linking cities and communities within Tulare County.
Woodlake operated a dial-a-ride service within the city limits and unincorporated areas of the county starting in 1999; fixed intercity routes serving Woodlake were previously operated by Orange Belt Stages and TCaT. [60] : 14
The Woodlake dial-a-ride service typically operated one of the city's three 16-passenger cutaway minibuses with the other two left in reserve. [60] : 17 The Woodlake city bus connected with TCaT Route 30 at the Whitney Transit Center, which opened in October 2013 at 201 E Lakeview in downtown Woodlake; [61] in total, there were four bus shelters: one at Whitney and the others at local schools (Woodlake High School, F.J. White Learning Center, and Castle Rock Elementary). [60] : 18–20
Each member agency appoints one elected official and one alternate representative to serve on the TCRTA Board of Directors. TCRTA holds one meeting per month, scheduled for the third Monday at 3 PM. [62]
The Tulare County Transit Operations and Maintenance Facility (TOMF) held a grand opening on September 23, 2021. The TOMF can accommodate up to 25 buses with a 26,000 sq ft (2,400 m2) building that includes administration, operations, dispatch, and maintenance facilities. [63] It is located near the county's Visalia Road Yard, at the intersection of Avenues 256 (Sierra) and 140 (South Lover's Lane). [64]
Tulare County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 473,117. The county seat is Visalia. The county is named for Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes. Drained for agricultural development, the site is now in Kings County, which was created in 1893 from the western portion of the formerly larger Tulare County.
Visalia is a city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California. The population was 141,384 as per the 2020 census. Visalia is the fifth-largest city in the San Joaquin Valley, the 40th most populous in California, and 192nd in the United States. As the county seat of Tulare County, Visalia serves as the economic and governmental center to one of the most productive agricultural counties in the country.
College of the Sequoias (COS) is a public two-year community college in Visalia, California. The college is named for the Giant Sequoia trees native to the nearby Sierra Nevada mountain range.
Area code 559 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan for the central San Joaquin Valley in central California. The numbering plan area includes the counties of Fresno, Madera, Kings, and Tulare, an area largely coextensive with the Fresno and Visalia-Porterville metropolitan areas. The area code was placed in service in 1998, when its services area was split from that of area code 209.
The San Joaquin Valley Railroad is one of several short line railroad companies and is part of the Western Region Division of Genesee & Wyoming Inc. It operates over about 371 miles (597 km) of owned or leased track primarily on several lines in California's Central Valley/San Joaquin Valley around Fresno and Bakersfield. The SJVR has trackage rights over Union Pacific between Fresno, Goshen, Famoso, Bakersfield and Algoso. The SJVR also operated for the Tulare Valley Railroad (TVRR) from Calwa to Corcoran and Famoso.
Orange Belt Stages was a bus company based in Visalia, California, affiliated with the Trailways Transportation System. The company was incorporated on November 30, 1935, and operated scheduled service in California as well as charter services. The company ceased operations in 2020 as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism.
California's 21st congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California. It is located in the San Joaquin Valley and includes parts of Fresno County and Tulare County. Cities in the district include the majority of Fresno, the north side of Visalia, and all of Sanger, Selma, Kingsburg, Parlier, Reedley, Orange Cove, Dinuba, Orosi, Cutler, Farmersville, Woodlake and Exeter. The district is currently represented by Democrat Jim Costa.
The Visalia Electric Railroad, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), began as an electric interurban railroad in Tulare County, in the U.S. State of California. The railroad was incorporated on April 22, 1904. Passenger service was discontinued in 1924, and the electrification was removed in 1944. Subsequent operation was by diesel locomotive. The railroad was closed in 1992.
There are 45 routes assigned to the "J" zone of the California Route Marker Program, which designates county routes in California. The "J" zone includes county highways in Alameda, Calaveras, Contra Costa, Fresno, Kern, Inyo, Mariposa, Merced, Sacramento, San Benito, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Tulare counties.
The intercity transportation system in Visalia serves as a regional hub for passenger and freight traffic in the Sequoia Valley, composed of freeways, roads, and bus lines.
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The East Sequoia League is a high school athletic league that is part of the CIF Central Section.
The Cross Valley Corridor is a proposed passenger rail service in the California Central Valley, connecting Visalia, Hanford, Porterville, and surrounding cities to each other and California High-Speed Rail's planned Kings–Tulare Regional Station.
Porterville Transit (PT) is the primary transit authority serving residents and visitors to Porterville, the second-largest city in Tulare County, California. It was operated by the city and offered both fixed routes and dial-a-ride local service within Porterville, with all fixed routes operating out of a central transit center. Buses connecting Porterville's transit hub to nearby census-designated places were handled by Tulare County Area Transit (TCaT), including services to Tulare and Visalia, Springville, Terra Bella (80), and Poplar and Woodville (90).
Tulare County Area Transit (TCaT) was the county-operated bus agency providing service between cities and local community circulator routes in Tulare County, California; transit within the larger cities was provided by agencies operated by those communities, including Dinuba (DART), Porterville (Porterville Transit), Tulare (TIME), and Visalia (Visalia Transit); connections are provided to Delano (DART) in neighboring Kern County.
Visalia Transit is the primary bus agency serving residents and visitors to Visalia, California, the largest city and county seat of Tulare County, California. It is operated by the city through its contractor RATP Dev and offers both fixed routes and dial-a-ride local service within Visalia. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 538,000, or about 2,100 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2024.
Kings Area Regional Transit is the primary bus service serving residents and visitors to the cities of Avenal, Hanford, and Lemoore in Kings County, California. KART is the branded service operated by the Kings County Area Public Transit Agency (KCAPTA) since June 1980; KCAPTA has contracted with MV Transportation to provide operations and maintenance for KART. It provides both intracity routes within and intercity routes between those three cities; in addition, it provides routes serving rural communities within Kings County as well as commuter routes connecting to Fresno Area Express in Fresno and Visalia Transit in Visalia.
Fresno County Rural Transit Agency (FCRTA) is the primary bus agency providing intra- and inter-city routes for smaller cities and unincorporated rural communities in Fresno County, California since 1979, including Coalinga, Firebaugh, Fowler, Huron, Kerman, Kingsburg, Mendota, Orange Cove, Reedley, Sanger, San Joaquin, and Selma. FCRTA riders may transfer to Fresno Area Express service within the county seat of Fresno, and FCRTA has additional transfer points connecting to neighboring agencies in Fresno, Kings, and Tulare counties, including Clovis Transit Stageline, Kings Area Regional Transit, and Dinuba Connection.
The Visalia District was a railway line in California's San Joaquin Valley that ran from Corcoran, California to Calwa, California. The line was originally built by the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad and later acquired by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.