18 Facts About SamTrans

SamTrans is a public transport agency in and around San Mateo, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area.

SamTrans operates commuter shuttles to BART stations and community shuttles.

SamTrans is constituted as a special district under California state law.

One year later, SamTrans began operation of mainline bus service to San Francisco.

SamTrans was formed in 1976 with the consolidation of 11 different city bus systems throughout San Mateo County.

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SamTrans purchased the local bus fleet from Greyhound in 1977, and the SamTrans fleet exceeded 200 buses by 1980.

Ridership on SamTrans buses was 52, 140 passengers per weekday in November 2009; by November 2017, it had fallen to 37, 830 bus passengers per weekday and continues to decline, further threatening the agency's budget.

SamTrans is predicting a $28 million budget deficit by 2024 if it maintains existing levels of service and revenue sources, driven largely by growing employee pension obligations.

SamTrans headquarters are at 1250 San Carlos Avenue in a 125, 000-square-foot building built in 1979 and acquired in 1990, one block southwest of the San Carlos Caltrain station.

SamTrans owns Brewster Depot in Redwood City, which is used by its subcontractor MV Transportation for storage and dispatching; Brewster Depot is 3, 000 square feet and was built in 1940.

Currently, SamTrans serves the cities of San Mateo County, including Atherton, Belmont, Burlingame, Colma, Daly City, East Palo Alto, Foster City, Half Moon Bay, Hillsborough, Menlo Park, Millbrae, Pacifica, Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Carlos, San Mateo, and South San Francisco.

SamTrans previously operated special service for a couple of Bay Area events such as San Francisco 49ers home football games and the quirky Bay to Breakers footrace in San Francisco.

SamTrans reorganized its bus routes in August 1999 and adopted a new route designation system to identify service types, geographical coverage, and connections to rail services.

Phase 2 of the express bus plan includes two additional routes: EPX and an un-named route (San Mateo to downtown San Francisco); EPX is anticipated to launch in 2023 after SamTrans completes acquisition of XE40 battery-electric buses.

SamTrans offers bus tokens for adult and youth local fares in packages of ten.

The reader checks for a SamTrans monthly pass and local-fare credits from other agencies, computes the remaining fare and collects it in Clipper Cash.

SamTrans currently has a fleet of 296 buses of various sizes for its fixed-route service.

In 2018, SamTrans placed an order for 10 Proterra 40-foot Catalyst BE40s buses as a first step towards the goal to have an all-electric fleet by 2033.