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VIA Facts & Figures

Bus Service

VIA buses operate seven days a week from 4 a.m. to 1 a.m. There are 7,210 bus stops along 91 bus lines, which are divided into five service categories: frequent, metro, express, skip, and downtown circulator.

Four times a year, service revisions are made to adjust for changes in ridership demand patterns and cost-effectiveness. The revisions are promoted to the public through bus flyers, farebox cards, press releases, and updated pocket schedules. At each of the times when service revisions are made (called “sign ups”), VIA’s bus operators select the routes and schedules they wish to work.

VIA also provides special event Park-and-Ride service, VIAtrans paratransit service, and vanpool service.

Service Area

In total, VIA’s service area is 1,226.07 square miles, which is 98 percent of Bexar County. The service area is made up of the unincorporated parts of Bexar County and the following municipalities:

Also included in VIA’s service area is the Bexar County portion of Cibolo.

The Advanced Transportation District operates within the City of San Antonio.

Board of Trustees

VIA is governed by an eleven-member board of trustees.

The members of the VIA Board of Trustees also compose the governing board of the Advanced Transportation District.

Fiscal Management

The approved operating budget for FY 2011-12 is $169,600,555. The metropolitan transit authority portion of the budget is $146,513,068 and the Advanced Transportation District portion is $23,087,487.

Revenue for VIA is generated from the half-cent transit sales tax in VIA’s service area, the one-eighth-cent sales tax under the Advanced Transportation District, farebox revenues, bus advertising, and grant money from the Federal Transit Administration. VIA’s fiscal year begins October 1 and runs through the last day of September.

FY 2012 Budget
View VIA's 2010 annual report

Ridership

VIA measures ridership based on numbers of boardings, also known as unlinked passenger trips. All of VIA’s services carried 45.4 million passenger trips during FY 2010-11.

Ridership for FY 2010-11

Fleet

VIA’s fleet consists of 418 buses, comprising 194 North American Bus Industries (NABI) diesel buses, four NABI compressed natural gas busses, 176 New Flyer diesel buses, 30 New Flyer diesel-electric hybrid buses, and 14 Optima streetcars.

The NABI and New Flyer buses are 40-foot vehicles that have a low-floor design and a retractable ramp for wheelchair access. VIA’s streetcars are accessible through the use of wheelchair lifts.

The active VIAtrans fleet consists of 104 vehicles owned by VIA, all of which are equipped with wheelchair lifts. Each vehicle has the capacity to carry 5 ambulatory and 2 wheelchair patrons or 4 ambulatory and 3 wheelchair patrons.

All of VIA’s service vehicles are equipped with an automated vehicle location and secure voice communication system, allowing VIA to provide the best service possible by making adjustments for delays, overloading, or unforeseen occurrences.

All of VIA’s buses (except streetcars) are equipped with bicycle racks to encourage bike riders to take the bus. Both modes of transportation are environmentally responsible and economically reasonable, and the bicycle racks attract a new category of riders.

Transit Police

VIA’s transit police officers are assigned to patrol all parts of the agency’s service area and to oversee the security at VIA headquarters. Between service calls, police officers are expected to maintain a high level of visibility, and they are assigned to conduct pro-active checks of buses, transit facilities, bus routes, and various “hot spots” (areas that receive many calls for security) as needed.

VIA uses a bicycle patrol in the downtown area to monitor activity at and around bus stops. VIA also has a Problem Oriented Policing bicycle team that is deployed to areas outside of downtown in which there are security concerns around bus stops.

VIA is a member of the San Antonio Police Department’s Crime Watch Radio Alert Patrol program, and the agency participates in Transit Watch, a national program modeled after the well-known Neighborhood Watch program.

Environmental Commitment

VIA constantly seeks out ways to reduce pollution, waste, and energy demands.

As an operator of a fleet of buses and vans, VIA’s primary environmental efforts are focused on the reduction of vehicle emissions. All revenue vehicles are equipped with exhaust oxidation catalysts, and those purchased since 2003 qualify as federal clean-fuel vehicles. VIA’s maintenance personnel have performed retrofits of older buses to install reduced emissions engines, and diesel particulate filters are also used. Also, the downtown streetcars operate on propane, and four downtown circulator buses are powered by compressed natural gas. Future vehicles will use hybrid technology or all-electric power sources. VIA will continue to monitor the development of fuel and propulsion technologies that can help reduce local air pollution.

VIA employs rigorous recycling efforts, focusing on waste oil and lubricants, batteries, antifreeze, paint solvents, office paper, cardboard, scrap metals, refrigerant, plastics, and glass.

Conservation is also a high priority at VIA, and the agency has adopted an Energy and Water Conservation Policy to guide its efforts. VIA has retrofitted its facilities with energy efficient lighting, installed upgrades to the HVAC systems and windows, and reduced the energy requirements for the climate control system of the maintenance garage. VIA is also planning to install a microbe-based water recycling facility.

VIA is also exploring the use of renewable energy where feasible. The agency gets 100 percent of its electricity from CPS Energy’s Windtricity program. Solar panels power the lighting at new bus shelters, and solar-panel systems have been installed to provide power for the Madla Transit Center on IH-35 and the North Star Transit Center at the intersection of San Pedro Avenue and Loop 410. VIA also uses B5 biodiesel and E10 ethanol/gasoline blends.

VIA is also working to reduce water pollution through the use of an on-site industrial wastewater treatment facility and the installation of stormwater interceptors to prevent contaminated bus yard runoff from reaching the local watershed.

Employment

VIA is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. VIA supports equal opportunities for all without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, disability, sex, or age.