Bus service to state capital considered
CHICO » A new bus schedule taking commuters as far as Sacramento and Stockton is being considered for Chico service from local operator Butte Regional Transit.
The proposed service schedule comes through Butte County Association of Governments and Butte Regional Transit in partnership with the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority and Caltrans. Aside from Sacramento and Stockton, the service would also go to Oroville and Marysville, meaning residents there could also catch a ride.
BCAG Associate Senior Planner Sara Cain said if the service is implemented, it would run seven days a week.
“Essentially the service would be mostly geared towards commuters,” Cain said. “So during the weekdays, it would start around 5 a.m. and then on the weekends, it would start a little bit later around 5:30 in the morning, and ending a few minutes before 10 p.m.”
The service would go directly into downtown Sacramento and forward to Stockton for timed connections to ride the San Joaquin Amtrak rail, Cain said. Much like other forms of transit coming through Chico like the Greyhound bus line or Amtrak Thruway Bus Route 3, further connections would have to be set up to arrive at the Sacramento International Airport.
Cain added if the service is implemented, the new schedule would be more frequent than the Amtrak route.
“This service would basically just be taking that service over, adding additional time for commuters to take the bus,” Cain said. “Right now, you can take it, but if you’re commuting to Sacramento it might not have the right time for you to get down there.”
As for what it will take to have the bus line in service, Cain said it all comes down to the funding. Operating daily costs for the weekdays are expected to be near $5,000 while weekends will cost $4,500. A ticket to ride would range between $8 to $10 depending on destination.
“A big component of the study is just making it affordable for people to be able to provide an alternative form of driving alone to get from Chico, Oroville, Marysville or wherever they’re coming from to Sacramento. We know that it’s an important service. We’ve heard from our residents over the years that this is something that they would use,” Cain said. “We’ve done a number of surveys through this study, and it still looks like it would be a good service. It all just boils down to getting the necessary funding to implement it.”
The Butte County Association of Governments and Butte Regional Transit are currently taking a survey for the proposed service which can be accessed at https://www. surveymonkey.com/r/ButteSchedule.