VIA ridership begins pandemic recovery

Usage up 9 percent over 2020, still half what it once was

Ridership recovery for VIA Metropolitan Transit is moving in a promising direction, but VIA officials say the system lost about 50 percent of its riders during the pandemic, and a significant number of them might never return.

April ridership for VIA buses show a 9 percent rise over April 2020, when the city’s and nation’s mass transit usage plummeted to historic lows due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The average number of weekday VIA bus passengers stood at 55,509 for April, nearly 5,000 more than last year, when the transit company was two months into pandemic lockdowns, mask mandates and a dramatic shift in the number of people who worked at home.

But in the three years prior to 2020, average weekday ridership ranged from about 108,000 to 114,000.

VIA has set a goal of returning to 80 percent of its pre-COVID ridership by the end of March 2022, said Jon Gary Herrera, VIA senior vice president for public engagement.

“With vaccinations increasing and consumer confidence improving, we have the right recipe for the economy improving and people coming back,” Herrera said. “But we know it will take time.”

Earlier this week, VIA allowed its buses to again run at full capacity, after about a year of reduced loads to comply with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for mass transit. Passengers must still wear masks, however.

In recent surveys of riders, Herrera said, some 67 percent of former passengers said they intend

ed to return to VIA.

“But we dug deeper, and asked when they thought they might come back, and that’s when we heard everything from zero to three months to more than six months,” he said.

Many people stopped using the bus for their jobs, but continued taking VIA for grocery shopping and doctor visits. Others who left VIA said they migrated to ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft, but were returning to buses due to fare hikes with those pricier services.

As part of a “recovery and growth” strategy at VIA, Herrera said, two more of the successful VIALink, or mobility-on-demand, zones will be opened in the fall. The first will be in the UTSA/ Northwest Vista College zone, while the second will serve the small city of Sandy Oaks in the southeast part of Bexar County.

VIALink has already proven to be popular on the Northeast Side, where riders can use a cellphone app to summon one of seven vans that will take passengers — all for the standard bus fare of $1.30 — to a larger nearby bus station or destinations within the zone. They won’t take you anywhere you want, like traditional taxis or the ride-hailing services.

The Sandy Oaks VIALink will pick up passengers from any location in that area, but they will only be taken to the Brooks Transit Center, where they can connect to the wider VIA network of bus routes.

In August, said Herrera, VIA hopes to increase the frequency of some routes — perhaps the MLK No. 26 or routes on San Pedro Avenue, Blanco Road and New Braunfels Avenue — by adding new buses.

“We know we have a way to go,” he said. “But we think the timing is right and that it will only get better in San Antonio as the hotel and tourism industries fully recover.”

Kin Man Hui / Staff photographer Bus riders exit on Tuesday, the day VIA Metropolitan Transit again allowed buses and vans to run at full capacity.

Kin Man Hui / Staff photographer A bus rider boards downtown. VIA says it will take time to build ridership back up after it fell about 50 percent during the pandemic.