VCTC Intercity

Last updated
VCTC Intercity
VISTA bus at Oxnard Transit Center, January 2015.jpg
VISTA bus at Oxnard Transit Center in January 2015
Parent Ventura County Transportation Commission
Founded1994
Headquarters751 E. Daily Drive, Suite 420
Camarillo, California
Service area Ventura County, California
Service type Bus service, paratransit
Daily ridership1,200 (weekdays, Q4 2022) [1]
Annual ridership349,500 (2022) [2]
Operator RATP Dev
Chief executiveDarren Kettle
Website VCTC Intercity

VCTC Intercity (formerly known as Ventura Intercity Service Transit Authority or VISTA [3] ) is a public transit agency providing bus service in Ventura County, California. It provides an intercity bus service between the cities of Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Santa Paula, and Fillmore in Ventura County, and to communities in neighboring Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties. The agency is part of the Ventura County Transportation Commission, a governmental body that oversees transportation planning and funding in Ventura County. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 349,500, or about 1,200 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2022.

Contents

History

Before VISTA was formed in 1994, the County of Ventura provided rudimentary intercity bus service. One line ran along US 101 with stops in Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, and Westlake Village. Another service linked Thousand Oaks and Moorpark via SR 23. The city of Fillmore sponsored a route consisting of a few trips between Fillmore and Ventura along SR 126. Because of the limited nature of these services, the Ventura County Transportation Commission proposed a comprehensive intercity bus system. [4]

Logo for Ventura Intercity Service Transit Authority. Vista1 logo.png
Logo for Ventura Intercity Service Transit Authority.

VISTA began service on four core lines (Highway 101, East County, Highway 126, and a Central County route serving Camarillo, Camarillo State Mental Hospital, Point Mugu, and Oxnard) in July 1994. [4] Over time, these routes have been adjusted according to ridership. With the closing of Camarillo State Hospital and the repurposing of the hospital grounds as California State University, Channel Islands, the Central route was cancelled and two new campus shuttle routes were implemented. In 1998, service was extended to Warner Center in Los Angeles County, and in 2001, service was extended to Santa Barbara.

In early 2015, VCTC changed the name of the service from VISTA to VCTC Intercity. [3]

The VCTC Intercity bus service is operated by Roadrunner Shuttle, a subsidiary of RATP Dev USA, under contract. [5] [6] Due to the length of the VISTA routes, over-the-road coaches are used. [7]

Routes

Highway 101 / Conejo

Provides service along the length of US 101 in Ventura County, originating at the Pacific View Mall, and stopping at various places in Oxnard, Camarillo, and Thousand Oaks. Routes are numbered 50–52X.

Four round trips, two in the morning and two in the afternoon, connect Oxnard, Camarillo, and Thousand Oaks with the Warner Center Transit Hub and other stops at Warner Center, a business and residential complex in the western San Fernando Valley, in Los Angeles County. At the transit hub, riders may connect with a shuttle to the Metro G Line and other transit services from a variety of agencies, providing access to many points in Los Angeles County.

Highway 126

This route also originates at the Pacific View Mall in Ventura and operates along SR 126 to Saticoy, Santa Paula, and Fillmore. Routes are numbered 60-62.

East County

VISTA East County route operates in the SR 23 corridor between Westlake Village, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, and Simi Valley. Routes are numbered 70–73X.

Coastal Express

This route connects Ventura with Carpinteria and Santa Barbara. Peak hour trips also serve Goleta and UC Santa Barbara. Riders may connect with MTD services in Santa Barbara County. Routes are numbered 80–89. This VCTC service replaced a Clean Air Express line in 2001.

Channel Islands

Originally two separate lines, this shuttle route connects CSU Channel Islands with the Camarillo Metrolink Station and the Oxnard "C" Street Transfer Center. Students are encouraged to park in the lots and use this service to get to campus. Routes are numbered 90–99.

Dial-a-ride services

VISTA operates dial-a-ride service (on demand for those meeting certain requirements) in Santa Paula, Fillmore, and Piru. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Ventura County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxnard, California</span> City in California, United States

Oxnard is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. On California's South Coast, it is the most populous city in Ventura County and the 22nd-most-populous city in California. Incorporated in 1903, Oxnard lies approximately 60 miles (97 km) west of downtown Los Angeles and is part of the larger Greater Los Angeles area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Coast (California)</span> Region of California in the United States

The Central Coast is an area of California, roughly spanning the coastal region between Point Mugu and Monterey Bay. It lies northwest of Los Angeles and south of the San Francisco Bay Area, and includes the rugged, undeveloped stretch of coastline known as Big Sur. From south to north, there are six counties that make up the Central Coast: Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ventura Freeway</span> Freeway in Southern California

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CalTrain was a short-lived commuter rail system in the Los Angeles area which operated between 1982–1983. It connected downtown Los Angeles's Union Station with Oxnard in Ventura County, using the tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad. It was the first local rail service in Los Angeles since 1961 and was a forerunner of the modern Metrolink Ventura County Line. Service ended in the face of high costs, lower-than-expected ridership, a changing political climate, and staunch opposition from the Southern Pacific.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metrolink (California)</span> Commuter rail system in Southern California

Metrolink is a commuter rail system in Southern California, serving Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura counties, as well as to Oceanside in San Diego County. The system consists of 8 lines and 67 stations operating on 543 miles (874 km) of track. Arrow is operated under a contract with the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ventura County Line</span>

The Metrolink Ventura County Line is a commuter rail line serving Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles, in the Southern California system. The line is the successor of the short lived CalTrain commuter rail line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Clara River Valley</span> Valley along the Santa Clara River in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, California

The Santa Clara River Valley is a rural, mainly agricultural, valley in Ventura County, California that has been given the moniker Heritage Valley by the namesake tourism bureau. The valley includes the communities of Santa Paula, Fillmore, Piru and the national historic landmark of Rancho Camulos. Named for the Santa Clara River, which winds through the valley before emptying into the Pacific Ocean between the cities of Ventura and Oxnard, the tourist bureau describes it as ".... Southern California's last pristine agricultural valley nestled along the banks of the free-flowing Santa Clara River."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Area codes 805 and 820</span> Area codes in central California, United States

Area codes 805 and 820 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. state of California. The numbering plan area (NPA) includes most or all of the counties of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, and the southernmost portions of Monterey County. 805 was split from area code 213 in 1957, and area code 820 was added to the NPA in 2018, creating an area code overlay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State Route 23</span> Highway in California

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The Santa Barbara Pastoral Region is a pastoral region of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in the Roman Catholic Church. It covers Santa Barbara and Ventura counties in the State of California, an area with a population in excess of 1.2 million. The region has 37 parishes, six high schools, 18 elementary schools, four hospitals, and four Spanish missions, including Mission Santa Barbara and Mission San Buenaventura. The region was created in 1986 as part of a plan by Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony to make church leaders more accessible by dividing the sprawling Los Angeles Archdiocese into five pastoral regions.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxnard Transit Center</span> Train and bus station in Oxnard, California, US

The Oxnard Transit Center is an intermodal transit center in downtown Oxnard, California. It is served by Amtrak Coast Starlight and Pacific Surfliner intercity service plus Metrolink Ventura County Line commuter service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gold Coast Transit</span>

Gold Coast Transit District, formerly known as South Coast Area Transit (SCAT), is a local bus operator in western Ventura County, California, serving Ventura, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Ojai, and the adjoining areas of unincorporated Ventura County. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 2,103,100, or about 8,800 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ventura County Council</span>

Ventura County Council of the Boy Scouts of America was officially chartered as Council 57 on June 23, 1921, after a series of meetings that followed a proposal put forward at a County Chamber of Commerce meeting on March 28, 1921, in the Masonic Hall. Mr. C. H. Whipple, then of Moorpark and later Oxnard, became the president; and Col. J.L. Howland became commissioner. Harvey R. Cheesman, an assistant scout executive in the Los Angeles Council, became the first Scout Executive, assuming his duties on July 11).

<i>Ventura County Star</i> Newspaper in Ventura, California

The Ventura County Star is a daily newspaper published in Camarillo, California and serves all of Ventura County. It is owned by Gannett, the largest publisher of newspapers in the United States. It is a successor to a number of daily newspapers published around Ventura County during the 20th century.

The Ventura County Transportation Commission (VCTC) is the public sector transportation planning body for Ventura County, California. The VCTC oversees highway, bus, aviation, rail and bicycle activity and controls the use of government funds for transportation projects. The commission was created by state legislation in 1988 and began operation in 1989, when it assumed the transportation responsibilities of the Ventura County Association of Governments.

The Norwegian Grade is a 2 miles (3.2 km) section of Moorpark Road from the Santa Rosa Valley up into the Simi Hills and the city of Thousand Oaks, within Ventura County, California. Completed in 1911, it may be one of the Norwegian Colony's most notable contributions to the city. Until the construction of California State Route 23 Freeway, this was the most direct route between Moorpark and Thousand Oaks.

References

  1. "Transit Ridership Report Fourth Quarter 2022" (PDF). American Public Transportation Association. March 1, 2023. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
  2. "Transit Ridership Report Fourth Quarter 2022" (PDF). American Public Transportation Association. March 1, 2023. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
  3. 1 2 Harris, Mike (December 5, 2014). "Transit agency previews new bus fleet". Ventura County Star. E.W. Scripps Company. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  4. 1 2 Mosk, Matthew (November 24, 1993). "County OKs Bus Expansion to Link 8 Cities". Los Angeles Times (Ventura West ed.). p. 1. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  5. "RATP Dev USA Acquires California Based Roadrunner Management Service". Mass Transit Magazine (Press release). 14 May 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  6. Harris, Mike (July 25, 2014). "Camarillo company awarded $67 million bus contract". Ventura County Star. E.W. Scripps Company. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  7. Wenzke, Marissa (November 14, 2014). "End of the road: Family business loses bus contract". Pacific Coast Business Times. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  8. Martinez, Arlene (March 3, 2015). "Valley Express offering free bus rides today in Santa Paula, Fillmore, Piru". Ventura County Star. E.W. Scripps Company.

Sources