Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System (YARTS) Management Activities - 6100

Provide planning and administrative services, through contract, to the Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System (YARTS) Joint Powers Authority, including oversight of all of the day-to-day operations of the transit system.

Each year, over 3.5 million visitors make the trek to Yosemite National Park.  Transportation demands for travel to and from the Park is tremendous during peak periods. In order to plan better public transportation, several of the counties that serve as access points to the Park have individually studied transit systems. However, recognizing the importance of working together and pooling resources, these counties have created a means by which they can more closely coordinate transit activities.

In FY 1992/93, Mariposa County proposed a long-range transportation study of the Yosemite National Park area. The concept of the study was well received.  In FY 1994/95, monies were identified in the National Park Service budget for transportation planning around Yosemite National Park. In FY 1995/96, the committee requested MCAG to administer the study. Since that time, significant progress has been made on developing a transit plan for the Yosemite region. The YARTS Management Board implemented a Demonstration Project during 2000 and 2001. A YARTS Joint Powers Authority (JPA) was established between the participating entities and the JPA selected MCAG to continue to administer the project.

Today, YARTS provides not only an alternative method of traveling to Yosemite for visitors, it also provides commute options for Yosemite National Park employees and for Mariposa County residents traveling to Merced, or beyond, for work, college or other personal destinations such as shopping entertainment and medical visits. YARTS stops provide a number of locations where riders can transfer to “The Bus” in Merced for further mobility, as well as make connections with Amtrak, Greyhound and Airlines, also in Merced. 

Between May of 2005 and April of 2006, 66,131 passengers were recorded by YARTS.   At that time, YARTS was sustaining a 15% cumulative increase in ridership for the Fiscal Year.  In May of 2006, a rockslide and subsequent road closure inflicted significant changes on YARTS. Long detours occurred while Caltrans worked to provide a temporary detour around the slide area. Opening in August of 2006, the detour allowed YARTS to resume using Hwy 140, its primary route into Yosemite, but with size restrictions on the size of vehicles. Where YARTS typically had used 40-foot over-the-road coaches, the detour relegated YARTS to much smaller 18 passenger, 26.5-foot buses, the closest to the 28-foot restriction that could be acquired at the time. In late summer of 2007, YARTS was able to move up to 26 passenger, 31-foot buses through a special permit issued by Caltrans. This was a good improvement, but still far below the capacity of regular YARTS buses.

The effect of the rockslide and size-restrictive detour was to lower the rider carrying capacity of YARTS and ridership dropped because of it. Ridership fell by 16.36% to a new all-time low of 51,376 passengers in fiscal year 2006-2007. 

In 2007-2008, still using the smaller buses, YARTS bounced back with a 20.32% increase in ridership and set a new fiscal year ridership record. 

In June of 2008, Caltrans completed a revision of the detour bridges that allowed YARTS to return to the use of larger buses on runs where demand required it. 

YARTS greatest challenge for the near future will be to secure stable funding for the service. 

YARTS routes currently include multiple daily round-trip runs on the Hwy 140 corridor between Merced and Yosemite Valley and, also, one daily run between Mammoth Lakes and other Mono County communities, on Hwy 120 East from June through September, when Tioga Pass Road is open. 

This work element provides funding for the planning, management, marketing and administrative services provided by MCAG to the YARTS JPA.