Gainesville Regional Transit System Explained

Gainesville RTS
Company Slogan:Wherever your path leads...RTS will take you there.
Parent:City of Gainesville
Founded:1974
Locale:Gainesville, Florida
Service Area:Alachua County, Florida
Service Type:Bus service
Fleet:135
Ridership:25,239 (2019)[1]
Fuel Type:B20 (biodiesel)
Ceo:Jesus Gomez
Headquarters:34 SE 13th Rd
Gainesville, FL 32601
Website:Gainesville RTS website

Gainesville Regional Transit System is the local area transit corporation that serves the Gainesville, Alachua County, Florida area, the University of Florida and Santa Fe College campuses. It presently serves 40 city routes (19 on Saturdays, 16 on Sundays), 10 campus routes, and five "Later Gator" routes. Paratransit (ADA) service is also provided to anyone with a Gainesville address.

City routes

No. Description Operates
1 Rosa Parks RTS Downtown Station to Butler Plaza RTS Transfer Station Mon-Sun
2 Rosa Parks RTS Downtown Station to NE Walmart Supercenter Mon-Sat
3 Rosa Parks RTS Downtown Station to N Main St. Post Office Mon-Fri
5 Mon-Sun
6 Rosa Parks RTS Downtown Station to North Walmart Supercenter Mon-Sat
7 Rosa Parks RTS Downtown Station to Eastwood Meadows Mon-Fri
8 UF Health Shands Hospital to North Walmart Supercenter Mon-Sun
9 Reitz Union to Hunters Run Mon-Sun
10 Mon-Sat
11 Rosa Parks RTS Downtown Station to Eastwood Meadows Mon-Sun
12 Reitz Union to Butler Plaza RTS Transfer Station Mon-Sun
13 Beaty Towers at the University of Florida to Cottage Grove Apartments Mon-Sun
15 Rosa Parks RTS Downtown Station to NW 13th St./NW 23rd Ave. Mon-Sun
16 Beaty Towers at the University of Florida to Sugar Hill Mon-Sun
17 Beaty Towers at the University of Florida to Rosa Parks RTS Downtown Station Mon-Fri
20 Mon-Sun
21 Reitz Union to Cabana Beach Apts Mon-Fri
23 Mon-Fri
25 Mon-Sun
26 Mon-Fri
27 Rosa Parks RTS Downtown Station to NE Walmart Supercenter Mon-Fri
28 The Hub to Butler Plaza RTS Transfer Station Mon-Fri
33 Butler Plaza RTS Transfer Station to Midtown Mon-Sun
34 The Hub to Lexington Crossing Apts Mon-Fri
35 Reitz Union to SW 35th Place Mon-Sun
36 The Hub to SW 34th St. Post Office (Williston Plaza) Mon-Fri
37 Reitz Union to Butler Plaza RTS Transfer Station (via SW 35th Place) Mon-Sun
38 The Hub to Enclave Apts Mon-Fri
40 The Hub to Hunters Crossing Mon-Fri
43 Mon-Fri
46 Reitz Union to Rosa Parks RTS Downtown Station Mon-Fri
75 Oaks Mall to Butler Plaza RTS Transfer Station Mon-Sun
76 Mon-Fri
78 Mon-Fri
150 Mon-Fri
711 Rosa Parks RTS Downtown Station to Eastwood Meadows Mon-Fri after 8:00 p.m., all day Sat-Sun

Campus Service

10 RTS routes operate on the University of Florida (UF) campus. These include "park and ride" and circulator routes. UF and Santa Fe College (SF) students have prepaid unlimited access to RTS services through a transportation fee attached to each credit hour for undergraduates. UF faculty, staff, spouses and retirees have unlimited prepaid access through the RTS Employee Bus Pass Program, as do SF faculty, staff and students.

No. Description Operates
117 Reitz Union to Park-N Ride 2 (SW 34th Street) Mon-Fri
118 The Hub to Park-N Ride 1 (UF Cultural Plaza) Mon-Fri
119 The Hub to Family Housing at the University of Florida Mon-Fri
120 The Hub to University of Florida West Circulator (Fraternity Row) Mon-Fri
121 The Hub to UF Commuter Lot Mon-Fri
122 University of Florida North/South Circulator Mon-Fri
125 The Hub to Lakeside Mon-Fri
126 Sorority Row to Lakeside Mon-Fri
127 University of Florida East Circulator (Sorority Row) Mon-Fri
128 Reitz Union to Lake Wauberg Saturdays during spring and the first half of summer

Later Gator

Later Gator is a late night service that provides safe, late night service for students between campus, downtown, the Oaks Mall and southwest Gainesville through five routes.[2] [3] This service has been cancelled with no clear future plans to return service to the routes.

Route Letter Description Operates
A Sorority Row to and from Downtown Station 8:30pm – 3:20am Wednesday-Saturday
B SW Gainesville to and from Downtown Station 8:50pm – 3:13am Thursday-Saturday
C Oaks Mall to and from Downtown Station 8:30pm – 3:14am Thursday-Saturday
D Cottage Grove Apts. to and from Downtown Station 8:00pm – 2:30am Saturday Only
F Butler Plaza to and from Downtown Station 8:30pm – 3:18am Saturday Only

Gator Aider

Gator Aider is a shuttle service provided to transport fans to and from University of Florida Gators home football games. Service is available at five park-n-ride locations around the Greater Gainesville area including the Town of Tioga, the Oaks Mall, Haile Plantation, the UF Hilton Conference Center and the City of Gainesville Downtown Parking Garage.

Bus Tracking

In 2008, RTS equipped their fleet with a GPS capability called TransLoc. This enables riders to see if their bus is running on time.[4] TransLoc Rider, a mobile phone app that incorporates the TransLoc GPS capability, is also available for riders.[5]

Fleet

Since 1974, Gainesville has had a diverse fleet of buses bought from Transit Authorities in state and manufacturers such as GMC, Orion Bus Industries, Blue Bird, Nova Bus, Flexible, Gillig Corporation. All RTS buses are equipped with bicycle racks and wheelchair lifts. While many were purchased new, others were acquired second-hand from other operators in the state, including 30 that were acquired from Lynx and 11 from Palm Tran. RTS acquired five new Gillig hybrid electric buses (two in early 2012 and three more in 2013).

Active Fleet

Retired Fleet

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Gainesville-RTS Passenger Productivity by Month and Fiscal Year . Gainesville Regional Transit System . 29 October 2021.
  2. http://go-rts.com/files/33692-late-night-kiosks.pdf
  3. Web site: RTS - Regional Transit System for the city of Gainesville, FL, the University of Florida and surrounding areas . 2013-11-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20131127063623/http://go-rts.com/index.php . 2013-11-27 . dead .
  4. http://ufl.transloc.com/
  5. Web site: Vassolo. Martin. Gainesville's TransLoc transit app to soon include Uber. The Independent Florida Alligator. August 24, 2016. February 21, 2018.
  6. Web site: Gainesville Regional Transit System 501-515 - CPTDB Wiki. 2021-11-01. cptdb.ca.