Seasonal services broke ridership records this year, proving there is demand for service that matches the public’s needs
ORANGE – 2017 was a busy year for the Orange County Transportation Authority, as it continued to keep Orange County’s residents, workers and visitors moving by providing services that best serve each community.
A big focus of OCTA’s work throughout the year continued to be on OC Bus 360°, an ongoing effort to reinvent transit service by improving the passenger experience and optimizing the efficiency of the bus system.
OC Bus 360° improvements have included redistributing existing bus resources to areas of higher demand and launching innovative services to provide better public transportation to existing riders, while also attracting new ridership.
This year, OCTA improved travel times and frequencies on 12 routes and introduced Route 53Xpress, a limited-stop service that reduces commute times between Anaheim and Santa Ana. OCTA also made it more convenient to ride the bus by launching the OC Bus mobile ticketing app, which recorded nearly 40,000 registered users and collected approximately 7 percent of total fare revenue, more than double the industry average.
Indications to date show that the changes have started stemming the trend of declining ridership, which has been seen at transit agencies around the country. Since October 2016, when OCTA implemented the first set of significant changes, OC Bus weekday ridership has increased nearly 20 percent on routes where service was improved.
Ridership records were also set on shuttle and trolley services offered during the summer in Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Dana Point, Newport Beach, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano. A record number of 88,000 boardings were also recorded on the OC Fair Express Saturday and Sunday service, a 33 percent boost compared to last year’s weekend numbers.
Other programs and services
In addition to providing bus service, OCTA also is responsible for a wide array of other programs and services that help deliver multi-modal transportation solutions throughout the county.
OCTA funds and oversees Metrolink train operations in Orange County. The three Orange County Metrolink lines provide 54 weekday trips to 12 stations. With an average of 6,000 weekday boardings, Metrolink in Orange County has carried 4.5 million people in 2017.
The Angels Express service, which provided Metrolink service to 53 Angels’ home games, recorded more than 39,000 boardings this year. The Metrolink football train was also launched this year, providing service to Los Angeles Rams home games at the Los Angeles Coliseum. More than 4,000 boardings were recorded through five weekends of service.
In addition, OCTA is the managing agency for LOSSAN, which is responsible for the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner Service. In 2017, the Pacific Surfliner carried nearly 3 million passengers and saw an increase of nearly 3 percent and total revenue rose by nearly 5 percent.
OCTA also oversees a program that connects commuters to vanpool contractors. In 2017, OCTA formed 88 new vanpools, bringing the total number to 531, and provided service to 151 worksites throughout the county. Ten new employers were also added to the program.
2017 by the numbers
- Fixed-route buses: 520
- Bus stops: 5,500
- Bus routes: 62
- Fixed-route hours of service: 1.6 million
- Fixed-route miles covered: 20 million
- Fixed-route passenger boardings: 40 million
- ACCESS paratransit buses: 248
- ACCESS hours of service: 700,000
- ACCESS miles covered: 11.5 million
- ACCESS boardings: 1.5 million
- Coach operators, including contracted service: 1,400
- Maintenance employees: 300
- Retail and wholesale bus pass sales: $10.5 million
- OCTA Store bus pass sales: $1.2 million
- OCTA Store transactions: 8,000
- 91 Express Lanes trips: 14 million
- OCTA website page views: 5.3 million
- Social media fans: 68,000
- Customer relations calls handled: 37,000
