Sacramento Regional Transit celebrates 50 years of service to region with free rides
Special edition bus wrap that will be used throughout the month of April to celebrate the anniversary.
Sacramento, CA (Apr. 4, 2023) - To celebrate their 50th anniversary Sacramento Regional Transit is offering free rides on Tuesdays throughout the month of April.
April 1 marked fifty years of SacRT’s continuous operation serving the Sacramento region with bus and rail services. To kick off the month long celebration SacRT hosted an event on April 3 at the light rail station just outside of Cosumnes River College in South Sacramento. At the event Henry Li, CEO and General Manager of SacRT announced ‘Free Transit Tuesdays’ on April 4, April 11, April 18 and April 25.
“Regional Transit is building on a legacy created over the last 50 years that will lead us into a cleaner and greener future for Sacramento. We cannot meet our carbon zero goals without the partnership, ingenuity, and dedication of SacRT, and I look forward to them serving our neighborhoods for years to come,” said Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg addresses the crowd at the April 3 celebration
SacRT will also be hosting pop-up events at different light rail and transit centers across the region throughout April. A full schedule of the events is available on their website at sacrt.com/50years.
Apart from from the pop-up events, riders can participate in the celebration by sharing their stories and experiences. SacRT is collecting stories from their customers through an online portal linked here and is also available via QR code on buses and trains.
A fun way to pass the time on the train or bus this during this celebration is to take the SacRT Transit Trivia Quiz. Test your knowledge, and if you score 100 percent, you’ll be entered to win a prize.
Henry Li thanked all of the partners past and present at the event on April 3, acknowledging the hard work of various community groups, elected leaders and advocates fighting to help SacRT grow and be successful.
From left to right: Henry Li, Crystal Lee McGee (ATU Vice President), Joyce Watkins (the longest serving RT employee), Darrell Steinberg, Roger Dickinson, and Steve Cohn.
“SacRT has a bright future,” he said. “We will be strategic, innovative, integrated and flexible. We’ll grow our public transit, and we’ll be a world-class system focused on building equity, promoting social justice and fighting climate change,” said Li.
Some of the most recent achievements for SacRT include: Partnering with the City of Sacramento on the first unrestricted free-ride program for all youth in the country and a partnership with Yolo County to connect Davis and Sacramento with a special bus service. Next big projects for SacRT include Bus Rapid Transit, a passing track on the Gold Line to Folsom to provide 15-minute service, and the purchase of 76 new low-floor light rail cars, which make it easier to get on and off trains for riders.
“The past seven years have seen many positive changes at SacRT,” said current SacRT board chair Patrick Kennedy, a Sacramento County board supervisor. “We have focused on providing clean, safe and convenient transit options for our riders while righting our financial ship. I thank everyone that contributed to the success of SacRT. It has been a journey of challenges, but we made it through together as a company and community.”
