Gainesville Regional Transit System is the local area transit corporation that serves the Gainesville,

Alachua County, Florida Alachua County ( ) is a county in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 278,468. The county seat is Gainesville, the home of the University of Florida since 1906, when the campu ...

area, the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

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 Paratransit is the term used in North America, also known by other names such as community transport ( UK) for transportation services that supplement fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. ...

(ADA) service is also provided to anyone with a Gainesville address.

City routes

Campus Service

10 RTS routes operate on the University of Florida (UF) campus. These include "

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system ...

" 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.

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. This service has been cancelled with no clear future plans to return service to the routes.

Gator Aider

Gator Aider is a shuttle service provided to transport fans to and from

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 The Oaks Mall is an enclosed shopping center in Gainesville, Florida. Its anchors include Belk, two Dillard's stores, J. C. Penney, and the University of Florida Health. The mall interior is one floor, but Belk and both Dillard's stores hav ...

, 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. TransLoc Rider, a mobile phone app that incorporates the TransLoc GPS capability, is also available for riders. Transloc Example

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 Orion Bus Industries, also known as Bus Industries of America in the United States, was a private bus manufacturer based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The company had its main manufacturing plant in Mississauga and sent bus body shells to ...

, Blue Bird, Nova Bus, Flexible,

Gillig Corporation Gillig (formerly Gillig Brothers) is an American designer and manufacturer of buses. The company headquarters, along with its manufacturing operations, is located in Livermore, California (in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area) ...

. 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

* Gillig Phantom * Gillig Low Floor

Retired Fleet

* Nova Bus RTS

References

External links

Gainesville RTS website
{{University of Florida 1974 establishments in Florida Bus transportation in Florida Transit agencies in Florida Transportation in Alachua County, Florida Transportation in Gainesville, Florida University of Florida