Santa Maria Regional Transit (SMRT), formerly Santa Maria Area Transit (SMAT), is a bus service local to

Santa Maria, California Santa Maria (Spanish language, Spanish for "Mary, mother of Jesus, St. Mary") is a city in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, it is approximately northwest o ...

, providing both intracity service within Santa Maria and intercity service within

Santa Barbara County Santa Barbara County, officially the County of Santa Barbara (), is a county located in Southern California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa M ...

, including routes to

Lompoc Lompoc ( ; Chumashan ) is a city in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast, its population was 43,834 as of July 2021. Lompoc has been inhabited for thousands of years by the Chumash people, who called t ...

, Buellton, and Solvang.

History

Public transit service has been operated by the city of Santa Maria since 1978. That year, Santa Maria contracted the Santa Maria Organization of Transportation Helpers (SMOOTH) to operate a single fixed route along Broadway. A second fixed route was added in 1981, and Saturday operations began in 1982. SMOOTH operated Santa Maria's local service until 2004, when the contract was awarded to MV Public Transportation, Inc. That year, Sunday service was added, along with a fare increase. First Transit was awarded the operations and maintenance contract in 2009. The Santa Maria Transit Center, which is the origin point for many intracity and all intercity lines, was opened in 2011, at 400 East Boone Street. Santa Maria awarded the operating contract to RATP Dev in 2018. In December 2021, the Santa Maria City Council approved service changes to commence in January, including route consolidation, two new transfer sites, and the addition of timed transfers at the primary Transit Center hub.

Amtrak Thruway Amtrak Thruway is a system of through-ticketed transportation services to connect passengers with areas not served by Amtrak trains. In most cases these are dedicated motorcoach routes, but can also be non-dedicated intercity bus services, transi ...

buses, however, board across the freeway at 205 South Nicholson Avenue. With the update to the services, the agency was rebranded from Santa Maria Area Transit to Santa Maria Regional Transit.

Routes

Local routes

Express routes

Fares

Dial-a-ride

SMRT operates on-demand

dial-a-ride Demand-responsive transport (DRT), also known as demand-responsive transit, demand-responsive service,
US National Trans ...

paratransit services, covering the same area as the fixed-route local services.

Bus fleet and facilities

Active fleet

Facilities

The SMRT Transit Center is at 400 E Boone Street, and has multiple bus bays. There are eight bus bays on the island, serving intercity routes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 11. The four northernmost bus bays (on the curb side, next to the transit center) serve longer-distance routes (Such as the 20 to Chumash, 30 to

, Guadalupe Flyer to Guadalupe, and

RTA RTA may refer to: Media * Radio and Television Arts, program at Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada * Radio Television Afghanistan ** RTA TV, an Afghan channel * Radiodiffusion Télévision Algérienne * Real time attack, a game speedrun Sci ...

Route 10 to

San Luis Obispo ; ; ; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfway betwee ...

). The four southernmost bus bays are not allocated.. The SMRT fleet for local services is 17 mid- and full-size diesel-powered buses manufactured by

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

, 35' and 40' long. Breeze 100, (SMRT 30) operates exclusively with

BRT 40" busses.

Notes

References

External links

* {{RATP Group Public transportation in Santa Barbara County, California Santa Maria, California Vandenberg Space Force Base Bus transportation in California RATP Group