List of Santa Clara VTA bus routes

The following is a list of Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority bus routes. Route numbers are classified as follows:

• Lines 1-99 are standard bus and community bus routes, which feature many, closely spaced stops. These lines serve a smaller area, such as connecting transit centers to the surrounding community or Downtown San Jose to nearby neighborhoods.
• Lines 100-199 are express services and primarily operate during peak periods only. These lines operate express mainly on freeways and provide fewer stops than local services, mainly at train stations and major transfer points in Santa Clara County. These also charge higher fares than standard bus routes.
• Lines 200-299 are city light rail shuttles mainly operating along the system's light rail lines.
• Lines 300-399 are limited-stop routes that feature fewer stops than standard bus routes and mostly operate along expressways. These services operate mainly during peak periods only. Local fares apply to limited-stop lines.
• Lines 500-599 are bus rapid transit routes.
• Lines 800-899 are suburban light rail and commuter rail shuttles that operate mainly during peak periods. These lines operate mainly out of Great America ACE/Amtrak Station and Santa Teresa LRT and serve nearby high-tech businesses and industrial parks.
• Lines 900-999 are intercity routes operated in conjunction with other agencies.

Community Bus Service

Santa Clara VTA operates several community bus routes that primarily serve lower-density communities, in which regular bus services do not justify such operations, either due to area geography or low ridership when such lines were operated by standard-size buses. These lines use shuttle vehicles, similar to those used by DASH (see below).

Many of these services operate on weekdays except holidays unless noted otherwise. Six routes run daily, including holidays.

Regular Bus Service

Santa Clara VTA operates numerous bus lines that operate on most major thoroughfares throughout Santa Clara County. Several of these lines converge at key transfer points, including Downtown San Jose, several Caltrain stations between Palo Alto and Gilroy, and most light rail stations. Some lines also provide connecting services to other transit agencies, including AC Transit, Dumbarton Express, Monterey-Salinas Transit, and SamTrans.

Included in this listing are VTA's limited-stop and bus rapid transit services, as those levy the same cash fares as regular local buses.

Rapid Bus Service

Currently, the VTA operates one line that is a precursor to Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service, the Rapid 522. This service operates along one of Santa Clara County's major commercial corridors, El Camino Real, between Palo Alto and East San Jose. It stops at 30 intersections and transit centers that provide timed and extensive connections to other bus and light rail services, a far fewer number of stops than line 22 that operates on the same corridor.

On January 6, 2014, VTA expanded the Rapid 522 hours on weekdays and Saturdays to end at approximately 10:30 pm while introducing a new Sunday schedule operating between 9 am and 6 pm.^[2]

This service operates daily; for service outside of operating hours, use Line 22. On line maps, it is colored dark blue with red border.

Similar to the BRT systems for which it is a precursor, Rapid Line 522 utilizes queue-jump lanes, traffic signal priority, and enhanced bus stop designs that provide riders with quicker service to and from major attractions in Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, and San Jose.

VTA started construction in March 2014 on the Santa Clara-Alum Rock Bus Rapid Transit Project , which will upgrade the section of the Rapid 522 between Eastridge Transit Center and the SAP Center at San Jose to BRT service. The new BRT service will feature special hybrid vehicles with Wi-Fi on board, enhanced stations, dedicated lanes on Alum Rock, transit signal priority, electronic real-time information message signs, off-board payment and all-door boarding to speed up stops, and service every 10 minutes at peak times.

In the future, VTA has plans to upgrade the rest of the Rapid 522 route to BRT service with the El Camino Real Bus Rapid Transit Project and create a second BRT line, the 523, to serve another major commercial corridor, San Carlos Street and Stevens Creek Boulevard between Eastridge Transit Center in east San Jose and De Anza College in Cupertino. It will mirror the current local Line 23 and limited-stop Line 323.

Limited-Stop Service

These services basically operate weekdays only (except holidays), mostly during peak periods. Compared to express bus services, these lines operate via expressways - most notably Lawrence Expressway and San Tomas Expressway - that provide semi-express service to industrial parks in Sunnyvale and Milpitas, and thus local fares apply to these lines. South of the industrial parks, buses operate in a skip-stop pattern, stopping at major intersections that provide connections to other bus and light rail services. On line maps, these are colored green.

On October 1, 2012, VTA introduced limited-stop Line 323 along the Stevens Creek Boulevard corridor between Downtown San Jose and De Anza College to relieve overcrowding on many Line 23 trips.^[3] VTA expanded Line 323 with a new Saturday schedule on July 7, 2014.^[4]

Express Bus Service

These services mainly operate during weekday peak periods only, operating in the following pattern:

• AM commute: towards industrial parks, Downtown San Jose, or Fremont BART
• PM commute: from industrial parks, Downtown San Jose, or Fremont BART

Most of these trips operate NB or WB in the morning and SB or EB in the afternoon and evening. Exceptions to this pattern are:

• Line 180, which operates both NB and SB trips all-day weekdays
• Line 181, which operates both NB and SB trips daily (including holidays)
• Line 182, which operates as a counter-commute (SB in the morning, NB in the afternoon)

VTA's Express Bus fares are higher than standard bus fares as these trips operate along many of Santa Clara County's freeways, including:

• Highway 85
• Highway 237
• I-280
• I-680
• I-880
• US-101

A few lines operate similar trips, with fewer stops than their stopping regular bus and light rail counterparts:

• Line 168 is the express version of Line 68
• Line 181 is the express version of the Alum Rock-Santa Teresa light rail line between Downtown San Jose and Great Mall/Main in Milpitas.

On line maps, these are colored red. Line numbers marked with an asterisk (*) denote that the buses used on these lines are the VTA's newest suburban-style Gillig low-floor buses that have WiFi capability on board.

Serving Stanford Industrial Park

All trips serving Stanford Industrial Park in Palo Alto operate along Deer Creek Road, Arastradero Avenue, Hillview Drive, Hanover Drive, and Page Mill Road to and from their terminals at either:

• Lines 101, 102, and 103: Page Mill Road & Hansen Way
• Line 104: Deer Creek Road at VMware

Serving Moffett Industrial Park

All trips operating to Moffett Industrial Park serve Crossman LRT station, Borregas LRT station, and Lockheed Martin Transit Center. In addition, Line 120 continues further north from Lockheed Martin to serve high-tech industrial parks along Shoreline Boulevard and Charleston Road to end at San Antonio Road & Casey Avenue in Mountain View.

Serving Fremont BART

Aside from Line 120, several other lines operate to and from Fremont BART station, providing connections to other communities around the Bay Area, particularly to East Bay destinations.

Serving Downtown San Jose

Aside from Line 181, Line 168 also serves Downtown San Jose, operating to and from San Jose Diridon Transit Center.

Reverse Commute

Line 182, as noted above, operates counter-commute trips between Palo Alto and South San Jose, with one trip each from Palo Alto in the morning and from South San Jose in the afternoon.

Levi's Stadium Service

VTA offers pre-game and post-game express bus routes to supplement existing bus and light rail routes that already serves California's Great America theme park, which is located in the same lot as Levi's Stadium. These routes operate only when a major sporting event such as the San Francisco 49ers' games and major soccer and college football matches occur. Express routes fare apply to the following routes serving Levi's Stadium - for local routes that serve Levi's Stadium, see routes 55, 57, and 60 above.

Shuttles

The VTA, in conjunction with many private entities and high-tech companies, as well as in coordination with Altamont Commuter Express, operates free shuttles to and from various light rail stations and Great America Station to serve businesses in Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Milpitas, Santa Clara, and San Jose. Passengers can ride these shuttles for free as funding for these services are provided by grants from high-tech companies and business associations based in Santa Clara County, as well as from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. These mainly operate weekdays only (except holidays).

Light Rail Shuttles

These shuttles mainly operate to and from light rail stations around San Jose.

Altamont Commuter Express Shuttles

All shuttles listed below originate from Great America Station and are operated in coordination with ACE train arrival times in the morning peak and departure times in the afternoon peak.

For a map of these services, click here

Regional Services

The VTA collaborates with other regional agencies that operate into and out of Santa Clara County with inter-agency transfers and commuter benefits. However, these lines do not use VTA's own buses nor levy VTA's bus fares; instead, these are operated by a consortium of operators, in which the agency is a participant, and the consortium sets the fares for such services.

References

Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
Management	Santa Clara County
VTA Light Rail	Alum Rock–Santa Teresa      Mountain View–Winchester      Ohlone/Chynoweth–Almaden
Rail Stations	Almaden Alum Rock Bascom Baypointe Bayshore/NASA Berryessa Blossom Hill Bonaventura Borregas Branham Capitol Champion Children's Discovery Museum Cisco Way Civic Center Component Convention Center Cottle Cropley Crossman Curtner Downtown Campbell Downtown Mountain View Fair Oaks Fruitdale Gish Great America Great Mall/Main Hamilton Hostetter I-880/Milpitas Japantown/Ayer Karina Lick Mill Lockheed Martin McKee Metro/Airport Middlefield Moffett Park Montague Oakridge Ohlone/Chynoweth Old Ironsides Orchard Paseo de San Antonio Penitencia Creek Race Reamwood River Oaks Saint James San Jose Diridon San Fernando Santa Clara Santa Teresa Snell Tamien Tasman Vienna Virginia Whisman Winchester
VTA Bus	List of Santa Clara VTA bus routes
Connecting Services	AC Transit Altamont Corridor Express Amtrak Amtrak Thruway Bus Services Amtrak California Capitol Corridor BART Caltrain Dumbarton Express Highway 17 Express Monterey-Salinas Transit SamTrans Santa Cruz Metro
Other	Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board Clipper Silicon Valley BART extension