VIA Metropolitan Transit chief says service improvements are fueling ridership surge

By Richard Webner | San Antonio Express-News (TNS)

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS — The president and CEO of VIA Metropolitan Transit on Tuesday trumpeted the agency's success in attracting new riders as it has gradually improved route frequency after a Covid-era driver shortage forced it to make severe cuts.

So far this fiscal year, which began in October and runs to the end of next month, VIA has offered 2 million more passenger trips compared to the same period last year, said Jon Gary Herrera at the annual State of Transit luncheon hosted by the San Antonio Mobility Coalition.

The ridership increase shows that the agency's five-year blueprint to fill seats by running buses more often, known as the Better Bus Plan, has borne fruit, Herrera told the audience at the Boeing Center at Tech Port.

"That is absolutely by design," Herrera said. "Those that are taking our system today are already seeing lower travel times. Those that are taking our system in the future are going to see lower travel times, better customer experience and a better system altogether."

A year ago, 70% of VIA's routes had a wait time of more than a half-hour during peak times, he said. Today, 72% have waits of less than a half-hour.

"We have flipped that script," he said.

---------------------------------------------

Don't Miss Stories Like This. Subscribe to the Transit Intelligence Newsletter

---------------------------------------------

VIA is still working toward its ultimate goal under the Better Bus Plan, which it launched in early 2025, for all routes to have frequencies of a half-hour or less during peak times.

In large part, VIA has been able to boost frequency by aggressively recruiting new drivers, offering hiring incentives of up to $4,000. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the agency could not train new drivers even as it saw a surge of retirements, its leaders have said. VIA responded by running its buses far less often, because it did not have the drivers to operate them.

VIA now has 1,013 drivers, the most in its history, Herrera said after the luncheon. That's up from 799 when he became CEO in January 2025. The agency has said that its long-term goal is to employ 1,100 drivers.

"One of the key components — the Achilles heel, as we call it — of what we needed to achieve at VIA in order to accelerate this Better Bus investment is, we had to figure out hiring," he said at the luncheon.

Recovering ridership

VIA is on track to offer 33 million passenger trips this fiscal year, the agency said Tuesday.

Every year, the Texas Department of Transportation releases a report, known as the Texas Transit Statistics report, containing ridership numbers for each of the state's public transit agencies. In fiscal year 2025, VIA reported 30.4 million rider trips, up from 29.8 million in 2024 and a Covid-era low of 23.3 million in 2021, but far below the 46.1 million rider trips VIA had in 2013.

Other public transit agencies have suffered a similar decline in riders compared to the early 2010s. Austin's CapMetro, for example, reported offering 26.7 million rider trips in fiscal year 2025, up from 26.4 million the year prior and 16.5 million in 2021, but down from 34.1 million in 2013.

VIA has rolled out its route improvements in several rounds beginning in April of last year. The latest is being implemented this month, Herrera said Tuesday. After that, the next round of frequency boosts will occur in January 2027, he said.

As part of the Better Bus Plan, the agency has also replaced some of its routes with its ride-hailing service, known as VIA Link, allowing it to deploy the drivers elsewhere. Since 2019, it has established six VIA Link zones across San Antonio, and it plans to debut another, in the Stone Oak area on the far North Side, in the coming months.

Hope for rapid lines

Another key part of VIA's improvement plan is to build two so-called "advanced rapid transit," or ART lines, funded mostly with grants from the Federal Transit Administration.

VIA began construction this year on one of them, known as the Green Line, running north-south from the area around San Antonio International Airport to near Mission Concepción on the South Side. The agency expects to finish the line in 2028.

VIA is still working to secure a necessary $150 million federal grant for the east-west Silver Line. The two lines would criss-cross in downtown.

VIA's leaders are counting on the Green and Silver lines to inaugurate a new era for the agency. Their buses will arrive at stops every 10 minutes on weekdays — a level of frequency currently unheard-of in San Antonio.

Under the ART model — which is being implemented in other U.S. cities — the buses will speed along in their own lanes, and new signals will give them priority over other traffic at many intersections. Before boarding buses, riders will pay their fare at stations, reducing the amount of time the buses are stopped.

Herrera said Tuesday that he hopes to sign a funding agreement with the Federal Transit Administration for the Silver Line by May or June. In December 2024, VIA inked an equivalent $268 million grant for the Green Line.

"I think the state of transit is improving... but we have lots of room to grow," Laura Cabanilla, VIA's board chair, said at the luncheon. "Part of what we need to think about is the pivotal moment that we're in right now. VIA has been able to access dollars from sources that we haven't been able to access historically, and that's critically important."

__________

© 2026 San Antonio Express-News

Visit www.mysanantonio.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Daily News Briefing