The City of Barstow will be hosting a Public Safety Fair on E Mountain View St on Saturday, May 7, 2022.
The Transit Hub for all Barstow Routes will be temporarily relocated away from City Hall and meet at E Buena Vista St at the Library all day Saturday. This will affect Routes 1, 2, 3, 6, 15, 28, and 29.
Please adjust your schedules accordingly.
Our month-long Recruiting Event continues tomorrow!
Come out and join us tomorrow, Tuesday, April 26th for our next Transit Recruitment Event from 9:00am – 1:00pm at our Hesperia Facility at 17150 Smoke Tree St. in Hesperia.
We will be holding on-site interviews for a variety of positions for both our Hesperia and Barstow locations so please come out and help meet the transit needs that keep our community moving forward!See you there!
Riders have waiting two years for this, and we are happy this morning to say…”Mask Off and Ride On”! Masks and face coverings are no longer required to ride on Victor Valley Transit buses.
A federal judge in Florida struck down a national mask mandate on airplanes and mass transit Monday, and airlines and airports swiftly began repealing their requirements that passengers wear face coverings.
The judge’s decision freed airlines, airports and mass transit systems to make their own decisions about mask requirements. The Transportation Security Administration said Monday night that it would it will no longer enforce the mask requirement.
(From the Associated Press)
Victor Valley Transit will be offering free rides on Earth Day, this Friday, April 22 — in recognition of public transit’s role in helping improve the environment. And, in particular, transit’s role in reducing greenhouse gases that cause climate change.
All riders of VVTA’s Public Transportation System including local fixed route, Route 15, County, and ADA Paratransit service will ride fare free that day. You may also view our System Map here.
Whether you are a regular rider of Victor Valley Transit or ready to try it for the first time on Friday for free, please download our Umo Mobility App for iPhones and Android phones to plan your trip. More information available here.
Save money and help the Earth by riding Victor Valley Transit FREE in honor of Earth Day 2022!
Due to planned 3 month construction at Hesperia Road and Green Tree Blvd, beginning today, April 8, 2022, Route 50 will be on detour resulting in the following Stops being missed.
Stop # 50373 (Green Tree Blvd & Dean Ave)
Stop # 50374 (Hesperia Rd & Cherry Hill Dr)
Stop # 50375 (Hesperia Rd & Crestview Dr)
Stop # 50107 (Hesperia Rd & City View Dr)
Stop # 50190 (Green Tree Blvd & Hesperia Rd)
Stop # 50195 (Hesperia Rd & Chalon Rd)
Stop # 50198 (Hesperia Rd & Green Tree Blvd)
Stop # 50388 (Hesperia Rd & Seneca Rd)
We apologize for any inconvenience. Please call 760-948-4021 for more information
Join us for our Transit Recruiting Event Tomorrow!
If you’re looking for that next step in your career, we invite you to attend our Transit Recruitment Event, which will take place tomorrow, March 29th from 9:00am – 1:00pm at our Hesperia Facility at 17150 Smoke Tree St. in Hesperia.
We will be holding on-site interviews for a variety of positions for both our Hesperia and Barstow locations so please come out and help meet the transit needs that keep our community moving forward!
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
If you ride with Victor Valley Transit, please take a quick moment to share with us what is most important to you, and how we can serve you better! Survey is open until Friday April 8th at midnight. As a way of saying “thank you” for taking our survey, we are giving away the opportunity to receive one of three giveaways, a Samsung Galaxy Tab A or one of two 31-Day Umo Smart Cards! Survey is open until April 8th at midnight.
You can find the Survey by going to vvta.org and click on the “Rider Survey” button at the bottom of the page or use this url: https://rb.gy/zrpw9d
The Victor Valley Transit partners with Options for Youth in the Victor Valley to offer fare-free transit for students.
Options for Youth is joining the ranks! Victor Valley Transit announced this week that Options for Youth Charter School is the latest school to offer free rides for all their students along with Victor Valley College and Cal State University San Bernardino. The program, which began February 1, 2022, allows all students currently enrolled in any of their five locations in the Victor Valley to board any fixed or county bus fare-free by simply presenting the bus operator with their current student ID.
“I am excited about the partnership between Options for Youth and Victor Valley Transit and grateful for their efforts in helping us to provide free transportation to our students,” stated Bryan Gillespie, Victor Valley Options for Youth Principal. Options for Youth is a FREE non-profit public charter school established in 1987 designed for students that desire a non-traditional learning environment to get ahead, graduate early, or to catch up if they have fallen behind. There are currently 1,700 students enrolled in the five Victor Valley Options for Youth locations, all of whom can already take full advantage of this program.
While many district area schools have school bus service in place, many charter schools do not, and if they do, parents are funding transportation programs costing upwards of $40 a month. VVTA’s Consolidated Transportation Services Agency (CTSA) Division looks to work with schools that don’t have student transportation services, such as Options for Youth. The relationship between Victor Valley Transit and Options for Youth began with VVTA’s Fare Media Program, which provided the school with a limited number of free passes each semester. However, the school’s needs turned out to be much greater than the program could serve. Subsequently, VVTA presented Options with a program offering free rides for all currently enrolled students. This program comes at a lower cost to the school’s transportation budget while providing free fares to all students.
Providing High Desert students with free and equitable transportation that supports student learning is paramount to Victor Valley Transit. “We are thrilled to support education and promote a program that helps our Victor Valley students and our commitment to the community,” stated VVTA Board Chair Joy Jeanette. “This program will improve attendance, ease the burden for parents, and increase mobility in the Victor Valley.”
Bryan Gillespie agrees. “This partnership will help us to provide equity to some of our students with the greatest need and allow more of our students the opportunity to succeed in their educational goals.” Victor Valley Transit continues its efforts in breaking transportation barriers for students in advancing their education and is committed to partnering with more schools in the valley area to join the program, which commenced with Victor Valley College in 2013 and added CSUSB in 2021.
The Victor Valley Transit Authority Brings New Battery Electric Buses to Barstow, CA
Victor Valley Transit delivered five new Battery Electric Buses (BEBs) to Barstow passengers this week. This is the first time passengers in the City of Barstow and neighboring communities will get to ride these New Flyer Xcelsior XE Battery Electric buses. These Battery Electric Buses (BEB) are another step towards VVTA’s commitment to operating strictly zero emission vehicles by 2035.
In 2018, the VVTA Board adopted its approval of Resolution Number 18-04 “its commitment to operate an 100% all electric and hydrogen fuel cell fleet, and establish a goal to meet this objective by 2035.” The first seven BEBs have been in service throughout the Victor Valley since 2019, and now with VVTA’s new Barstow Facility, which was designed with the future implementation of Battery Electric Buses in mind and successfully opened during the height of the Covid Pandemic, the time is right to bring Battery Electric Buses to Barstow.
“The move into battery-electric technology is the right move at the right time for Barstow,” said VVTA Board Member and Barstow Council Member James Noble. “By procuring Battery Electric Buses, VVTA places itself in a position to have Southern California Edison (SCE) provide all the required electric infrastructure as part of their SCE Charge Ready Transit Bus Program. This alone could save VVTA approximately $1M in the cost of bringing power lines and enough electric power to VVTA’s Barstow facility.”
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) enacted its proposed Innovative Clean Transit (ICT) in 2018. In response, VVTA got out in front of the regulation, taking advantage of all the available incentives before actual regulation deadlines. For instance, VVTA was able to take advantage of the VW Mitigation incentive for purchasing Zero-Emission buses. Volkswagen (VW) Environmental Mitigation Trust provides about $423 million for California to mitigate the excess nitrogen oxide emissions caused by VW’s use of illegal emissions testing defeat devices in certain VW diesel vehicles. VVTA applied for these funds to apply to the purchase Battery Electric Buses. The agency was awarded $180,000 per each of the five BEBs ordered for Barstow.
“VVTA analysts have carefully considered its zero-emissions options, reviewing an enormous amount of research and performance data from several different agencies to address the critical climate and operational challenges in VVTA’s service area,” commented new VVTA Director of Fleet & Facilities, Dustin Strandberg. “Factoring in all the unique variables, the steep hills, long distances, extreme weather, and traffic patterns, we are confident in the package we have selected and the limited number of routes these buses will successfully serve.”
With an average range of approximately 150 miles between charges, VVTA plans to deploy the five 40-foot buses in the coming days. Projected operational savings over the 12-year life of these vehicles is expected to be over $125,000 in maintenance savings over conventionally powered vehicles.
