SamTrans has reduced the price of bus passes for its Way2Go program serving businesses and residential complexes, opened up the program to serve educational institutions, and has also extended the Clipper START pilot program that provides half off the fare for single ride tickets for low-income riders.
Approved by theSamTrans Board of Directors at its Aug. 4 meeting, the Way2Go program will allow colleges and K-12 educational institutions to partake at the cost of $35 per semester per pass. Meanwhile, the price for residential complexes and employers, formerly $125 per annual pass, has been lowered to $40 for residential and $75 for commercial participants. Additionally, the board reduced the contract minimum to participate from $12,500 to $2,500.
The SamTrans Board also voted unanimously to extend its participation in the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s (MTC) Clipper START pilot program, which allows eligible adult, lower-income SamTrans riders to purchase single ride tickets at half-price. Participants will purchase one-way bus tickets for just $1, with transfers to other SamTrans routes included at no additional cost if they fall within two hours of the initial trip.
Adults ages 19-64 with household incomes of up to two times the federal poverty level are eligible for the Clipper START discounted fares via the Clipper transit fare system, which can also be used for other Bay Area transit services including BART, Caltrain, and the San Francisco Bay Ferry, among others.
The fare programs aim to increase bus ridership and participation in the Way2Go program, and provide continued relief for low-income commuters, many of them frontline workers who have been commuting throughout the pandemic.
Visit Clipper START for more information on eligibility requirements, applications, and participating transit services, or call Clipper START Customer Service at (855) 614-9149.
