The school bus for a growing number of Manteca Unified students is not painted yellow.

It’s burgundy, dark blue, and white.

High school and middle school ridership on Manteca Transit’s four fixed bus routes has increased five-fold since before the pandemic.

It is to the point that one bus serving Manteca south of the 120 Bypass in the morning at times has been standing room only.

Record ridership comes as Manteca Transit is planning to showcase its three latest acquisitions on Thursday, Dec. 19, from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the transit center at 220 Moffat Boulevard.

The new equipment on display includes:

*the first of two 29-foot cutaway clean natural gas powered fixed route buses with seating for 26 and the capability to carry 40 using grab straps.

*an electric battery powered Ford van for dial-a-ride service.

*a charging station for the van. 

Those attending will be able to tour the buses. Light refreshments will be served.

Transit ridership took a huge dive in Manteca as well as nationally during the pandemic.

That said, overall ridership is up just over 70 percent since 2019.

The fixed routes had 7,944 riders overall in October. The ridership number for October 2019 was 4,812.

Student ridership accounted for 2,068 of the 7,944 passengers this past October.

Manteca High tops the ridership list followed by Sierra High and then East Union High.

A big reason for the jump is a state grant that allows middle school and high schools with a student body card to ride free.

Other contributing factors:

*Manteca Unified does not provide bus service to students that reside within 2.5 miles of their assigned high school 

*Growth south of the 120 Bypass where many households that have moved to Manteca from the Bay Area already are used to using public transit to reach school.

*Safety issues involved when students have to cross the 120 Bypass bridges - specifically Airport Way to reach Sierra High.

*The percentage of teens with drivers licenses has been dropping. 

The most recent data from the Federal Highway Administration shows the percentage of 19 year olds with drivers licenses has fallen steadily from 87.3% in 1983 to 68.7% in 2022.

More changes 

are coming . . .

Juan Portillo, who oversees the City of Manteca’s transit services, noted more changes are coming to Manteca Transit.

In the coming months, riders while be asked about what changes they’d like to see.

That could include more frequent service on popular routes, different stops, or different connections.

The biggest change on the horizon is the targeted late 2026 start of ACE commuter passenger train service from the downtown transit center to San Jose and Sacramento.

Manteca Transit currently provides a shuttle from its downtown hub to the Lathrop-Manteca ACE station that has a small but steady ridership.

Given the replacement for the ACE station on Yosemite Avenue where the two cities meet is father to the north off of Lathrop Road at the Sharpe Depot site will have more robust service to San Jose, that shuttle could be switched to there if it is kept.

Ultimately, the new Lathrop station will be a transfer station to the Valley Link system connecting to BART.

More likely, however, will be changes to fixed routes in Manteca to coordinate with the departure and arrival of ACE trains to the downtown transit center.

You could literally walk a block or two from your home, board a Manteca Transit bus to take you to the downtown ACE platform, take ACE to the Santa Clara Valley and then switch to public transit the roads reach your place of employment.

Cleaner transit

Eventually all four fixed routes will have CNG buses. The two additional CNG buses will bring the number to three.

The buses are powered using CNG produced at the City of Manteca wastewater treatment plant. It is created from methane gas — a byproduct of the wastewater treatment plant — and food waste.

The city is moving to comply with requirements that all transit buses must be zero emission in the coming years.

The state is allowing two options — battery electric and hydrogen.

Some transit systems have asked the state to continue allowing CNG buses.

Manteca — which was extensively praised by the state when it put in a system that prevents methane that is on top of the greenhouse gas hit list from being released into the atmosphere — has asked for an exception for the city’s solid waste trucks.

Manteca may ask for an exception as well for city transit buses.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com