Founded | 1991 |
---|---|
Headquarters | 550 S. Main St. Orange, California, USA |
Service area | Orange County |
Service type | bus service, paratransit, toll roads, light rail (operating in 2020) |
Routes | 77 |
Stops | 6,200+ |
Hubs | 6 |
Fleet | 556 buses |
Annual ridership | 51.4 million passengers per year (FY 2012-13) |
Fuel type | Diesel, CNG, LNG |
Operator | OCTA, First Transit Inc., MV Transportation |
Chief executive | Darrell Johnson |
Website | octa.net |
The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) is the public sector transportation planning body and mass transit service provider for Orange County, California. Its ancestor agencies include not only the prior Orange County Transit District but also such diverse entities as the Pacific Electric Railway and the South Coast Transit Corporation. In 2005, OCTA was judged America's Best Public Transportation System by the American Public Transportation Association, for its record gains in bus and Metrolink commuter trains ridership that it operates or funds. OCTA also operates the 91 Express Lanes.
The Authority's administrative offices are located in the city of Orange and it maintains bus operations bases in the cities of Garden Grove, and Santa Ana. First Transit operates about 33% of OCTA's Fixed Routes out of the Anaheim, & Irvine bases. While MV Transportation operates OCTA's paratransit base for the authority’s ACCESS service also in Irvine.
OCTA's predecessor agency, the Orange County Transit District, was created in August 1972 by a referendum of county voters. It originally started as Santa Ana Transit, a small transit agency with five bus routes operating in Orange County. Santa Ana Transit later merged with other, smaller agencies throughout the county, eventually leading to the formation of OCTD. The routing system was formed over the course of about 15 years and was held in place until the merge to OCTA.