Slogan | To provide access to opportunity for everyone; safely, efficiently and courteously. |
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Parent | Palm Beach County |
Founded | 1971 |
Headquarters | West Palm Beach, Florida |
Service type | Bus, paratransit |
Alliance | Broward County Transit, Tri-Rail, Amtrak, Martin County Transit |
Routes |
35 |
Stops | 3,200 |
Destinations | West Palm Beach Intermodal, VA Medical Center, Boca Town Center Mall, Wellington Mall, Tri-Rail |
Fleet | 192 |
Daily ridership | 36,546 (average weekday 2015) |
Annual ridership | 10,177,132 (FY 2015) |
Fuel type | Diesel, diesel-electric hybrid |
Operator | Palm Beach County |
Chief executive | Clinton Forbes |
Website | palmtran.org |
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Palm Tran is the public transit bus system run by the Palm Beach County Government, serving Palm Beach County, Florida. During fiscal year 2015, Palm Tran provided 10,773,132 one-way passenger trips and 889,056 paratransit trips to Palm Beach County. Palm Tran also serves a portion of Broward County, Florida where it overlaps with Broward County Transit. Palm Tran has four main facilities (North Campus in West Palm Beach, South Campus in Delray Beach, Palm Tran Connection/Military Trail and the Belle Glade Facility) with its main headquarters in West Palm Beach on Electronics Way. The current Executive Director is Clinton B. Forbes.
Standard (Adult) one-way fare is $2 (people eligible for the reduced fare such as students, disabled and senior citizens pay $1). $5 buys an unlimited 24-hour pass ($3.50 for reduced fare). Daily and 31-day unlimited ride passes are also available for purchase at Palm Tran Connection. There are 31-day unlimited passes that are available reduced or regular costing $55 and $70 respectively. Kids below 9 ride free with fare-paying rider, limit is 3.
All Palm Tran buses have bicycle racks on the front, capable of holding two bikes. They are also equipped with GPS and video surveillance cameras which record activity on the bus and the outer side facing the bus stops. Recently Palm Tran has equipped all fixed-route buses with Automatic Vehicle Location technology that enables passengers to track buses and bus arrivals in real time. Palm Tran also offers real-time bus arrival information through its app, MyStop Mobile, as well as an on-demand texting feature.
In 1971, Florida Transit Management, Inc. began service with 20 buses on seven routes. In 1980, this service was expanded to over 60 buses in 22 routes, then renamed CoTran, short for "County Transportation". Finally, in 1996, CoTran was completely restructured to over 150 buses in over 30 routes, then renamed Palm Tran, its fleet repainted to the present white and teal design scheme, and has been that way since. At that time the basic design of the livery of the buses was changed from white and orange to white and teal, some of which are screen-wrapped to the logos and design of the company that sponsors those particular buses, but preserve their Palm Tran logos and bus numbers, the latter of which are assigned a four-digit number according to the year and order in which they were acquired. Palm Tran will introduce USB charging stations on its newest fleet in early 2017.