Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County
 |
|
| Founded | 1979 |
|---|---|
| Service type | bus service, paratransit, express bus service, bus rapid transit, highway construction, transportation planning |
| Website | rtcwashoe.com |
The Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County (RTC) is the public body responsible for the transportation needs throughout Reno, Sparks, and Washoe County, Nevada. The RTC, created by the State of Nevada in 1979, is an amalgamation of the Regional Street and Highway Commission, the Regional Transit Commission and the Washoe County Area Transportation Study Policy Committee. They provide public transportation services, street and highway construction, and transportation planning.
RTC RIDE is the public transit bus system. From its inception as Citifare in the late 1970s, the system has since been rebranded and has grown to include a service area of approximately 60 square miles (160 km2) and an annual ridership of 7.5 million.
During the early part of the 20th Century, streetcars provided public transportation between Reno and Sparks and served Downtown Reno, the University of Nevada, and the early suburbs of Reno. By the late 1920s, the streetcars became unprofitable and the tracks were removed. The Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County (RTC) created the Citifare bus system after several decades of substandard private bus transit. Citifare service began on September 17, 1978 with five used buses serving four routes. Throughout the next twenty five years, the system grew to a fleet of 75 buses operating 30 routes. These years also saw the construction of two transit centers—CitiCenter in Downtown Reno in 1984 and CitiStation near Victorian Square in Downtown Sparks. By 2003, the growing success of the system, coupled with planning efforts to incorporate bus rapid transit and transit oriented development into the community, lead the RTC to implement a rebranding of the entire organization, as well as Citifare, over the upcoming years.
With the rebranding of the entire organization, planning, streets and highways construction, and public transportation were streamlined to provide a better identity for the organization and to improve service to the community. Original Nova coaches were gradually replaced with low floor Gillig coaches. New logos and bus livery was implemented. New shelters and bus stop signage were also introduced. The RTC also began working on new capital projects to replace the aging CitiCenter and CitiStation transit terminals. In October 2008, RTC opened RTC Centennial Plaza in Sparks and the RTC Citicenter in downtown Reno was replaced by the new RTC 4th Street Station on October 31, 2010.
...
Wikipedia