Can VIA’s public transportation infrastructure keep pace with Southside growth?

Every morning, residents who live at the Marshall Meadows Apartments have to walk two blocks to the nearest bus stop.

Under a hot sun, it’s at least a 10-minute walk.

In 2020, a bus stop that was right outside the three-story, 250-unit income-restricted apartment homes was suddenly taken away, part of VIA Metropolitan’s route 40 — which ran from South Saint Mary’s and Roosevelt streets to the San Antonio Missions.

The suspension of route 40 was part of regularly planned adjustments VIA makes three times a year, taking into account customer demand, ridership and its own resources to cover all the stops and provide its services.

Whenever San Antonio’s public transit agency makes route changes, it redirects riders affected to nearby bus stops covering similar areas, and in some cases replacing them with its six-passenger VIA Link rideshare, which can be booked on the Via Link app.

But as San Antonio’s South Side booms with new businesses, education and job opportunities, many of its residents believe that more bus stops and improved wait times are needed for the growing population.

“Our area of town is growing very fast,” said District 4 Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia, whose district covers much of the Southwest Side. “I don’t think VIA is able to keep up with the growth.”

Over the past decade, the population of the South Side grew by more than 50,000 people and it’s expected to continue that pace, according to the economic development organization Greater:SATX.

“The growth is not stopping, it’s going to continue,” Rocha Garcia said. “I do think we are behind the ball on access to transportation on the South Side.”

Bus and VIA Link ridership on the South Side during the second quarter of this fiscal year has increased by 15% compared to the same time frame last year, VIA spokesman Josh Baugh said. For the sake of that data, VIA considers the “South Side” from Port San Antonio to Southwest McCreless Market.

VIA expanded VIA Link to the South Side in August 2022, thanks to a $250,000 grant from the Toyota USA Foundation. Before then, VIA Link only existed in two zones on the North Side.

The percentage of VIA’s service hours dedicated to the South Side has increased from 26% to 29% over the past four years, Baugh said.

Baugh estimated that more than 1.28 million trips of VIA’s 7.19 million trips in the second quarter of 2024 came from the South Side — 18% of ridership overall.

Green Line plans

Opening in 2027, VIA’s planned Green Line rapid bus route will connect San Antonio’s north and south corridors along 11.7 miles from San Antonio International Airport to the San Antonio Missions and Brooks Transit Center, and will include 26 new stations.

Those rapid buses will run every 10 minutes on weekdays and 15 minutes on weekends during daytime hours, according to VIA. Construction is set to begin this year, with utility relocation along the route.

But for residents who use public transit on the South Side, 2027 is a long way off.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, VIA paused nine of its routes due to low ridership and a need to reallocate resources as it dealt with fewer bus drivers at a time when more drivers were needed to accommodate social distancing and limited passenger guidelines, according to VIA.

One was route 40, which residents remember paused in April 2020 along with routes 48 and 54 on the South Side, routes 11,16 and 631 on the East and Northeast sides and 65, 70 and 301 on the West and Northwest sides.

Bus stop benches and signs were removed by January 2022, and VIA refocused its resources to better serve high-use routes. While those routes never fully returned to service, eight extensions or branches from the shuttered routes are still in service today — including route 42, which includes the stop two blocks from Marshall Meadows, according to VIA.

Years before that, VIA retired more routes and replaced them with VIA Link.

Getting across town

Sixty-three-year-old Margarita Rubio, who’s relied on VIA for her transportation since the 1980s, recalls taking route 51 from her neighborhood in the Southwest part of South San Antonio across the city.

“They’ve taken away a lot of the bus routes,” Rubio said. “It’s not just the South Side. … It’s difficult to get around when you were used to … having a bus line that picked you up from A to B. Now you’re having to wait an hour or two hours [for VIA Link].”

VIA Link wait times are similar to bus frequencies, according to VIA — the agency said in a statement that a VIA Link van is usually available to pick up a passenger in less than 20 minutes.

For Rubio, who relies on VIA Link to get four miles over to the Madla Transit Center to catch a bus to the Texas Diabetes Institute on the city’s West Side, if anything goes wrong on the two-hour route, she could miss an appointment.

Rubio has developed lymphedema, swelling in her legs, making what used to be easy walks and movement much harder.

On the first leg of her journey, she has to walk to a neighbor’s home on her street to catch the VIA Link; it doesn’t go door-to-door. The last leg of her travel, bus 103, drops her off at Zarzamora and San Fernando streets in front of the clinic.

On Friday at 11:29 a.m., Rubio said she was already running late for her appointment at 1 p.m. She said she would have to book an Uber.

“I don’t get a paycheck, I don’t get Social Security. Sometimes it’s $6 to ride, but I tip them. Sometimes it’s $18 to ride from here to Madla. … One time it was $52. I didn’t have enough money in the bank,” she said.

And when there’s not enough money, she calls what she referred to as the “Hood Uber,” an “underground” service of locals who offer rideshare services at lower rates and charge per minute or depending on the area — but she knows it’s unsafe.

Rubio’s story of needing to find another way to get around town isn’t unique, Rocha Garcia said: “Our residents have to find alternative ways — because they can’t wait a couple of hours, or it’s dangerous for them to be out.”

One-third of District 4’s residents are over age 55, Rocha Garcia said, and transit can become more complicated with age.

“People have become car-dependent because there’s no other option,” Rocha Garcia said. “People will literally go into debt to get a vehicle … because we can’t rely on public transportation out there.”

VIA Link’s operating hours can also present a barrier for service workers who work late nights and close at restaurants or businesses by 10 p.m., said Rubio, who watches people walking and biking home from the bus stop because the VIA Link service doesn’t operate past 9:30 p.m.

And unsheltered bus stops without cover also create a deterrent for South Side residents waiting for the bus, especially on hot and rainy days, Rocha Garcia said.

Baugh said 2,600 of VIA’s 6,000 bus stops are sheltered, and shelters are prioritized geographically depending on the number of daily boardings and proximity to places like hospitals and grocery stores.

“I think we need more input in VIA’s future plans,” Rocha Garcia said. “I don’t think they’re built with input from residents who really need it the most.”

Rocha Garcia said VIA could create a transportation plan through listening to residents, taking a qualitative approach, being random about feedback and being intentional.

After the Green Line, VIA’s Silver Line rapid bus route will connect San Antonio’s East Side to the West Side across downtown.

On that project, pre-construction work could begin in 2025 with service opening in 2029, VIA has said.