Elk Grove borrows spare Sacramento RT buses to cover routes

e-Tran maintenance issues causing fleet problems 

The City of Elk Grove and the Sacramento Regional Transit District (RT) are working together to address a temporary e-tran bus shortage in Elk Grove.

Because of maintenance problems with Elk Grove buses, the city has borrowed 10 40-foot buses from RT's reserve fleet, beginning Monday. This loan will allow the Elk Grove to ensure that all routes are running and that the service riders expect is delivered.

“In a time when transit agencies are struggling to do more with less, the City of Elk Grove’s partnership with RT will keep local transit priorities strong,” Mayor Sophia Scherman said. “The City of Elk Grove thanks RT for the support, and for helping e-tran provide passengers the consistent level of service they expect and deserve.”

A combination of maintenance issues has created short-term challenges in providing enough fleet to meet daily e-tran transit services. In order to maintain current service levels, the City of Elk Grove promptly rented vans last week to minimize delayed or cancelled runs.

As an interim measure, the vans bridged the gap as the City reached out to partner with outside agencies for assistance. Friday morning, the City received notification that RT had available fleet the City could utilize in time for the Monday morning commute.

“This regional partnership demonstrates the commitment of public agencies to provide high quality transit service and to address the needs of all transit customers,” said Mike Wiley, RT General Manager/CEO. 

The City and RT will continue discussions this week to develop an agreement covering maintenance and the technical reporting details. RT has made the vehicles available free of charge to the City of Elk Grove. The City expects to borrow the RT buses for approximately eight months.

“e-tran staff is working diligently to ensure that our full services are up and operational,” e-tran Transit Manager Tiffani Fink said. “In addition to restoring service in the short term, we are developing a course of action to improve our fleet and ensure that we are able to provide reliable and consistent service to our passengers.”