Bus service in Ceres and the rest of Stanislaus County is changing with new and restructured routes.
In the past year the Stanislaus Regional Transit Authority (StaRT) has been working “to redesign the fixed route system to be more effective, really to get more people on the bus,” CEO Adam Barth told the council on Monday, Feb. 27.
The changes took effect on Monday, March 5.
In 2020 the city of Ceres turned over its public transit system over to the city of Modesto which operates the Modesto bus system. Since that time the Stanislaus Regional Transit Authority is a consolidation of the county’s bus system known as StaRT and MAX rebranded as ‘Ride the S.’
Ceres has five routes going through it.
Route 29 is changing to include Route 15 and will run every half hour on the weekdays and every hour on the weekends.
Route 42 on the south Modesto side also comes into Ceres down Whitmore Avenue, Blaker Road near Central Valley High School and over the freeway to the Walmart Supercenter, which is becoming a hub for all the routes. Like Route 29, Route 42 will run every half hour on the weekdays and every hour on the weekends.
Route 47 has been restructured from the old Route 36 which went into west Modesto. It will also service Hatch Road from Carpenter to Mitchell roads and to the Supercenter.
“A lot of what we heard from community, especially west and south Modesto, is that they wanted more direct access into Ceres and so this route provides that direct access,” said Barth.
Route 61 comes into the south side of Ceres from Hughson and up the freeway into Modesto. The route runs every hour and on weekends as well.
Route 15 goes from Turlock through Keyes and to the Ceres Walmart seven days a week.
Many of the routes were not previously available on Sundays.
In the past StaRT had a ride guide that was too busy for most people so now a brochure has been produced for each route. They will be available on the buses and at the Ceres Community Center.
Many of the old bus stops will remain unchanged while new stops will be added to new sections of routes. An information post will be available with a QR code to take riders to the Track the S app on their smart phones. The app lets a rider track the bus in real time.
Those who are disabled and unable to ride the fixed route bus can continue using the ADA Paratransit service for door-to-door rides for $2.50.
The medi-van service runs from Modesto to major medical facilities in the Bay Area like UCSF or Stanford University Medical Center. Reservations must be made in advance with return trips on the same day or subsequent days. The cost is $10 for the patient.
The fare remains at $2 per rider to use the system all day long. The cost of a one-day pass is $1 for veterans, seniors and the disabled. StaRT also offers seven- and 31-day passes.
Youth aged 0-8 may ride for free on all StaRT buses as well as any MJC student.
“There are a lot of changes that are coming, not just here in Ceres but throughout our system and we know that change can be hard sometimes but these routes are meant to make it a whole lot easier to ride the bus and get around the county and to get more people to more places.”
For more information, visit ridethes.org.
