Unitrans will launch expanded weekday service on Wednesday (Sept. 30) with a schedule that will bring buses back to the Silo Terminal for the first time since March. Unitrans also will reinstate fares Wednesday, after having suspended them in March.

The Causeway Connection between the Davis and Sacramento campuses also announced expanded service: 10 additional daily trips in each direction starting today (Sept. 28).

The new Unitrans schedule is not a return to full service; in fact, the campus-city bus system will follow its typical Summer Service from Sept. 28 to Dec. 11 — with the same hours as now, 7 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday, but with more frequency and with buses using the Silo and Memorial Union terminals. Weekend Service stays the same: 8:30 a.m.-7 p.m.

Undergraduates ride fare-free by showing their registration cards, having already paid a campus fee for Unitrans service. The single-ride fare for everyone else, including graduate and professional students, is $1.25.

Passes are available online:

• 10-ride ticket — $7.50
• Monthly pass — $30 (good for the month issued)
• Quarterly pass — $77 (good for one quarter)
• Annual pass — $216 (good from July 1-June 30)

Ten-ride tickets, and monthly and quarterly passes will be available at cash registers at the Coffee House starting Wednesday (Sept. 30) when it reopens. [Passes are no longer available at Transportation Services, and will not be available at the Unitrans offices in South Hall until the offices reopen.]

The fall schedules are available online: Click on a route, then, under “Route Schedule,” choose “09/30/20 to 12/11/20 (Fall)” on the drop-down menu. Schedules also are updated on Google and Nextbus, and you can find printed schedules on buses and at the Unitrans terminals.

Pandemic protocols: Passengers are required to wear face coverings, as are drivers and conductors. Unitrans strives to limit the number of passengers to 15 if possible and asks passengers, when selecting their seats, to spread themselves out from other passengers. All seats and interior hard surfaces are sanitized daily.

Hourly ‘Connections’

With 10 additional trips in each direction, the Causeway Connection is now operating hourly, approximately, from the 6 a.m. hour to the 8 p.m. hour Monday through Friday.

Under the newly expanded schedule — 30 trips total in both directions — all buses make three stops on the Davis campus, the same as the  schedule as modified during the pandemic, and travel directly between the campuses, with no stops at Mace Boulevard or in downtown Sacramento at this time.

Here is a summary of the new schedule:

• Davis to Sacramento — The first of 15 eastbound buses a day departs at 6:07 a.m. and the last one at 8:10 p.m. All buses start their runs at the Silo Terminal and make stops at the Genome Center and the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts before heading to Sacramento.
• Sacramento to Davis — Starting at 45th and Y streets, the first of 15 westbound buses a day departs at 6:20 a.m. and the last one at 8:20 p.m.

Yolobus and Sacramento Regional Transit operate the Causeway Connection as Route 138. See the timetable here, provided by the transit agencies. The agencies advise technical issues are affecting the accuracy of the Causeway Connection schedules on Google Maps and third-party apps.

Pandemic protocols: Face coverings required on all Causeway Connection buses. Yolobus and SacRT also require their bus operators to wear face coverings.

All UC Davis affiliates — undergraduates, graduate and professional students, faculty and staff — are riding fare-free during the Causeway Connection’s first six months, through Nov. 4. SacRT is recommending the continuation of free service for UC Davis affiliates for the duration of the three-year agreement by which SacRT and Yolobus operate the Causeway Connection, and UC Davis is a partner.

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