YARTS rolls to success

MERCED
August 26, 2009 12:03am

Ten years into hauling tourists and park workers to and from Yosemite National Park, Merced-based Yosemite Regional Transportation System (YARTS) says it’s going stronger than ever, carrying over 550,000 passengers in that time.

Mentioning the efforts to get funding, teamwork to get approvals, and scramble to find solutions to the rock slide that closed down Highway 140 for a while, YARTS Chairwoman Vicki Bauer compared the project to steering a Viking ship. “All hands must be on the oars and pulling together,” she says.

The concept for YARTS began in 1992 when Mariposa Supervisor Art Baggett, Gwen Foster, Mariposa County Public Works, and others brought forward the idea of a regional transit system for the Yosemite region. The first bus hit the highway in May 2000, capping a process that had taken eight years.

Both visitors and employees ride YARTS to reduce congestion in the park, not to mention that riding makes it easier to see the dramatic scenery, say the line’s boosters.

The service is available from Mariposa, Merced, and Mono counties. The National Park Service supports YARTS, including a program that subsidizes employee commute costs. About 35 percent of YARTS riders are commuters.

“Mariposa economy is strongly based on tourism. YARTS encourages tourism by providing transportation options for travelers who come to the Yosemite region,” says Mariposa County Supervisor Brad Aborn.

YARTS contracts for management, planning and administrative services with Merced County Association of Governments, whose executive director, Jesse Brown, also functions as the executive director of YARTS. MCAG’s Dick Whittington is the YARTS transit manager.