Explore Shasta County for free, RABA offers no-cost bus rides this summer

SHASTA COUNTY, Calif. — If you’re looking to get out and go places this summer but don’t have a mode of transportation to do that, the Redding Area Bus Authority (RABA) can help make that happen with their free fares summer program.

The free summer fares are for any of the Monday through Saturday routes that go throughout Shasta County like the flex routes 15 and 18 that go to the Redding airport or the 299X Burney Express route and many more.

RABA Transit Manager John Andoh told the Northstate’s News Tyler Van Dyke that from 2022 to last year data shows they saw an increase in riders taking advantage of the free program.

“In fiscal year ‘23 we carried 157,390 passenger trips so, in essence, we doubled what we carried in fiscal year ‘22, and what we learned is we had some new riders take advantage of the system and we also had existing riders make more trips and by them making more trips on the transit system they were able to spend the money they would’ve paid us into our economy,” Andoh continued, “When we compared it to fiscal year ‘22 we saw about a 33 percent increase in ridership.”

They’re hoping to have another increase in ridership during the program again this year.

Andoh explained what the goal of the program is.

“The intent of creating what we’re calling the free summers in Shasta program is to really get people to experience public transportation, as you know it’s very hot in Shasta County and sometimes people just don’t want to necessarily be out in the heat so by offering this free public transportation opportunity we can get people to cooling centers to the mall to grocery stores to all quality of life opportunities without having to have any barriers of trying to find money,” Andoh said.

Another great way to get out and enjoy the beach for summer if you can’t make it to the coast or the bay area is to take advantage of what they call the Beach Bus, with free service to Brandy Creek Beach at beautiful Whiskeytown Lake on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays only.

The Shasta Connect Sunday transit service which is a door-to-door reservation-based service similar to Uber and Lyft is also free during the free summer program, which will go up until September 30.