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Rahsaan Ellison-Johnson is blind. He relies on public transportation three to four times a week to get to Sacramento State, where he works with disabled students.
He uses two transit systems, San Joaquin Regional Transit District and Sacramento Regional Transit, or SacRT, to get to his destination, which means he utilizes two methods of payment to get to and from work.
“Where I live, I use [San Joaquin County RTD’s] app, which has multiple transit agencies on it so that’s very helpful,” he said. “I mean it would be just great if it was all interchangeable.”
He rides for free in Sacramento because Sacramento State provided him a sticker for free rides, but he would otherwise have to utilize a different application or payment method to ride on both transit systems.
“As someone who grew up in the Bay Area, when I go anywhere west of Pleasanton, I could use my Clipper Card on all those transportation agencies,” he said. “I know if I go to a different state or even a different part of California, because it’s so big, I expect to utilize different means of payment. We should just have a unified transportation card or app.”
SacRT’s new Tap2Ride program could be part of that solution. The new program lets riders tap their phones or contactless debit or credit cards to pay for their fare, meaning one less app for people like Ellison-Johnson who rely on two or more transit services to get to work.
Jessica Gonzalez is a spokesperson for SacRT. She said this program was intended to “remove barriers.”
“Just as easy as many people use contactless fare payment to get their coffee,” she said. “Well, you can now do the same thing to pay for your bus fare, really eliminating the need for cash or paper tickets.”
Gonzalez assured that cash will still be accepted as payment.
Notably, she said seniors, Medicare cardholders and veterans will be eligible for discount fare. All they need to do is visit SacRT's website to verify their eligibility, which Gonzalez said can be done through “state departments we have portals with.”
“From there, once your card or device you're using is registered, when you tap, you actually get the discount fare,” she said.
She noted that veterans are being included in the discount for the first time ever and will receive 50% off on rides.
Phase one of the program launched April 1 and involved the installation of Tap2Ride devices on buses, SacRT GO paratransit vehicles and at fare vending machines at all light rail stations, meaning riders are now able to use their contactless debit or credit cards and mobile wallets to pay fares and transfer seamlessly between buses.
However, fare transfer benefits between bus and light rail, including a 90-minute window and a 25-cent transfer fee, are not yet valid. That'll come with phase two of the project, which is expected to be completed later this year.
“Phase two will be coming later this year because we know many of our riders don't just ride the bus or light rail, they do a combination,” she said. “For those riders, I wouldn't take advantage of it quite yet.”
A Sacramento Regional Transit light rail heading to Downtown Sacramento along the Gold Line Thursday, April 17, 2025, at the University and 65th stop in Sacramento.(Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio)
Creating accessibility
Praveen Kumar is an international student who has attended Sacramento State for roughly a year. Although he gets to ride SacRT for free, he said he’s noticed issues with new riders not understanding how to pay on the light rail.
“Sometimes, new people don’t know they need a ticket,” he said.
He noted that he’s used ZipPass, a smartphone application that lets users purchase rides, in the past and has had a hard time paying for rides due to bad internet connection. He said a program like Tap2Ride could fix that problem for other riders.
Gonzalez acknowledged that some people don't have smartphones or might not want to download another app, so this service aims to make riding the bus or light rail easier for them.
“They just want a simple way to pay,” she added. “You can pay with your Apple Watch, your phone, your contactless credit card or debit card. Really, just trying to create as many possible easy ways for people to pay their fare.”
What’s next?
SacRT is working on creating an “all-in-one application” that will help riders manage fare payment, trip planning, alerts and more, according to Gonzalez.
“We don't have a rollout date yet, but it's either end of summer or early fall,” she said. “That's kind of our next step in the process to give riders an easier, more seamless transit experience.”
Later this month, SacRT will also be launching a new website that Gonzalez said will be “more accessible and user-friendly” with better ways to plan trips and find schedules.
“You'll be able to actually print your own schedule from home, which we're really excited about,” she said. “It's been a two-year project in the works, and really the big focus on that was accessibility.”
Other projects include the new Dos Rios Station for the Blue Line and planning projects underway for its Bus Rapid Transit Implementation Plan.
Safety First
One of SacRT’s biggest goals is to create safer streets, not just for its riders, but also for other drivers. Gonzalez called this a “ripple effect for safety.”
“If there’s more people taking transit, there’s fewer cars on the road, which would reduce traffic, make it safer for those pedestrians, cyclists and even other drivers,” she said.
She cited data from the American Public Transportation Association that found public transportation is 10 times safer per mile than traveling by car. Additionally, Smart Growth America ranked the Sacramento region 20th in the United States for pedestrian road fatalities.
“That’s something that we work with the city on, we work with the county on, because we can’t control the sidewalks, the signaling, the crosswalks and things like that,” she said. “But we definitely work with them closely on areas that we see there could be challenges or issues, or incidents that arise.”
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