About SDMTS

ORGANIZATION
Creation	The Metropolitan Transit Development Board (MTDB) was created in 1975 by the passage of California Senate Bill 101 and came into existence on January 1, 1976. In 1984, the Governor signed Senate Bill 1736, which expanded the MTD Board of Directors from 8 to 15 members. In 2002, Senate Bill 1703 merged MTDB’s planning, financial programming, project development, and construction functions into a new regional agency known as the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG). In 2005, MTDB changed its name to the Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) which reflects the new relationship with SANDAG and the reorganization of five separate operations into one agency.
Subsidiary Corporations	MTS owns assets of: San Diego Trolley, Inc. (SDTI) - the light rail transit (LRT) operator; San Diego Transit Corporation(SDTC) - the major bus operator in the region; the San Diego & Arizona Eastern (SD&AE) Railway Company, which owns 108 miles of track and right-of-way; and San Diego Vintage Trolley, Inc., a non profit corporation established to restore historic trolley vehicles.
Areas of Jursidiction	About 570 square miles of the urbanized areas of San Diego County as well as the rural parts of East County, 3,240 total square miles, providing service to approximately 3 million San Diego residents.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Provision of Services	MTS provides bus and rail services directly or by contract with public or private operators. MTS determines the routing, stops, frequency of service, and hours of operation for its existing services.
Light Rail	Light rail service is operated by SDTI on three lines (the Blue, Orange and Green Lines) with a total of 53 stations and 52 miles of double track rail.
Bus	82 fixed-bus routes operated by MTS Bus. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) complementary paratransit service is provided by MTS Access and ADA Suburban Paratransit.
Freight	MTS contracts with the San Diego & Imperial Valley (SD&IV) Railroad and the Carrizo Gorge Railway (CZRY) to provide freight service to San Diego shippers over SD&AE right-of-way. SD&IV shares certain tracks with SDTI, operating during non-service trolley hours.
Operating Cost	Approximately $229 million; $80 million comes from fares. Fare revenue accounts for 35% of annual operating cost, which is one of the highest fare box recovery ratios among similar transit systems.
Ridership	94 million annual passengers or 290,000 each weekday. MTS provides approximately 2 million hours or service across 28 million miles each year.
Planning and Scheduling	MTS is responsible for the service planning, scheduling, and performance monitoring of all MTS transit services.
Funding	MTS receives funding from various federal, state, and local sources. The primary sources are the California Transportation Development Act (TDA), the Federal section 5307 and 5309 (preventative maintenance funds), State Transit Assistance (STA) and TransNet funds (local sales tax).
Taxicab Administration	MTS licenses and regulates taxicabs, jitneys, and other private for-hire passenger transportation services by contract with the cities of San Diego, El Cajon, Imperial Beach, La Mesa, Lemon Grove, Poway, and Santee.

Download a PDF version of the MTS Fact Sheet

General Information