SacRT and Yolobus provide bus transit service to the Sacramento airport.

• SacRT Route 142 Airport has a frequency of 60 minutes, from 5:35AM to 10:35PM, departing downtown, seven days a week.
• Yolobus 42A/42B Intercity Loop (Airport Service) frequency is 30 to 45 minutes, from 6:48AM to 11:28PM, departing downtown, seven days a week.

The original concept when Route 142 was implemented was to have the two services combine in such as way as to achieve 30 minute or better, transparent, service, however, this was only partly achieved.

These schedules do not cover early flights or late flights at the airport, but more importantly, do not provide enough span of service for many airport employees, many of whom would like to use transit. Observation indicates that most travelers who use Sacramento International Airport are not transit users, even when the schedule does meet their needs. The airport has over 17,000 public parking spots, plus an unknown number of employee spots. Hard for transit to compete with that abundance!

Dan Allison took a sample trip mid-day on SacRT and then Yolobus: From downtown, Route 142 had two employees to the airport, and one departing. At the airport, 42B (counterclockwise, to Woodland, etc.) had one employee off, two travelers on. 42A (clockwise, to Sacramento) had four already on (could be Woodland or Terminal A employees), three travelers on, and one employee on. While waiting for the transit bus, about 40 people got on a rental car shuttle, another 20 had to wait for next shuttle. The airport operates a continuous stream of shuttle buses to the various parking areas.

At the L St & 14th stop, SacRT has a barely readable schedule display. At airport terminal B, Yolobus has a readable and audible display, and SacRT has a separate readable and audible display.

The buses in service on SacRT Route 142 do not provide much luggage storage. Some of the buses are new electric buses, and have some accommodation for travelers, but older buses without any accommodation are also used. Buses on Yolobus 42A/42B route do not have luggage storage.

Ridership to the airport on SacRT 142 and Yolobus 42A/42B is low compared to other routes. Though SacRT stopped publishing route ridership numbers shortly after Route 142 was established, observation indicates low ridership. Route 142 was initiated in 2019, dropped in 2020, and renewed in 2021. Yolobus 42A/42B ridership is moderate, with many other destinations for riders besides the airport, but is only about 10% of total ridership for the system, and appears to be declining.

Some people believe that if service were only better, more frequent, better coordinated, longer span of service, better buses for travelers with luggage, that there would be more riders. Perhaps. Many people also believe that if light rail were built to the airport, ridership would be much higher. Perhaps. STAR believes that ridership demand must be demonstrated by high ridership on bus routes before considering light rail along a similar alignment. That ridership demand has not so far been demonstrated. Though light rail might operate with a higher frequency, the span of service would not likely be any better than bus service, thereby leaving out many employees and some travelers.

STAR does not believe that Green Line light rail to the airport has a demonstrated riderships demand, nor is there likely funding for such an expensive project. The first step is to provide frequency service with a long span of hours, allow ridership to build, and only then consider light rail.

Below, a gallery of photos on airport transit service. Note that it is not possible to take a photo of digital display signs with a digital camera (iPhone), but the two airport display signs were readable, the SacRT L Street & 14th Street stop display was barely readable.

• Green Line to the Airport
• SacRT