VIA Metropolitan Transit adopts 2025 operating budget and details future plans
The VIA Metropolitan Transit Board of Trusteesadopted a $307.6 million operating budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. The operating budget focuses on advancing the Keep SA Moving plan, workforce retention/ recruitment and ridership growth.
Under the spending plan, VIA Metropolitan Transit will keep its fare structure unchanged for a ninth consecutive year, keeping the cost to ride among the lowest in the U.S. while investing heavily in service delivery and improvements to the system. This will include:
- 4.1 percent increase for fixed-route service to improve reliability and frequency on bus routes
- 1.8 percent increase for VIAtrans to meet growing service demand
- 39.7 percent increase for VIA Link on-demand service to meet demand and support the addition of a fifth zone downtown
The budget supports continued ridership growth on all VIA Metropolitan Transit services. From October 2023 to June 2024, the agency says average weekday ridership has grown by 12.2 percent. During the same time, VIAtrans ridership has grown by about six percent and VIA Link ridership has grown by more than 65 percent, in part due to new service. Ridership is expected to continue its upward trajectory in the coming FY.
The operating budget projects a 3.45 percent growth in revenue from the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County sales tax levied across VIA Metropolitan Transit’s service area.
VIA Metropolitan Transit’s capital budget for the upcoming FY is $265.9 million, nearly 60 percent of which is slated for continued development of the Advanced Rapid Transit North-South corridor, known as the VIA Rapid Green Line. Expected to open in 2027, the region’s first Rapid corridor will significantly reduce travel time for transit riders and make improvements designed to benefit drivers, cyclists and pedestrians as well.
The FY25 budget also includes annual wage increases of four percent for all employees in the new FY.
“This year’s budget exemplifies our organization’s dedication to prioritizing improvements that benefit our community, taking care of our employees and continuing the investments that are driving San Antonio to a more mobile future,” said VIA Metropolitan Transit President and CEO Jeffrey C. Arndt.
The board also amended their working conditions policy, which lays out wages and certain conditions of employment for many front-line employees. The agency notes the policy was last updated three years ago and expired last month. For the past several months, VIA Metropolitan Transit management met with hourly-employee representatives from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 694 to discuss proposed changes.
The working-conditions policy approved by the board sets wage increases through Sept. 30, 2027, and includes a four percent increase in 2024, followed by 3.5 percent annually for the subsequent two years.
Additionally, fleet and facilities hourly employees will receive a $2 increase to their wage rate, which will be retroactively applied to wages from Aug. 1 of this year. The $2 increase to the hourly rate for all maintenance employees is designed to better align those wages with other transit agencies and the local market.
The three-year net cost of the updated working conditions is approximately $9.3 million and is proportionally reflected in the FY25 budget.
Board trustees also voted to induct into VIA Metropolitan Transit’s Hall of Honor three well-known community leaders:
- Former Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff
- The late Glen Hartman, a former city council member who played a pivotal role in the creation of VIA Metropolitan Transit
- The late Robert Thompson, a bus operator and labor leader who advocated for public-sector employees, including before the U.S. Supreme Court.
