Kings Area Regional Transit
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Kings Area Regional Transit (KART, previously Kings Area Rural Transit) is the primary bus service serving residents and visitors to the cities of
Avenal Avenal (Spanish for "Oat field") is a city in Kings County, California, United States. Avenal is located southwest of Hanford, at an elevation of . It is part of the Hanford– Corcoran Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA Code 25260), which en ...
, Hanford, and Lemoore in
Kings County, California Kings County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. The population was 152,486 at the 2020 census. The California Department of Finance estimated the county's population was 152,940 as of July 1, 2019.http://dof.ca.gov/Forecasting ...
. KART is the branded service operated by the Kings County Area Public Transit Agency (KCAPTA) since June 1980; KCAPTA has contracted with
MV Transportation MV Transportation, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas., is the largest privately-owned passenger transportation contracting services firm in the United States. The company can provide paratransit, fixed-route, campus and corporate shuttles, and studen ...
to provide operations and maintenance for KART. It provides both intracity routes within and intercity routes between those three cities; in addition, it provides routes serving rural communities within Kings County as well as commuter routes connecting to Fresno Area Express in
Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...
and Visalia Transit in
Visalia Visalia ( ) is a city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California. The population was 141,384 as per the 2020 census. Visalia is the fifth-largest city in the San Joaquin Valley, the 42nd most populous in California, and 192nd in ...
.


History

The Kings County Area Public Transit Agency is a
joint powers agency A joint powers authority (JPA) is an entity permitted under the laws of some U.S. states, whereby two or more public authorities (e.g. local governments, or utility or transport districts), not necessarily located in the same state, may jointly ex ...
that began operations in June 1980, formed by the four cities of Avenal, Cororan, Hanford, and Lemoore in partnership with the County of Kings. The City of Corcoran withdrew from KCAPTA two years later. On July 5, 2005, KCAPTA became a separate public entity; prior to that time, KCAPTA was part of the county government. KCAPTA also was responsible for operating vanpool programs in Kings County between 2001 and 2012. The vanpool programs were transferred to a new joint powers agency, CalVans in 2012.


Structure

KCAPTA is governed by a five-person board of directors, consisting of two members appointed from the Kings County Board of Supervisors, and one member each from the three cities.


Routes and services

KART operates ten local fixed routes (Routes 1–9 in Hanford and Route 20 in Lemoore) and five out-of-town routes (Routes 12, 13, 14, 15, and 17), connecting Hanford with Avenal, Corcoran, Laton, Visalia, and Fresno, respectively. All routes start and end at the Hanford Transit Center, also known as the KART Transfer Center. In addition to its fixed routes, KART operates paratransit services in Hanford, Lemoore, and Armona, providing service to and from destinations within of existing fixed route services. An additional fee is required for service to destinations up to of fixed route services. Flex routes are provided in the same cities during weekdays.


Fares

No change is provided on board the bus. ;Notes


Fleet and facilities

Buses operate primarily from the KART Transfer Center; in addition, KCAPTA has an Administrative Office and KART Maintenance Facility. The existing Transfer Center has 10 bus bays; the Administrative Office is near the Transfer Center on 7th Street in downtown Hanford, and buses enter the site on 8th. Bus operators are provided by MV Transportation. The KART Transfer Center (504 W 7th St) is west of the railroad tracks, near the
Hanford station Hanford station is a train station in Hanford, California served by Amtrak. The station also services the larger city of Visalia, California, to the east. History It was built by the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad in 1897 and ...
serving
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
and the planned Cross Valley Corridor; KCAPTA have acquired in the block bounded by 7th, Brown, 8th, and Harris, approximately to the east and plan to construct a new Hanford Transit Center and administration building there. The new transit center is scheduled to open in 2024. KCAPTA officials presented preliminary designs by RRM Design Group, based in
San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo (; Spanish for " St. Louis the Bishop", ; Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, in the U.S. state of California. Located on the Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfwa ...
, to the Hanford City Council in February 2022.


References


External links

* {{Valley Transit Public transportation in Kings County, California Public transportation in the San Joaquin Valley Area Bus transportation in California