Sacramento Regional Transit · Real-Time Analysis

The Capital
Can't Move.

Sacramento is the capital of the 5th largest economy on Earth. A 15m drive is currently 1h 40m by transit. We built a tool to make that impossible to ignore.

Calculate YoursCompare Cities
Pain Factor
...
slower than driving
Transit Time
...
—
Drive Time
...
same trip, by car
Time Waiting
...
of the trip is standing still
sacrt_live_map.js
Connecting...
Rail: no feed
Loading map...
Bus (GPS — live)
Gold Line (schedule est.)
Blue Line (schedule est.)
Green Line (suspended Jun 2025)
Connecting to SacRT feed...Updates every 15s
pain_factor.js
// Transit Reality Calculator — Sacramento
const trip = {
  origin: "Howe & Arden, Sacramento",
  destination: "Downtown Sacramento",
  transit_minutes: 100,
  drive_minutes: 15,
  wait_minutes: 41,
};

// The number that says everything
const painFactor = trip.transit_minutes / trip.drive_minutes;
// → 6.6 (We are the capital of California.)
Pain Factor
SACRT
6.6×
A 15m drive is currently 1h 40m by transit.

You will spend 41 of those minutes not riding — just waiting.
Trip Breakdown
Transit
1h 40m
Driving
15m
Time waiting at stops41%
46 minutes of this trip is standing still at a stop.
Transit Score · CA Cities
Next Departures
Tap to load
Uses your current location
Light Rail Status
no feed
42 miles of track. No public real-time data.

SacRT's light rail system has no live API feed. Train positions are estimated from schedules.

Parts of Sacramento's transit system are invisible — even to itself.
Calculate your pain ratio

YOUR
COMMUTE

📍
🏁
Your trip
Live
4.6×
Times slower than driving
By Transit
1h 40m
By Car
15m
41% of this trip is waiting — 41 min standing still.
🚶Walk to nearest stop—
⏸Wait for bus—
🚍Transit to destination—
Fix Sac Transit
Sacramento, CA
#0047821
Route
FROM
TO
4.6
×
slower
by transit
0% of trip spent waiting
Trip Breakdown
Walk to stop
0 min
Wait for bus
41 min
Bus ride
59 min
Same trip by car
15 min
Transfers
0
fixsactransit.org
We can do better.

City Pulse

Sacramento Moving
in Real Time

Orbit Field
waiting for movement
SacRT Feed
×

Every glowing point is a live SacRT vehicle. Nearby vehicles connect into a temporary network. When service is thin, the field opens up and goes dark. When routes bunch together, the system burns bright in one place while other parts disappear.

A trip that takes 15 minutes by car can take over an hour by transit. That gap is the pain.

Vehicles
—
Routes
—
Updated
...
Nov 2026 Ballot

What would change this score?

The Safer Sac Streets measure is a half-cent sales tax on the November 2026 ballot generating $75M/year — half dedicated to more frequent bus and light rail service. Here's what the math looks like if headways improve.

Current
Avg headway
28.3 min
Frequency score
4.2/10
Composite score
7/10
→
If measure passes
Avg headway
14 min
est. ~14.3 min reduction
Frequency score
7.8/10
+3.6 pts
Composite score
8.4/10
+1.4 pts

Projection assumes $37.5M/year in transit funding halves current headways. Coverage and pain factor held constant. Frequency is 40% of composite score. This is a data projection, not an endorsement.

Learn more →
fixsactransit · Budget Analysis · NTD FY2024

Sacramento vs.
California's Major Transit Agencies

5 agencies. Same state. Wildly different results. Source: Federal National Transit Database, Report Year 2024.

Sac cost / rider
$15.53
vs $5.05 in San Diego
Sac farebox recovery
7.2%
of operating costs covered by fares
SD cost advantage
3.1×
cheaper per rider than Sacramento
Sac subsidy / rider
$14.40
taxpayer cost per boarding
Cost Per Rider
operating expenses ÷ boardings
1
San Diego
MTS
$5.05
2
San Francisco
SFMTA / Muni
$7.03
3
Los Angeles
LA Metro
$7.99
4
Sacramento
SacRT
$15.53
5
San Jose
VTA
$17.53
Sacramento ranks #4 of 5
Farebox Recovery
fare revenue ÷ operating cost
1
San Diego
MTS
18.9%
2
San Francisco
SFMTA / Muni
8.6%
3
Sacramento
SacRT
7.2%
4
San Jose
VTA
6.2%
5
Los Angeles
LA Metro
6.1%
Sacramento ranks #3 of 5
Taxpayer Subsidy / Rider
public cost per boarding
1
San Diego
MTS
$4.10
2
San Francisco
SFMTA / Muni
$6.42
3
Los Angeles
LA Metro
$7.51
4
Sacramento
SacRT
$14.40
5
San Jose
VTA
$16.46
Sacramento ranks #4 of 5
Annual Riders
million boardings / year
1
Los Angeles
LA Metro
302.61M
2
San Francisco
SFMTA / Muni
160.54M
3
San Diego
MTS
75.68M
4
San Jose
VTA
27.71M
5
Sacramento
SacRT
16.36M
Sacramento ranks #5 of 5 — worst
San Diego is the benchmark
MTS at $5.05/rider is the most cost-efficient large agency in California. Sacramento spends 3.1× more per boarding — for a dramatically worse service product. Same state, same funding mechanisms.
Sacramento's scale trap
At 16M riders, SacRT is too small for economies of scale but too large to be nimble. LA Metro moves 302M riders at $7.99/rider. San Diego moves 75M at $5.05. Sacramento's fixed costs spread across too few trips.
VTA is the warning sign
San Jose's VTA at $17.53/rider and 6.2% farebox recovery is Sacramento's cautionary tale — a system that never achieved ridership density. SacRT at $15.53 and 7.2% farebox is structurally one bad budget cycle behind VTA.
Source: Federal Transit Administration — National Transit Database, Report Year 2024fixsactransit.org
Sacramento, California · State Capital

This Should
Not Be Acceptable.

Thousands of people shuffle into downtown Sacramento every morning, clogging freeways — because transit isn't a real option. We are the capital of a state that leads the world in innovation. We can do better.

View on GitHub