Is There Public Transportation in Santa Fe, New Mexico? (What you should know)

Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA downtown skyline at dusk.

Before visiting or moving to a new city, it can be important to know about the public transportation offered by a specific location. This information is beneficial for individuals who would need to rely on public transportation as a means to get around. So, is there public transportation in Santa Fe, New Mexico?

There is public transportation in Santa Fe, New Mexico. There is a bus system known as the Santa Fe Trails Bus Service that helps individuals get from one location to the next. There are also rideshare services that make it possible for people without cars to get around the city.

There is a lot of information that can make traveling with public transportation easier. Learning information about public transportation in a specific city can be overwhelming at first. After doing research, the following information has been compiled to help individuals begin learning about public transportation in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Santa Fe’s Public Transportation

Like many of the major cities throughout the United States, Santa Fe offers its residents and visitors public transportation. This allows individuals in the area to get around without needing to have access to a car.

The use of public transportation in the Santa Fe area allows individuals to avoid having to pay for street parking or even having to worry about finding a parking spot on a busy day. Public transportation allows residents of this city to get to and from work without having to rely on their own cars to get around.

With six different colleges and universities located in Santa Fe, there are many students that need to be able to get to and from locations without having to rely on owning a car or knowing someone else who owns a car. Public transportation offers these college students a way to get to and from classes, the grocery store, their jobs, and their apartments. This allows these students to focus on their studies without needing to stress about saving up for a car.

With options of public transportation, individuals visiting the Santa Fe area have no need for a rental car they cannot afford. These tourists and visitors are still about to see the sights and attractions that the city has to offer without having to rely on a rental car to get from one tourist destination to the next.

Santa Fe Trails Bus Service

City buses in the parking lot at the bus station

The most common means of public transportation in this city is the Santa Fe Trails Bus Service. This allows residents and visitors to have access to buses that have ten routes in different parts of the city.

In order to ride, an individual needs to pay the fee either at the Santa FeOpens in a new tab. Trails Bus Service office or in exact cash upon boarding the bus. There are different types of tickets that can be purchased depending on someone’s needs. There is a one-dollar one-way pass as well as a day pass and a weekly bus pass. There are also bus passes that are more long-term available to students attending the local colleges or universities as well as senior citizens.

Riders are able to access the bus schedule that includes the times as well as the stops on the Santa Fe Trails Bus Service’s website. This website also gives some tips for individuals who are new to using public buses as a means of public transportation.

Using Rideshare Services in Santa Fe

RideshareOpens in a new tab. services are becoming a more popular means of public transportation throughout the United States. There are two different rideshare companies that can be found in the Santa Fe area: Uber and Lyft. These are the two more common rideshare services used by individuals in cities.

There are some residents of the Santa Fe area that are fans of these rideshare services in the area, but many feel that the drivers have a tendency to be unreliable.

Before using Uber or Lyft, it is important to check the rideshare apps to make sure that there are drivers who are available to provide rides at that specific time. Most people in the Santa Fe area have noticed that there are the least amount of drivers available in the morning.

Ways to Get to and From the Airport

For many individuals in the area, it is important to know ways to use public transportationOpens in a new tab. to get to the airport for travel to other locations. In Santa Fe, there is a shuttle that runs daily from the downtown area to the airport. This allows individuals to travel to and from the airport without having to rely on rideshare services or renting a car.

The shuttles run daily, which means it is possible to get to the airport for a flight any day of the week. While there might be differing hours on holidays and weekends, this websiteOpens in a new tab. provides shuttle riders with all the information needed to travel to the airport safely.

There are also taxis located in the downtown area of Santa Fe that are able to take individuals to the airport. This also individuals to avoid having to share a shuttle with strangers if they are not comfortable with that. There is a number that can be called in order to request a taxicab as a means of transportation. Calling this number allows individuals to avoid having to wait at a taxi stand for the next available cab driver.

Is Public Transportation in Santa Fe Necessary?

Santa Fe has many biking trails that can make it easy to use a bicycle as a means of transportationOpens in a new tab.. Many residents enjoy visiting the numerous biking trails that are present in the Santa Fe area.

The Santa Fe area does not have very safe sidewalks, which makes getting around the city by walking to be unsafe and often dangerous. The lack of accessibility to safe sidewalks makes it hard for individuals to get around the city without having access to public transportation.

There are many individuals who rely on the public transportation offered by Santa Fe as their sole means of transportation to and from the various locations needed to be visited.

Ways Santa Fe’s Public Transportation Can Improve

Photo of several yellow taxi on street in summer afternoon.Lensflare effect

The local residents of Santa Fe have many suggestions on ways that public transportation can be improved in this area. Improving this would allow more individuals in the city to rely less on transportation themselves to and from work and more on getting around using public transportation.

There are some flaws when it comes to Santa Fe Trails Bus Service. For starters, the busing schedules are not always up to date, which can make it difficult for individuals to get to and from their destinations in a reasonable time. Many residents believe that the bus stops are rundown and feel unsafe to many of them.

This could be improved by offering more than only ten routes, this would allow more busses to be providing individuals in the Santa Fe area with rides. There would be fewer stops per bus, which means there are fewer chances for the buses to be running behind schedule.

Building more structured bus stops can allow riders to feel safer and more secure while they are waiting at the stop for the arrival of their bus. Having a sheltered structure at these spots could allow individuals to safely wait for the bus regardless of the weather conditions.

For individuals with disabilities, there is a special number that needs to be called in order to have a bus with wheelchair accessibility do the pick-up. Rather than relying on these individuals to make a call in order to be given access to public transportation, the buses used by the Santa Fe Trails Bus Service could all have handicap accessibility.

Many residents of Santa Fe, they feel as though using rideshare services is not reliable. There are often only one driver offering rides per evening, which make the wait time extremely long. If these companies were to offer their employees better pay, perhaps more individuals in the area would begin driving for either Uber or Lyft, which would improve the overall experience of using rideshare services as public transportation.

The shuttles offered in Santa Fe, Mexico state that they run daily, however, they are often not running or in service because of various issues, which can make getting to and from the airport to be frustrating. Rather than randomly shutting down, this shuttle system should have access to more shuttles to use when others need maintenance work done.

While there are taxis that can be found in Santa Fe, there are fewer each year. By having these drivers all work for one cab company, it is possible to have reliable transportation found within these taxis. Individuals would not feel forced into using the shuttle to get to the airport or using Uber or Lyft to get around the downtown area.

Improving the public transportation in Santa Fe, New Mexico would improve the overall quality of life that is offered to the residents as well as the individuals who choose to visit this city.

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