Metro Ride

Metro Ride provides public bus transportation for the Wausau, Wisconsin area.

Metro Ride

Parent	City of Wausau
Headquarters	420 Plumer Street[1]
Locale	Wausau, Wisconsin
Service type	Bus service, Paratransit
Routes	7 regular routes 10 express routes
Stations	Metro Ride Transit Center 555 Jefferson Street
Fleet	22 Gillig transit coaches
Annual ridership	337,884 (2022)
Website

Metro Ride operates 7 routes in the City of Wausau which run at 30-minute intervals. The service also provides several express routes to supplement the main routes when school is in session.

Hours of operation are 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Buses do not operate on Saturdays or Sundays. The main transfer facility is located in the downtown area, one block from the Marathon County Courthouse. The Wausau Transit Center at 555 Jefferson Street was upgraded and expanded in 2005.^[2] This location also serves intercity buses.

• Metro Ride was formerly known as "Wausau Area Transit System (WATS)" The name now exists in the tagline "Provided by Wausau Area Transit System"

Route list

• A- Grand Ave/Health Center
• B- North 1st Ave/Northcentral Technical College
• D- Bridge St/West High School
• G- Sherman St
• H- North 6th St/Riverview
• I- Stewart Ave/Aspirus Hospital
• J- Thomas St

Service to Rothschild, Schofield and Weston ended in 2015, along with weekend service. At the same time, fares were raised.^[3]

Fares

In 2022, fares are $1.75 for adults, $1.50 for students, $0.85 for seniors, and free for children. Adult fares have been increased from $1.25 in 2015. Additional fare increases had taken place in 2008 and 2012.

Wausau Transit Center

The Wausau Transit Center is located at 555 Jefferson Street in downtown Wausau across from the Marathon County Courthouse. The facility replaced a 1976 transit center located on the adjacent lot to the west of the current center.^[4] The new facility was built in 2005 and has space for about 10 buses. All routes operate from the transit center, where intercity buses from Milwaukee, Janesville and Minneapolis also stop.^[5][6]

Ridership

	Fixed Route Ridership	Paratransit Ridership	Total Ridership	Change over previous year
1999[7]	849,843	21,657	871,500	n/a
2000[7]	827,930	23,982	851,912	02.25%
2001[7]	805,668	21,539	827,207	02.9%
2002[7]	758,583	20,876	779,459	05.77%
2003[7]	725,188	18,076	743,264	04.64%
2004[7]	746,239	11,822	758,061	02.9%
2010[8]	773,991	8,064	782,055	03.72%
2011[8]	778,748	8,697	787,445	00.61%
2012[8]	631,360	3,370	634,730	019.39%
2013[8]	672,224	3,388	675,612	06.47%
2014[8]	654,078	3,303	657,381	02.7%
2015[8]	577,044	2,504	579,548	011.84%
2016[8]	529,831	3,021	532,852	08.06%
2017[9]	498,902	4,152	503,054	05.59%
2018[10]	503,359	3,841	507,200	00.89%
2019[11]	468,555	4,120	472,675	06.81%
2020[12]	252,812	1,683	254,495	046.16%
2021[13]	284,378	3,050	287,428	012.94%
2022[14]	337,884	3,273	341,157	018.69%
2023[15]	359,363	2,937	362,300	06.2%

Fixed Route Service Trends

	Service Hours	Service Miles
1996	38,541	553,916
1997	37,562	557,047
1998	37,920	558,796
1999	38,827	564,311
2000	38,327	556,607
2001	37,961	556,023
2002	37,929	557,007
2003	37,946	556,501
2004	38,315	555,801
2005	37,596	535,183
2006	41,100	588,475
2007	40,776	578,288
2008	40,925	569,706
2009	38,738	540,514
2010	37,621	542,404
2011	38,740	543,846
2012	26,729	375,988
2013	29,372	411,843
2014	29,854	404,710
2015	27,028	375,626
2016	26,722	376,478
2017	27,324	377,052
2018	26,502	376,034
2019	26,407	376,816
2020	23,621	343,693
2021	27,017	381,209
2022	27,150	375,959

1996-2016 data from 2018 Wausau Transit Development Plan.^[3] 2017-2020 data from National Transit database.^[16]

See also

• List of bus transit systems in the United States
• Stevens Point Transit