{"id":154199,"date":"2026-01-29T01:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/154199\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T01:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:36:07","slug":"anaheim-tourism-network-which-shuttles-visitors-others-in-resort-area-to-begin-wind-down-of-operations-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/154199\/","title":{"rendered":"Anaheim Tourism Network, which shuttles visitors, others in resort area, to begin \u201cwind-down\u201d of operations \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Anaheim Transportation Network, which serves millions of riders each year in the resort area<\/a>, will stop operating after March 31, officials said Wednesday, Jan. 29.<\/p>\n

ATN\u2019s governing board, made up largely of hoteliers and other resort interests, voted unanimously to \u201cconduct an orderly wind-down,\u201d board chair Matthew Hicks said in announcing the decision after a closed session meeting on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Hicks, who also works with the under-development entertainment and housing district OCVibe at the Honda Center, reported that as part of the wind-down, ATN staffers would later \u201cbring back to the board financial decisions not within the operating budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

ATN moves more than 8 million riders a year<\/a>, mostly through its ART bus system<\/a> that serves the resort area. City leaders have said the public transportation service is critical for area tourists and employees.<\/p>\n

But ATN has, for several years, faced structural deficits in its budget.<\/p>\n

The transit agency gets money from hotels that pay into the system based on the number of rooms and from rider fares. ATN has increased what hotels pay annually, with that contribution capped at 5%; but those increases have not been enough to offset rising labor costs.\u00a0More than 70% of the transportation provider\u2019s operating costs go toward labor, its officials have said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor nearly three decades, the Anaheim Transportation Network has supported mobility in the Anaheim Resort \u2014 serving residents, employees and millions of visitors,\u201d a statement Wednesday from the ATN Board of Directors said. \u201cAfter an extended evaluation of our current and future financial position and exhausting all options, ATN will begin an orderly wind-down of operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis transition will be implemented in a manner to allow for coordination and transparency as services are responsibly concluded,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThe ATN Board of Directors appreciates the community\u2019s continued support of the service through the conclusion of operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city of Anaheim last year considered taking over the transportation network<\/a>, in hopes of solving the agency\u2019s financial troubles without asking hoteliers to pay more. ATN and the city signed a letter of understanding last year that called for exploring the acquisition.<\/p>\n

But Anaheim is no longer interested in the move, city officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBusinesses in Anaheim\u2019s visitor economy are preparing options. Hotels that have utilized ATN are also looking at their options,\u201d city spokesperson Mike Lyster said shortly after the ATN board\u2019s vote. \u201cNo one should be concerned about any upcoming visit to our city. Anyone who\u2019s been to our theme parks knows the high level of service getting from parking to the gates. We have every confidence that will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, ATN formally requested the Anaheim Tourism Improvement District, which is funded by a fee collected on hotel stays, to provide it with funding.<\/p>\n

The request letter described a monthly shortfall of $730,000.<\/p>\n

The Anaheim Tourism Improvement District approved $5.7 million between contributions in July and September <\/a>and, last night, a request for another $2.5 million. <\/a><\/p>\n

Lysters said longer term, the city will \u201ccontinue to look at innovations in transportation and options to connect our transit center in the Platinum Triangle to the resort area. That exploration, while in early stages, is ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Anaheim Transportation Network, which serves millions of riders each year in the resort area, will stop operating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,4926,1071,100,611,136,5277,1967],"class_list":["post-154199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-california","tag-disneyland-resort","tag-local-government","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-top-stories","tag-tourism","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}