{"id":468383,"date":"2026-10-17T01:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T01:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/468383\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T01:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T01:34:11","slug":"via-launches-late-night-ride-service-for-downtown-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/468383\/","title":{"rendered":"VIA launches late night ride service for downtown workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 If you\u2019re stuck downtown after midnight, you may still be able to get home for a bus fare, starting Monday.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when VIA Metropolitan Transit plans to launch a six-month pilot program of its \u201cVIA Link after midnight<\/a>\u201d service. From Mondays through Fridays VIA Link users can get rides into or out of downtown between midnight and 4 a.m., when buses generally aren\u2019t running. <\/p>\n

Riders will be able to be picked up from bus stops within the downtown area and get dropped off at another stop within Loop 410, or vice-versa, for $1.30. <\/p>\n

The program is meant to help the multitude of bar, restaurant, hotel and retail workers with late-night shifts.<\/p>\n

Curtis Koleber, VIA\u2019s vice-president of transportation, said some workers who get off late currently trek to their bus stop, only to wait hours for buses to start again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no idea how many people are going to use it, he told KSAT. \u201dThis has never been done, and we\u2019re hoping it\u2019s used. And we will increase capacity, add vehicles if it\u2019s more popular.\u201d<\/p>\n

If it would take 20 minutes or longer for a VIA Link vehicle to pick up a rider, the riders would have the option to take an Uber or Lyft instead. They would get a $15 credit, plus their regular fare, to use toward that ride.<\/p>\n

If the total cost of the ride exceeds that, VIA says users could choose to pay the remaining difference, take a shorter trip, or wait for the next VIA Link vehicle.<\/p>\n

VIA has about $603,000 for the program in its budget, Koleber said, and they have $50,000 from Uber to be used for rideshare credits.<\/p>\n

Because it only has six months to use those credits, Koleber said VIA would start the program using Uber as the rideshare option, though Lyft would eventually also be added.<\/p>\n

Riders would get the $15 credit on their rideshare option, no matter company which they use.<\/p>\n

>> READ: VIA to test drive late-night VIA Link, rideshare service for downtown workers<\/a><\/p>\n

VIA is starting the program with \u201cbasically\u201d 10 VIA Link vehicles and two wheelchair accessible vehicles, Koleber said.<\/p>\n

With no idea how many people will use the service, he told KSAT he\u2019ll measure success by whether the rideshare \u201coverflow\u201d option is being used a lot \u201cand we have to think about how can we better support this program because there\u2019s so many people using it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would be up to the VIA Board of Trustees whether to continue or expand the pilot program, he said, and what future versions might look like would depend on the data.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we go beyond 410? Can we go within the 410 and not always have a destination downtown?\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to see like a heat map of where it\u2019s being used the most, and that would help us. And feedback from customers would help as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the program wasn\u2019t designed with bar-hoppers in mind, anyone will be able to use it.<\/p>\n

Jason Cisneros, a student at Palo Alto Community College, said he\u2019d like to get downtown more for nightlife but the buses stop too early. <\/p>\n

The new service sounded \u201cinteresting,\u201d he told KSAT, but \u201cit would be a little bit better for us on the weekends rather than the weekdays.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Cisneros though only the Friday morning service might help him in that situation, he said he\u2019d try it and see how it works.<\/p>\n

VIA says customers can book rides by using the VIA Link app or calling 210-655-LINK (5465).<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 If you\u2019re stuck downtown after midnight, you may still be able to get home for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[56556,993,82,84,83,13704],"class_list":["post-468383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-affording-san-antonio","tag-downtown","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-via"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}