page_title: Unitrans
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Unitrans / History
caption_attribution_description: Unitrans ex-London double-decker bus 3123 laying over at Memorial Union Terminal, U.C. Davis
context_page_description: Unitrans is the transit system which operates in and around the campus of the University of California, Davis. It takes its name from an abbreviation of the words "University Transport". Excepting several managerial and maintenance positions, Unitrans is managed and operated entirely by students of the University of California, Davis who usually work part-time while attending school. The system is well known throughout the area for its use of several distinctive ex-Transport for London double-decker buses, as well as its fleet of modern natural gas single-decks. Ridership exceeds 3 million passenger-trips per year on 18 weekday, 2 school-only and 6 weekend routes. Current fares are $1.25 for the general public and included in student fees for undergraduate University attendees. Unitrans is one of a small number of transit systems in the United States to operate double deck buses in regular service. Unitrans has one of the best safety records of any public transit system in the US.
context_section_description: In the late 1960s, members of the Associated Students of the University of California, Davis (ASUCD) realized the need for a transit system to transport students between the City of Davis and the University campus. In the spring of 1966, providing a transportation system became an ASUCD presidential promise. Newly elected in the fall, the President helped start experimental service in October 1966. This service was initially run using a private charter service. The estimated cost at the time was $2000/quarter. The service ran for several months, but ASUCD officials decided that the service needed to be changed. These students approached Davis' then-mayor Maynard Skinner and appealed for support both politically and financially. With the mayor's endorsement, the University Transport System, or Unitrans, began to take shape.
  To be unique, get the system noticed, and encourage ridership, Unitrans made arrangements to purchase two former London Transport double-decker buses in the middle part of 1967 and use them on "East" and "West" perimeter routes in Davis. According to the March 5, 1968 edition of The California Aggie newspaper, the two RTL type double-decker buses cost $3500 each, and were shipped to San Francisco for an additional $1000. After being modified with features like clearance lights and larger left side mirrors, service began in February 1968. Upon its retirement in 2007, RTL1014 was the oldest functioning example of its type in the world still operating in revenue service on a regular basis. These first two lines operated from what is now a parking lot behind Young Hall, until 1970 when expanded service forced the terminal to move to its current location near Hickey Gym.  Starting in the late 1960s, Unitrans also began supplementing its fleet with second-hand single-deck buses, starting with several General Motors "old-look" buses ranging in length from 35 to 37¾ feet.
  In 1972 the service dropped its remaining full-time drivers, and started operating with a full staff of part-time student drivers. Since then Unitrans has remained a student operated organization, employing students as drivers, conductors, supervisors, driver trainers, maintenance shop assistants, bus washers and office clerks. Career positions, the only non-student positions at Unitrans, currently include General and Assistant General Manager, Maintenance Shop Manager, Maintenance Shop Mechanics, and the Safety and Training Supervisor.
  Through the 1970s Unitrans added eight former London Transport RT type double-deck buses, and in the early 1980s Unitrans added two Daimler Fleetline double-deck buses that had previously operated in Yorkshire, a county in northern England. The late 1970s and early 1980s saw the addition of a 40-foot and a number of 35-foot General Motors New Look buses. In 1982 Unitrans purchases its first all new, never before used, buses when it purchased five 35-foot Gillig Phantoms from the manufacturer in Hayward, California. Two RT type double-decker buses were retired in the early 1980s, and by this time the fleet of single-deck buses outnumbered the double-deckers.
  With an increasing demand for service fueled by the expanding size of the University and the City of Davis, Unitrans continued to gear up for larger passenger loads by adding more buses and more routes through the City of Davis.  The mid-1980s saw the purchase of yet more previously owned single-deck buses: two more 35-foot GM "old-look" buses from the Sacramento Regional Transit District (affectionately nicknamed "Prison Buses"), another 40-foot GM New Look bus, and several more 35-foot GM New Look buses (at least one of which was also from Sacramento).  In the late 1980s, the Unitrans fleet expanded again with the purchase of four 40-foot and five 35-foot Flxible New Look buses from the Sacramento Regional Transit District, and eight 35-foot GM New Look buses from the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System. Three new 30-foot Gillig Phantoms were provided by UCD's Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS) for the intracampus and UCD Medical Center shuttle 
caption: One of the ex-London double-deckers laying over at Memorial Union terminal in 2008
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