Visitors, tourists and students traveling between downtown San Antonio, Southtown and the Pearl have more transit options besides Uber and Lyft.
On Sept. 2, VIA Metropolitan Transit became an official operating partner with Centro San Antonio and the University of Texas at San Antonio to operate the Little Runner to add a new VIA Link zone to expand it.
VIA Link is similar to Uber and Lyft, but for the price of a bus ticket — $1.30. Rides will remain free for UTSA students, faculty and staff through the VIA U-Pass.
The expansion of the one-mile Link zone — VIA’s fifth and smallest zone — added five more VIA Link vans and two more e-cars, with the capacity to add more during high-traffic events like Fiesta and the NCAA Men’s Final Four championship game in April 2025.
The Little Runner e-cars will continue to operate on UTSA’s fixed routes while VIA’s Dodge Grand Caravans with Little Runner signage serve the rest of the public.
Since its launch in 2019, more than 1 million riders have used Link in its four zones, including Naco Pass, Texas A&M University- San Antonio and Toyota Manufacturing on the South Side, Randolph Air Force Base and UTSA’s main campus on the Northwest side, according to VIA.
The Little Runner provided more than 10,000 rides with its six e-cars in downtown during a 6-month period since it launched in March, said Mary Hernandez, senior associate VP for administration and operations and interim VP for business affairs for UTSA.
“We’re working to bring 10,000 students to all our downtown locations within the next year-and-a half to two years, so creating infrastructure for microtransit in the downtown area was very important because we know our enrollment will continue to increase,” Hernandez said.
Besides the new downtown minor league baseball stadium, San Pedro II is under construction and should open by January 2026. UTSA recently expanded its presence in downtown by acquiring One Riverwalk Place, in addition to its existing downtown campus, San Pedro I, which opened January 2023, and the former Southwest School of Art, now the UTSA School of Art.
Downtown has been an area of interest for VIA Link, but before its expansion, the transportation provider contributed $100,000 to the roll out of UTSA and Centro San Antonio’s Little Runner pilot program to measure its success.
Data from the pilot proved the need, and set forth the planned expansion, estimated to cost between $600,000 to $800,000 annually, said Jon Gary Herrera, senior VP of Public Engagement for VIA.
“When [the Little Runner] first launched, it was successful and there was a big interest in the service, so we felt we could scale that and continue to improve the service that’s out there. That’s what we’re accomplishing now,” Herrera said.
Transit industry in general has been looking for more ways to deliver people in campus-like structures like we have downtown.”
But adding more Dodge vans and only two e-cars won’t work for the long-term vision of the micromobility plan, said Trish DeBerry, CEO of Centro San Antonio that manages the downtown public improvement district. Centro SA and UTSA will push for VIA to agree to updating its downtown Link fleet to be fully electric within a year.
“No offense to the caravan, but it’s a car. It’s not an example of micromobility, and that’s what we’re trying to push. Real, true micromobility,” she said.
San Antonio transportation rules allow for 20 e-cars, but if VIA operates the service, no permits are required. The downtown Link zone could potentially add up to 25 e-cars, DeBerry said.
When it opens, there will still be a need for microtransit on Broadway, she said, River North, even St. Paul’s Square.
VIA works with a third-party contractor, RideCo, to staff its Link zones. For the downtown expansion, RideCo subcontracted local microtransit company SaGO to provide the two e-cars, according to UTSA, Centro and VIA.
Here’s how VIA Link’s Downtown/Little Runner zone works downtown
Cars will operate the zone daily 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. They won’t stop for hails like it used to, so anyone needing a ride must book through the VIA Link mobile app to travel within the downtown, Southtown and Pearl zone.
A VIA Link car will pick up and drop passengers off from a virtual stop, usually 300 feet from where the person booked the ride, Herrera said.
VIA promises a 10 to 15 minute wait for downtown tourists, area employees, residents, students and service workers, and up to a 20-minute wait in times of high traffic.
Some e-cars are ADA accessible and the number of cars with wheelchair ramps will increase within the next year, DeBerry said.
VIA considers geographic and economic factors when deciding where to add VIA Link. Link could go in areas where bus routes haven’t serviced before, but it has to make sense, Herrera said, like campus environments and areas where a 40-foot bus system may not be the best transportation option.
“We want to get away from people having to park two and three times to get to where they want to go in downtown,” DeBerry said.
