What is SunLine: Rides Reimagined?

SunLine is reaching out to the community to help it take a fresh look at its bus network and how it serves the Coachella Valley. The Coachella Valley is growing and evolving. SunLine: Rides Reimagined is looking at how SunLine’s services can adapt to those changes by:

• Responding to shifting population patterns and new development.
• Improving access to jobs, schools, healthcare, and everyday destinations.
• Using available resources more effectively to provide reliable service.
• Creating a more convenient and user-friendly experience for riders.

We want to hear from you! Take the survey: surveymonkey.com/r/SunLineCOA1

Why Review SunLine’s System? 

Like many transit systems, SunLine has seen fewer riders in recent years, a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. When fewer people ride, the cost of each trip goes up, making it harder to provide frequent, reliable service everywhere. This is why SunLine is stepping back to reimagine how service is designed and how it supports everyday trips for residents of the Coachella Valley. 

Reliable service matters. When buses come often and arrive on time, people can count on transit to reach work, school, appointments, and connections at major transit hubs. With limited resources, SunLine faces important choices: should service be focused where more people already ride, allowing for higher frequency and reliability, or provid services over a larger area to reach more places and communities? There is no single right answer—this balance between ridership and coverage reflects community values. SunLine wants to hear from you about what matters most. 

Why Your Input Matters 

Transit planning is ultimately about choices—how often service runs, which places are served, how fares are set, and how limited resources are used. These choices reflect community values, not just technical decisions. Your input will help SunLine understand what matters most to you and your neighbors, and will guide recommendations about service design, priorities, and the level of funding needed to provide the transit this community expects and deserves. 

Want to Learn More? 

Learn more about current SunLine services here.  

SunLine: Rides Reimagined Timeline 

This project will unfold over several phases, with opportunities for public input throughout the process. Community feedback will help shape service concepts, evaluate tradeoffs, and inform future decisions about transit investment in the Coachella Valley.  

Phase 1: Understanding Community Travel Needs (Happening Now) 

SunLine is gathering input to better understand how people travel today and where transit can better support daily trips. Through a community survey and in-person events, we are listening to riders, residents, and visitors about their travel needs, challenges, and priorities. We need your input! Click the link below to take the survey.  

• Take the survey here. Participants will be entered for a chance to win a $50 gift card. 

• See upcoming community events 

Phase 2: Setting Community Transit Priorities (Early Summer 2026) 

In this phase, SunLine will work with the community to explore important service tradeoffs and set clear priorities for the transit system. 

 One of the key questions is how to balance ridership and coverage: 

• Ridership: Focusing service where more people already travel can support more frequent, reliable buses, and increase access to opportunities. 

• Coverage: Spreading service more widely can reach more neighborhoods and communities, but often with less frequent service. 

Do you want to learn more about this choice? See here. 

Using existing resources, SunLine will show how the bus network might look under different approaches. These examples will help community members think through what matters most—for themselves and for the region—and share their preferences through surveys and engagement activities. 

Phase 3: Exploring Future Network Scenarios (Late Fall 2026) 

Based on community input, SunLine will develop and share several future service scenarios. These will illustrate different ways the transit system could evolve to support changing travel patterns and community needs. SunLine will also present a scenario that shows what the network could look like with additional resources. Community feedback on these scenarios will help refine recommendations and identify priorities for future investment. 

Phase 4: Final Service Plan 

After reviewing community feedback, SunLine will refine the recommended network and prepare a final service plan. This plan will reflect public input and will be presented to the SunLine Board of Directors for consideration and adoption.