A one-of-a-kind option for visiting Yosemite National Park could face the budgetary guillotine if officials decide against funding the only public transportation into the park from Fresno. 

The bus is the only way travelers flying into the Fresno Yosemite International Airport can access Yosemite without a car. However, if left unfunded, the public transit option could end as soon as the start of summer. 

An effort is underway to preserve the route by including Fresno County in a Joint Powers Authority, featuring two county supervisors from Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Mono and Tuolumne counties. If Fresno joins — contributing an estimated $50,000 a year — the bus’s operators say the route would remain in place.

“Everyone wants to see the Fresno service continue,” Stacie Guzman, executive director of the Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System, told SFGATE. “At this point, the decision is solely in the hands of the local decision makers. The county and the city of Fresno need to make this decision.”

YARTS provides four bus trips into the park, including the Fresno Highway 41 route that has shuttled tens of thousands of parkgoers into Yosemite since launching in 2015. The route runs seasonally from May to September while the Highway 140 bus runs year-round through Mariposa County.

Last year, YARTS sent a formal invitation to the Fresno County supervisors to join the Authority, noting in the letter that according to its strategic plan, 26% of boardings outside Yosemite originated at Fresno stops. YARTS warned that without the county’s inclusion, the Fresno route would not return for summer 2024. 

The Fresno route was initially funded through federal transportation grants, but the money started to run out in 2022. The Fresno Bee reported that the route would have sunset last year if the city of Fresno had not supplied $75,000 to fund a single daily round trip last summer. 

The route begins at the airport, which has embraced its proximity to the park by building replicas of sequoia trees in its lobby, and stops at the downtown Amtrak station before passing through Oakhurst on the way into the park’s south gate. Although it’s not the most popular route in the YARTS system — the Merced Highway 140 route is by far the most used bus in the system — the Fresno Highway 41 bus hauled as many as 21,500 passengers in 2016. Ridership numbers, which had been dropping already, fell to below 6,000 in 2020 when the pandemic started. 

Ahead of the supervisor meeting, there was optimism from the Fresno Yosemite International Airport (which is owned and operated by the City of Fresno) that the bus route would prevail.

“As far as the airport is aware, YARTS is going to return next season,” Vikkie Calderon, spokesperson for the airport, told SFGATE. “The city is very interested in the YARTS route.”