South Fresno residents are getting a long-awaited crosstown bus route this week.
Fresno launched its 19th bus route in southwest Fresno on Monday, connecting tens of thousands of residents along Church Avenue.
Route 29 will run from Walnut Avenue to Fowler Avenue beginning August 11, linking six schools and serving approximately 44,000 residents and nearly 8,000 jobs within a half-mile of the corridor. The new line will connect with four existing routes, creating a crosstown option that has been absent from the city’s bus system.
“This is the first route that we’ve unveiled with new FAX bus signs, which you will begin to see rolled out throughout the entire city,” said Gregory Barfield, director of Transportation for the City of Fresno.
“I’ve even got folks in our office that are excited because now their son or daughter can take public transit to the new Sanger West campus.”
The expansion comes as Fresno Area Express, known as FAX, pursues an ambitious overhaul of its aging fleet. The transit agency currently operates 116 buses serving approximately 10 million rides annually across its network.
The new route is part of a broader transformation enabled by a $52.1 million grant from the California State Transportation Agency – the largest competitive state transit grant in Fresno’s history. The funding, awarded in October 2024, will help the city implement its Zero Emission Bus Rollout Plan, an initiative to replace all gas-powered buses with electric and hydrogen-powered ones by 2040.
Under the plan, FAX will deploy 67 battery electric buses and 56 hydrogen fuel cell buses for fixed routes, while converting its entire 65-vehicle paratransit fleet to battery electric power.
Along the Church Avenue route, the new bus route will connect Fresno City College’s West Fresno Center, Edison High School, three middle schools – Computech, Gaston, and Terronez, and Sanger West High School.
The Route 29 launch will also trigger adjustments to Route 38, which will be rerouted to continue on Walnut Avenue toward Cesar Chavez Boulevard rather than using Fairview and Belgravia Avenues near the Hinton Center.
70-80% of riders on Fresno’s bus system are transit dependent, although the share of people who have other transit options but end up riding the bus has increased 66% in recent years.
The annual cost of operating FAX is about $70 million. Revenues from passenger fares contribute only about $3-5 million, but efforts to make bus rides free – and get people out of polluting cars – last failed in 2021.
To plan your trip using FAX, use FAX’s trip planner on their website or transit directions in the Google Maps app.
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