Since the return-to-office mandate went into effect for California state workers, Sacramento commuters have been using public transit at rates not seen for at least six years, according to transit agencies.

Transit use, much like in-person work, dipped drastically after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. While riders have slowly returned to use some of these services, many agencies such as Yuba-Sutter Transit and El Dorado Transit still have ridership below pre-pandemic levels.

However, a significant bump for commuter routes across the region came in July, when many state workers were required to return to four days in the office per work week.

While workers in other industries were slowly weaned off remote days or required to return to more in-office days at an earlier date, this increase happened suddenly to about 108,000 workers statewide. About 40% of the civil service workforce is located in the capital region. Many of those workers have access to a $340 a month transit subsidy.

Despite pushback — including a state telework bill vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom — the RTO requirement has stayed in place. And transit use has soared.

“We were expecting an increase,” said Erik Bergren, planning and marketing manager for El Dorado Transit. “But I didn’t think it’d be this big.”

How much has transit ridership increased?

All commuter routes represented in this story have seen more butts in seats, or even some people standing, as of July 1.

El Dorado Transit saw an about 47% increase in commuter ridership from July 2025 to July 2026 — from about 5,600 to 8,300. The increase continued in August with 8,528 rides, according to Bergren.

For Roseville Transit, which currently offers 22 commuter routes on weekdays, 9,034 rides were recorded in July 2026. Just under 7,700 rides were taken in August, Roseville Alternative Transportation Manager Ed Scofield said. Those two months represent a little less than quarter of all commuter ridership for the agency in fiscal year 2025-26, which ended June 30.

In July and August, Yuba-Sutter Transit’s commuter service had 7,246 and 7,021 rides, respectively. In September, 7,500 boardings were recorded — the highest monthly commuter ridership the agency has seen since Feb. 2020, Executive Director Matt Mauk said.

Yuba-Sutter Transit lost about 85% of its commuter ridership during the pandemic, dropping to 20,000 rides total during its 2020-2021 fiscal year, according to data provided by Mauk. In just the three months following RTO, the agency recorded 21,770 boardings, which is also 36% higher than that same period in 2025.

Sacramento Regional Transit peak morning ridership was 11% higher in July — the first month of RTO — compared to the same month last year, according to the agency’s data. Its overall ridership increased about 20% from June to July of this year. RT spokesperson Jessica Gonzalez said ridership is usually flat during the summer months.

Even Capitol Corridor, which provides Amtrak-operated train service between Auburn and San Jose, has seen more riders on commuter trains. During the pandemic, commuters were taking about 31,600 trips per month, spokesperson Vernae Graham said. As of late October, commuter trips have more than doubled — about 65,400 — the pandemic number.

Commuter increases were less drastic month to month for the agency because many companies and tech firms in the Bay Area had previously instituted return-to-office policies, Capitol Corridor Managing Director Rob Padgette said. Generally, the agency has seen about a 20% increase in ridership each year since the pandemic began, now reaching about 80% of 2019 ridership. Pre-pandemic, commuters took about 101,000 trips per month.

“Call it ‘back to normal,’” Padgette said, adding the caveat that some of the ridership patterns have shifted, with few people riding five days a week.

The majority of transit agencies see the highest ridership in the mid-week days — Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Monday and Friday are less full, which Bergren said he attributes to the fact that some workers can pick one day a week to stay at home.

“I know there’s many agencies—they get to pick which days of the week they work,” he said. “So it makes sense that, you know, they would choose Friday to stay at home.”

How have commuter routes changed?

Transit agencies have shifted as more commuters switch to or choose transit.

In February, “kind of with the anticipation of a return to office order” El Dorado Transit upped its number of routes to 16, with half in the morning and half in the evening, Bergren said. The agency had been running 10 routes since May 2024, less than half of pre-pandemic routes due to a large decrease in ridership.

Bergren said in September that even with the additional routes “we are noticing much fuller buses, and we do hear some mild complaints about certain routes being more fuller than others.” As a result, the agency adjusted the timing of some buses, including adding one earlier bus.

Roseville Transit ran a little bit ahead of schedule with its first commuter-related change.

Before the return-to-office order was first supposed to go into effect in July 2025, the agency changed its number of commuter routes to 11 in both the morning and afternoon. It had offered six morning routes and seven afternoon since early 2020, Scofield said. The organization also added a stop at the May Lee State Office Complex in Sacramento’s River District.

Roseville Transit riders are also sometimes standing during the ride, he said.

“It’s good to hear people are using it, but a lot of people aren’t used to the standing loads because for the previous few years we were still building our ridership back up from pre-COVID,” Scofield said, adding that buses have at least 36 seats and eight standing spots.

On Oct. 1, the agency launched a new express transit service that leaves every hour and connects Lincoln, Roseville and RT’s light rail. In the first week or so, about 30 people rode the line each day. Roseville Transit plans to up service to every 30 minutes in March 2027, which is when Scofield said the agency expects more residents to start riding.

The Solano Transportation Authority, which is responsible for countywide transportation planning and provides transportation services, launched an express route between Vacaville and UC Davis or Sacramento in August. During its first week, 95 riders were recorded on the Solano Express Route 30. By the 10th week, the number of rides increased to 381, according to a presentation provided by Ron Grassi, director of programs for the STA.

Capitol Corridor returned to the same number of routes in April 2023 as the agency had before the pandemic — 19 total. About three of those routes, including two coming from the south and one starting in the north, head to Sacramento in the morning, Padgette said.

Yuba-Sutter Transit has “not significantly increased service since COVID,” Mauk said.

The commuter service, which lost nearly all of its ridership during the pandemic, has included six morning and afternoon routes and two midday runs since November 2023. In April 2025, Yuba-Sutter Transit added one extra morning run on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and added the May Lee Office Complex as a stop.

As of September, the morning popular runs were about 70% to 75% full. But Maluk said it currently has the space to accommodate its commuters, but is watching for changes “on a daily basis, down to the run.”

“We hear from folks … ‘Are you going to add routes?’” he said. “Not quite there yet. But again, I refer to that as a good problem to have. We’ll continue to watch and hope for the kind of trend in ridership that requires a significant increase”

The Bee Capitol Bureau’s Corey Schmidt contributed to this story.

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