Absolutely the worst public transportation company in America.

Their buses are NEVER on time.  If you’re traveling long distances you’ll miss connecting bus routes all the time.  What should take 15 hours on the bus will take 25!  And, the workers don’t seem to care about the customers seemingly because the company doesn’t care about their employees.

Save your money and take a train or a flight!

★★★ (3 Stars)

VISTA is a very good Ventura County service offering transportation between Santa Barbara and Ventura, Ventura and Westlake, Ventura to Fillmore and more.

I am more familiar with the Coastal Express route that goes from Ventura to Santa Barbara.  VISTA has bus routes originating from various points in Ventura and Santa Barbara almost every hour, during the weekdays.  On the weekends, the only difference is that there are fewer bus stops.

I’ve used this service before originating from the Ventura Government Center and arriving at De La Guerra in Santa Barbara, a block or two east of State Street.  It’s an enjoyable ride and it’s cheaper than the price of the gas it would take to drive up to Santa Barbara and back.

These buses are really clean, have front facing seats with their own adjustable air conditioning vents, and are similar to Greyhound type buses.

★ (1 Star)

Maybe there aren’t enough people who are willing to ride the bus, or perhaps the public bus system is grossly underfunded, but Gold Coast Transit, formerly South Coast Area Transit (SCAT), is a poor excuse for public transportation.

While their bus fares seem to be average with the nation, everything else about Gold Coast Transit seems to be lacking.  The route schedules are far and few between.  Buses, according to their schedule, seem to only appear at stops once *every 50 minutes*, on average.  In other words, if you miss a bus, you’ll have to wait almost an hour, in most cases, to catch the next one.  Yikes!  This of course varies from route to route, and city to city.

The buses, on average, run to only about 9:30PM on weekdays and 8:00PM on weekends and routes start as early as 5:00AM.  Oxnard seems to have the earliest and latest bus routes.

Cities that are serviced by Gold Coast Transit include Ojai, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Ventura and the county areas in between.