Texas Transit Association

Bexar County voters authorized creation of VIA Metropolitan Transit 25 years ago, allowing for collection of a local 1/2-cent sales tax that has helped leverage federal funds for public transportation.

But mass transit in San Antonio dates to a century before VIA’s buses began rolling through the city in 1978.

Most local historians trace San Antonio’s early use of public transportation to 1878, when mule-drawn streetcars plodded through the area now called downtown. The first mule cars are said to have carried passengers between Main Plaza and San Pedro Park. By 1890, the mule-drawn cars were being replaced by electric streetcars. In 1901, local streetcar lines were consolidated under one provider, the San Antonio Traction Co., according to local historian T.R. Fehrenbach.

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