The golf-cart-style shuttles last ran on Orange Avenue on Dec. 4, 2024, when the city's six-month Island Express pilot ended. Nearly two years later, the City Council is talking about bringing them back. On Oct. 20, it voted unanimously to hold off on a contract for a successor service. Council members did not doubt demand. The vote came because nobody could yet say how much of each ride the city should pay for.
That gap traces back to how the pilot was built. Rides were free so the city could measure interest, and the plan was to look at fares, ads or grants afterward. Interest showed up. Price was never tested. Every number now in front of the council describes riders who paid nothing, and the cost of serving them depends heavily on which part of Coronado they ride from.
What six free months actually measured
The pilot, run by Circuit from June to December 2024, cost the city $561,509 and carried 58,596 passengers. Of those, 52,945 rode in the Village and 5,651 in the Cays. Over that period a Village ride cost the city about $7 per passenger. A Cays ride cost about $29.
When the city reviewed the pilot in March 2025, the busiest pickup and drop-off points were the Hotel del Coronado, the Coronado Island Marriott Resort & Spa and the Ferry Landing, followed by the Shores. City analysis found an average wait of nine minutes. Staff found no measurable change in traffic and no significant change in parking availability, though they added that a firmer parking finding would need a baseline study, according to the Coronado Eagle & Journal.
The average hid an uneven experience. The Coronado Times reported in November 2024 that wait times and canceled pickups were the pilot's main service problems. Council members at that meeting called the program costly and said it lacked a clearly defined goal.
So the pilot answered one question well. People will take a free cart from the Shores to the Del. It said very little about whether they will take a $4 cart, or a $14 van.
The proposal on the table, and its price
After city staff reviewed several options, they recommended negotiating with Via, through Crosby Street Transit LLC. A selection committee had scored Via's bid highest, and Via already runs microtransit in El Cajon and San Diego. Via's plan splits the island in two because of a road rule. As the Coronado Times reported, the GEM carts that became the face of the Island Express cannot legally drive on State Route 75.
| Service | How it would run | First-year cost | Annual cost after |
|---|---|---|---|
| Village | Year-round, on-demand, door-to-door; electric vans or GEM carts, with a wheelchair-accessible vehicle either way | about $980,000 | about $860,000 |
| Cays | Two wheelchair-accessible vans on a five-stop fixed route, every 30 minutes | about $455,000 | about $360,000 |
None of those figures count fares or advertising. From the second year on, the two services together would run about $1.22 million a year. Even if riders paid half, the city would still spend more than $600,000 a year it would not get back. Mayor John Duncan said he wants to hear from the public on whether the program is worth $600,000 to $800,000 a year in taxpayer money. He told the council, as the Coronado Times reported, "My goal is to create a program that is not going to fail."
Putting a fare on a ride that used to be free
Councilmember Carrie Downey brought her own framework to the meeting:
- Year-round service, since pilot ridership did not drop after summer as expected
- Door-to-door Village service with three golf-cart-style vehicles, one of them wheelchair accessible
- Four set pickup points in the Cays, such as Cays Park and the Coronado Cays Yacht Club, served by rotating vans
- Riders pay 50 percent of the cost of their trip, with $1 off for Coronado residents and hotels free to hand guests coupons
- Service until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays
She argued that charging riders gives them "skin in the game." That could cut down on the last-minute cancellations that slowed the pilot. "This is not a door-to-door limousine service," she said, according to the Coronado Times. "It's a rideshare."
There is some evidence riders would accept a fare. City Manager Tina Friend cited a pilot-era city survey in which 535 of 695 respondents, about 77 percent, said they would pay a small fee. Via's own fare estimates assume some riders will stop riding once the service is no longer free. A "small fee" means one thing to a Village rider and another to a Cays rider.
Why the Cays decides the shape of the program
The 50 percent rule works out very differently depending on the starting point. Councilmember Kelly Purvis noted that at the pilot's roughly $29 per Cays passenger, half would be about $14.50 each way. That adds up quickly for a family of four. Downey acknowledged that at that price a cab might be cheaper. Applied to the pilot's roughly $7 Village figure, the same rule comes to about $3.50 a ride before the resident discount.
Purvis also pointed out that Via's 50 percent fare estimate was based only on the average Village ride. She asked for a separate Cays figure and said she wants the Cays HOA and its leaders to weigh in on pickup locations. Councilmember Mark Fleming estimated the pilot carried about 31 Cays riders a day when rides were free, and he wondered how far that number would fall once riders had to pay.
The Cays was also where the pilot's service problems were most visible. Village-bound wait times from the Cays were sometimes very long. One Cays rider said a return trip from the Ferry Landing took an hour and a half after the driver picked up passengers not headed to the Cays, Emerald Keepers reported. In March 2025, staff floated modifying or eliminating Cays service altogether, the Coronado Eagle & Journal reported. Councilmember Amy Steward offered a middle option. A "last mile" shuttle would pick Cays residents up at their doors and connect them to MTS Route 901, which already runs up Silver Strand Boulevard to the Village.
The cheaper shuttle Coronado already runs
Another reason for the pause is that Coronado already runs a shuttle that costs far less per rider. The city has funded a free fixed-route MTS summer bus since 2013. This year it ran June 7 through Sept. 7, seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., every 20 minutes on Route 904. The route connected the Shores, City Hall, Orange Avenue, the Ferry Landing and the Coronado Island Marriott Resort & Spa. For July 4, the city's Summer Shuttle page also listed a connector from the Cays Fire Station to Avenida de las Arenas.
In 2025 the summer bus averaged 1,123 riders a day, its best since the pandemic, at about $2.01 per rider. When both services ran in summer 2024, staff counted 54,203 summer shuttle passengers against 21,744 Island Express passengers over the same period. Staff cautioned that the two meet different needs and may have competed for some riders. Council members have asked whether running both is redundant, and they said they would not decide on an electric shuttle until they had reviewed the summer shuttle's 2026 ridership.
Who else might help pay
The busiest pilot stops were two resorts and the Ferry Landing, which explains why hotels keep coming up as funders. Steward asked whether the Hotel del Coronado and the Coronado Island Marriott would contribute. Friend said staff has not yet approached the hotels but could, and could also ask Discover Coronado whether it would add more than the $300,000 it has set aside from reserves for community projects.
Other sources look narrower. The city's subsidized ferry is paid for with state pass-through transit dollars that carry restrictions, and the city is about two years into a three-year ferry contract. Advertising is allowed under Via's proposal, with the city keeping all the revenue and alcohol and cannabis ads prohibited. Via said ad revenue in other cities has reached up to $170,000 a year, though staff said it is unclear what Coronado would see. Coronado also applied to the SANDAG Flexible Fleets program, a $4.5 million grant pool. SANDAG's transportation committee did not recommend the city's application, and the SANDAG board had not made a final decision.
The dates to follow
- Within 30 days of the Oct. 20 vote, council members send their questions to the city manager. Staff then works with Via on cost modeling and approaches the hotels and Discover Coronado.
- Tuesday, Nov. 3, at 4 p.m. was the next regular council meeting on the city's 2026 schedule, where staff said it expected to present the 2026 summer shuttle ridership.
- Friday, Nov. 6, at 9 a.m. is the next SANDAG Board of Directors meeting listed on its calendar.
- Early 2027 is when the shuttle is expected back before the council. Friend suggested bringing a range of options, each with its estimated cost to the city budget. She also offered to release that information publicly before it goes on an agenda, or to hold a study session first so residents can weigh in before the council acts.
Until a decision comes, our guide to getting around Coronado covers the island's other options for the off-season.
Under the 50 percent idea, pilot costs put a ride at about $3.50 in the Village and about $14.50 each way in the Cays. If you would like to talk through what the island's transit options mean for your own address, The Clements Group would be glad to walk through it with you. Schedule a private consultation.
