Home » About CATA » Inside CATA » CATA Facts

About CATA

CATA Facts

FY 2011 Ridership
Passengers took 11,821,761 trips on CATA in Fiscal Year 2011. This is a 4.2% increase from last year. Each service contributed to this record ridership level as follows:
Service
# of Rides
Total Fixed-Route 11,179,790
     MSU Fixed-Route   3,041,686
     Entertainment Express
14,201
Spec-Tran 338,270
Redi-Rides 53,153
CRS 46,972
Connectors 16,561
Lot Link & Night Owl 12,594
Shopping Bus 10,255
Community Events
 164,166
Total                                               
  11,821,761

Funding
Fiscal 2009 Operating Revenue:
  • 52% Local funding
  • 26% State funding
  • 22% Fares and other revenues
Service Area
CATA provides a variety of public transportation services in the Greater Lansing and outlying areas. The 559 square-mile service area spans all of Ingham County and extends into portions of Eaton County (Delta Township) and Clinton County.

Zone Fare System
Fare Zone 1
This zone covers the CATA service area described above with the exception of most of Delta Township. Standard CATA fares apply in this zone.

Fare Zone 2
This zone covers most of Delta Township. Higher fares apply when boarding a CATA vehicle in this zone.

Employees
CATA employs approximately 300 employees. Nearly 200 are on board as bus operators who are members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local #1039. About 30 maintenance employees are also members of this union--namely mechanics and mechanic support staff. Administrative personnel account for nearly 70 of the CATA workforce.

Awards
Sandy Draggoo, CATA CEO/ Executive Director, was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 2010. The Michigan Hall of Fame was the first of its kind to recognize high-achieving women of an individual state. More than 250 women have been named to this esteemed body. Sandy is one of the first women to lead a public transportation system in the country and was honored with this prestigious award on behalf of her leadership and service to CATA as well as her work in public transportation at the state and national level.

Metro Magazine ranked CATA in its “Ten Best Places to Work in Transit” in the October 2008 issue. The family-like culture, open door policy, recognition of hard work and employee pride were sited as some of the agency’s outstanding attributes.

In 2007, CATA was awarded the Outstanding Public Transportation System Achievement Award by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). This award honors one public transportation system in North America each year, which has demonstrated outstanding achievement in efficiency and effectiveness. Systems are judged on their performance over a 3-year period. CATA is one of the few systems that are a two-time winner of this award. CATA first received the award in 1991.

Transit Research Board's Sharon D. Banks Award to Sandy Draggoo for Innovative Leadership in Transportation in 2006.

Sandy Draggoo was selected as APTA's General Manager of the Year in 2003.

Community Involvement
Each year, CATA sponsors a number of programs for the benefit of the community and participates in community–sponsored events such as: