StarMetro, Tallahassee's City Bus System

StarMetro is Tallahassee's city bus system, and it is exactly that: a department of the City of Tallahassee rather than a regional authority or a private contractor. The city's About StarMetro page says StarMetro has been serving the community since December 3, 1973, operating under federal and state rules for transit agencies. Its buses fan out from C.K. Steele Bus Plaza downtown, its garage and offices sit at 555 Appleyard Drive, and its paratransit arm, Dial-A-Ride, carries riders who cannot use the fixed routes.

Because StarMetro answers to City Hall, its big decisions run through the Tallahassee City Commission: the commission approved the last major Transit Development Plan update in June 2021 and keeps StarMetro policies 800 and 801 on transit planning and charter service in its policy manual. Day to day it reports through the City Manager. The system also leans on the two universities. Florida State University students ride through a long partnership, and Florida A&M University students figure in the system's history from the 1956 boycott onward.

City buses in Tallahassee began as a private franchise. Transit began with Cities Transit, a small chain of operators running in several cities, and the City of Tallahassee purchased the local franchise in 1973, named the new department TalTran and started service with a fleet of 21 buses. The operations, maintenance and administrative facility on Appleyard Drive followed in 1977.

The downtown hub carries the city's civil rights history. StarMetro's history notes that in 1985 the central bus terminal, C.K. Steele Bus Plaza, was constructed on the corner of Tennessee Street and Adams Street and named for Reverend Dr. Charles Kenzie Steele, who played a pivotal role in the 1956 Tallahassee Bus Boycott. WFSU recalled in 2018 that the boycott began when two Florida A&M University students sat in the whites-only section of a Tallahassee bus and refused to move. That year StarMetro offered free rides on all routes for the 62nd anniversary while FSU and FAMU sponsored exhibits, a film screening and a symbolic walk.

TalTran became StarMetro in 2005, and the system has since marked its 50th anniversary. The name changed; the Steele Plaza hub and the Appleyard Drive base did not.

Most trips start or end at C.K. Steele Plaza, where Tennessee Street meets Adams Street a few blocks from the Capitol, because the fixed routes are laid out as spokes from that hub. StarMetro posts its rider guides, Title VI notices and reasonable modification policy on the city website, and the city's DigiTally app takes compliments and complaints alongside StarMetro Customer Service at 850-891-5200.

Students are a large share of the Tallahassee picture. WFSU reported in June 2014 that StarMetro and FSU have partnered to provide on-campus bus service since the 1970s through the Seminole Express. The 2014 agreement cut the Seminole Express routes from 8 to 5 while running buses more often, in some cases every five minutes, and added a route linking students to Cascades Park, Park Avenue and Governor's Square Mall. FSU students pay a transportation fee that gives them free access to all campus and city buses, and the stated long-term goal was to fold the Seminole Express into one StarMetro system.

Planning runs on a five-year clock. The Think Transit page explains that the Transit Development Plan is updated every five years, reviewed annually and required for any transit agency receiving state funds. StarMetro kicked off the planning process for the 2027 plan in spring 2026, with outreach at C.K. Steele Plaza and the Senior Center, while the current 2022-2031 plan remains in force.

Dial-A-Ride is StarMetro's shared, destination-to-destination service, and it runs two programs under one name. According to the Dial-A-Ride page, ADA Paratransit Service provides transportation to eligible individuals within three-quarters of a mile of the fixed route bus system who cannot use the buses because of a qualifying disability. The Community Transportation Coordinator program helps people who cannot drive or buy transportation because of income, age or disability, and it coordinates trips across Leon County, including places the fixed routes do not reach.

Riders must apply and be approved before booking, and the city decides eligibility within 21 business days of a complete application, which can be picked up at the Appleyard Drive office. The fare is $2.50 per trip, paid with exact change or tokens because drivers do not carry money; digital tokens are sold through the Token Transit app. Visitors who already hold ADA eligibility elsewhere can ride for up to 21 days in Tallahassee before applying locally.

The schedule is tighter than the bus network's. Dial-A-Ride runs Monday to Friday from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Trips are booked by phone at 850-891-5199 up to 14 days ahead and no later than 5 p.m. the day before, and the Tallahassee service cannot take same-day requests. Work and school trips in the Coordinator program get booking priority.

The first new StarMetro hub in four decades is going up on the Southside. The city chose the northwest corner of Orange Avenue and Meridian Street, inside the larger Orange/Meridian placemaking area that also carries stormwater work, and broke ground on April 24, 2024. Blueprint lists both StarMetro Enhancements and Orange Avenue/Meridian Road Placemaking on its Blueprint 2020 project list, so the sales tax agency's work frames the site.

The center is built around electric buses. WFSU reported that the $20 million facility will be a two-story building with eight covered bays with electric charging stations for fixed route buses. The Tallahassee Democrat reported that the city had obtained $35 million in federal grants for the center and the move to battery-electric buses, with a pull-off for paratransit and Dial-A-Ride vehicles and neighborhood circulators. City officials said at the groundbreaking that south side residents account for more than a third of StarMetro's total ridership, which is the reason the second hub is there.

By fall 2026, the city's construction update reported, crews had finished the primary structural steel and roof and installed six of the eight pantographic bus-charging arms, with final completion expected around the end of the year. When it opens it will be the first public transit center built in Tallahassee since C.K. Steele Plaza in the 1980s.

StarMetro's policy board is the Tallahassee City Commission. The city's City Commission page lists Mayor John E. Dailey, Mayor Pro Tem Curtis Richardson and Commissioners Jacqueline Jack Porter, Jeremy Matlow and Dianne Williams-Cox, and names Karen Jumonville as City Manager, the appointed officer who oversees most city departments including StarMetro. Last verified: October 9, 2026, on the City of Tallahassee website.

Outside money comes with outside rules. StarMetro reports productivity measures each year to the Florida Department of Transportation under Section 341.071, Florida Statutes, and sends performance data to the Federal Transit Administration's National Transit Database, the conditions attached to the state block grants and federal grants that pay for Tallahassee buses and the new Southside facility.