Gary Welles drives his '97 Gillig bus for eight hours a day from the Park-and-Ride Lot to the Hub and back again.
He used to drive a '95 - that one had the good mirrors, the big ones on the sides that help you see behind you - but he said he guesses it was outdated.
Welles said he has seen the RTS system grow rapidly in Gainesville over the past few years.
When he started driving in 1980, there were only two buses on Route 20, he said. Today, that route is one of the busiest, usually running five buses.
The 10 million riders in the last fiscal year and sometimes 60,000 passengers a day, make RTS the top public transportation agency per capita in Florida, said Chip Skinner, spokesman for RTS.
On Wednesday, Gainesville received a nod from the Federal Transit Administration for its success. The FTA awarded the city a $9 million grant to help build a new bus maintenance facility.
This money will be combined with a $10.6 million grant the city received in August for the first two phases of the construction project, Skinner said.
The total project is estimated to cost $50 million and is expected to be completed by 2025.
The new facility will be located on Southeast First Street and is expected to be much larger than its predecessor.
The City of Gainesville purchased the 18-acre property in January 2010 for $4.4 million.
Though RTS has about 100 buses on its current lot, the facility was only built to house about 50. The new property will have room for up to 230.
It will also be large enough to perform in-house maintenance on the buses.
Currently, if a bus is in an accident or requires paint touch-ups or body work, Skinner said, it must be driven or towed to an outside vendor, usually in Ocala or Orlando. Being able to do those repairs in Gainesville would save time and money.
Skinner said Gainesville's award was the largest in the state.
The city will continue to apply for additional federal funding to put toward the construction project.
