The Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) and shuttle service provider Salt Lake Express launched daily bus service between Reno, Fallon/Fernley, and Las Vegas on March 15. 

The daily round-trip bus service will be operated by Salt Lake Express and will connect Reno with Fallon, Fernley, and Las Vegas via U.S. 95 and Interstate 80. The bus will pick up from the Reno-Tahoe International Airport, Amtrak station, and Centennial Plaza bus terminal in Sparks and offer stops in Fernley, Fallon, Hawthorne, Tonopah, Beatty, Pahrump, and McCarran International Airport and Greyhound bus station in Las Vegas.

Routes will also be offered between Elko and Salt Lake City, Utah and Twin Falls, Idaho. 

Cumulatively, the routes are projected to serve as many as 18,250 trips during the first year. With the goal of expanding regional intercity transit and increasing mobility, the routes were identified in part by public feedback provided during the development of NDOT’s Coordinated Human Services Transportation Plan. Nearly 70% of Nevadans polled cited such intercity transit connecting Nevada’s rural areas to services in larger urban and metropolitan cities as a top transit priority.

The new bus services are part of the approximately $10 million in Federal Transit Administration funds NDOT administers annually to support rural public transportation connecting residents to employment, recreation, medical services, and more. Trips are frequently provided from the rural areas to larger urban areas where additional services are offered. 

Salt Lake Express currently operates routes through Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana while also interlining with carriers across the U.S.