Why Disneyland should be taxed more: Anaheim Transportation Network to shut down because of ongoing deficits

Bus riders take Anaheim Regional Transportation (ART) buses shuttles from the Toy Story parking lot to the Disneyland Resort on Thursday, January 29, 2026, in Anaheim, CA. The Anaheim Transportation Network’s board voted Wed. Jan. 28 to “wind down” operations, with the last day of shuttling planned for March 31. The bus system moves 8 million riders a year around the resort area. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The bus service in Anaheim, Anaheim Transportation Network, transports people between major destinations in the city including Disneyland and the Convention Center.  It has about 22,000 riders per day, 8 million per year.  It also provides an electric shuttle called FRAN--free rides around the neighborhood--and EVE, a van shuttle to and from John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana.

Your ride to Disneyland.  Not anymore.  A sign marks a stop at Great Wolf Lodge for an ART bus, Anaheim Resort Transportation, in Anaheim, CA on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

It has been funded by fares and other revenues, with a persistent deficit covered by the cities tourism special district, which collects taxes on hotel stays.

That's not enough, and the service is shutting down ("With a shut-down deadline looming, Anaheim Transportation Network has buses and property to disperse," Orange County Register).  

City punts.  Elected officials lack vision, sound familiar?*  Last year, faced with the possibility of the system shutting down, the city figured it wasn't important enough to come up with other funding to maintain the service ("Anaheim looks at takeover of resort bus system that’s facing budget challenges," OCR).

The city of Anaheim last year considered taking over the struggling transportation network, in hopes of solving the agency’s financial troubles without asking hoteliers to pay more. But officials said earlier this year the city was no longer interested in the move.

... “We know there’s a need for a service,” Lyster said. “We want to do a study to look at whether there could be an advantage to putting this under the city umbrella that might make it cost-effective.”

... More than 70% of the transportation provider’s operating costs go toward labor, Kotler said. Fare increases would likely lower the number of people who choose to use the buses since the service is competing on cost with rideshare services and families who might choose to park at the resort. ATN charges $4 for a one-way fare and less for children and seniors.

“We believe that if fares were to increase, we would lose a large percentage of our passenger market to the rideshare companies,” Kotler said. “So, we have to be very careful about how we approach the fare policy … We feel that the fares need to stay at the current level.”

* DC just shut down its streetcar ("Eight big-picture lessons from the DC Streetcar," GGW). 

DisneyForward is not Transit Forward.  Disney has a huge expansion program underway, called DisneyForward, and they weren't required to include transportation demand management planning as an element of the project ("Disneyland doesn't have transportation demand management planning requirements," 2023).

One of ATN’s major routes is a line from a Disney parking lot to the theme parks’ gates.

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When the magic fades.

Transportation Demand Management Plans for Amusement Parks.  Not dissimilarly, Disney World in Orlando shut down the branded Disney Express bus service from Orlando Airport and other locations.  In part they said this was because of the increased use of ride hailing services like Uber and Lyft.

Amusement parks/resorts, like stadiums, arenas and casinos ought to be required to have transportation demand management plans and fund transit as part of their operation .  Of course, in Florida, Disney's land district is legally separate from the counties there.  

Nonetheless, as a local government, it should be required to participate in a German style transport association, bringing together area jurisdictions and transit operations to plan and deliver transit in an integrated fashion.

-- "The answer is: Create a single multi-state/regional multi-modal transit planning, management, and operations authority association," 2017
-- "Verkehrsverbund: The evolution and spread of fully integrated regional public transport in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland," International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, 2018

Orange County Transportation Authority does a lot of things--runs Metrolink, toll roads, cross-jurisdictional buses (at least one line makes it to CSU Long Beach), paratransit, and a fare media card usable on its buses and some of the city bus systems.  

It also provides some funds at least to some jurisdictions for intra-city transportation, like in Laguna Beach, through Measure M, a county wide sales tax for transportation--not just transit--projects.  They did pay for some things for Anaheim, I am not sure for buses.  The justification for transit funding is primarily congestion management.