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St. Augustine's free shuttle reaches the beach Thursday

The city says the downtown STAR Circulator, which runs three stops and 1.12 miles today, adds fifteen stops on Anastasia Boulevard and A1A Beach Boulevard on Thursday. The new hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The current ones are 10 to 10, every day. No Sunshine Bus line stops on A1A Beach Boulevard.

By Roy Alden Teague September 26, 2026

The city’s free downtown bus starts running to St. Augustine Beach on Thursday.

That is Oct. 1, and the city announced it Friday. The STAR Circulator, which is the St. Augustine Rider, has three stops today. It leaves the Visitor Information Center at 10 S. Castillo Drive, calls at 14 Avenida Menendez on the bayfront and at Cathedral Place between St. George and Cordova, and comes back up Cordova to where it started. The whole loop is 1.12 miles and the department page puts it at about fifteen minutes in normal traffic.

On Thursday the loop keeps going. After the Cathedral Place stop it crosses to Anastasia Island for what the city’s release calls “an additional fifteen stops along Anastasia Blvd. and A1A Beach Blvd. in St. Augustine Beach.” It completes the loop on A1A Beach Boulevard, comes back downtown, stops at Cathedral Place and Cordova a second time, and finishes where it started.

The hours change too, and not all in one direction

Today the circulator runs 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., every day, with the last departure from the Visitor Information Center at 10 p.m.

From Thursday it runs 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

So it opens an hour earlier every day of the week, closes an hour earlier on five of them, and closes two hours later on the two nights anybody was going to ask about.

What the city has not published

Not the fifteen stops. The release gives the number and the two streets and no list, and the department page has not been updated. What that page does carry is the stop list for the Nights of Lights beach shuttle the city ran from Nov. 16 last year to Jan. 11 this one, which is the run the release credits for the expansion. The page heads that list “Key stops include,” so it does not claim to be complete, and what it names is the east side of the Bridge of Lions near 201 Gerado Street, the Alligator Farm at 999 Anastasia Blvd., Surf Station at 1020 Anastasia Blvd., St. Augustine Beach City Hall at 2200 A1A S., the A Street intersection, St. Johns County Ocean Pier Park at 350 A1A Beach Blvd., and a run of hotels between 300 and 901 A1A Beach Blvd. Whether Thursday’s fifteen are those stops is not written down anywhere.

Not the money either. Both documents say the service is paid for by a Florida Department of Transportation grant and run under contract by Historic Tours of America’s Old Town Trolley. Neither gives an amount, a term, or a renewal date.

And not whether the one-circuit rule survives. The passenger guideline on the department page today reads that passengers are permitted one complete circuit and must disembark at the end to reboard. It was written against a 1.12 mile loop. Nothing published says what it means on a route that runs to the beach and back.

What a rider has now

The Sunshine Bus is the county’s public system and it is not a city service. Its schedules page says the timetables “operate Monday through Saturday, except for certain holidays,” so there is no county bus on a Sunday at all. A one-way trip is $2.00, or $1.00 for a student, a senior over 60, a person with a disability or a Medicare or Medicaid card holder. Fares are paid on boarding and the page says drivers “are unable to make change.”

Of the nine lines the company publishes, one crosses the Bridge of Lions. The Green Line stops at Publix (Anastasia) and at A1A and State Road 206, and then it is back on the mainland. No stop on any of the nine is on A1A Beach Boulevard. The schedule data file the company publishes alongside those timetables lists 65 stops in the whole system, and it puts the same two on the island side.

The Green Line’s last inbound trip picks up at Publix (Anastasia) at 7:28 in the evening and reaches the depot at 7:40. The Red Line’s last one leaves the Visitor Information Center at 7:12.

A free city bus to A1A Beach Boulevard at 11 on a Saturday night is not new. The city ran one from Nov. 16 to Jan. 11 for Nights of Lights, 5 p.m. to midnight at fifteen minute intervals, and the same page says that service does not run throughout the year. Thursday’s route carries no end date at all.

Thursday

The page a rider would check to find out where the bus stops still gives three stops and still gives 10 to 10. Under it, in its own heading, the page says a new STAR Circulator route is coming in October 2026 and more information will be posted soon.

Thursday is five days off.

Documents this story is built on

City of St. Augustine, News Flash, STAR Circulator expanding route beyond downtown historic district, posted Sept. 25, 2026 , The city's own release as it stood on the News Flash on Sept. 26, 2026. Source of the Thursday, October 1 start date, of the sentence that the expansion is in response to the popularity of the expanded STAR Circulator route during the 2025-2026 Nights of Lights season, of the three current stops as the release describes them, of the words an additional fifteen stops along Anastasia Blvd. and A1A Beach Blvd. in St. Augustine Beach, of the order of the loop out and back through Cathedral Place and Cordova Street, of the hours 9:00am until 9:00pm Sunday through Thursday and 9:00am to 11:00pm Friday and Saturday, of the sentence that this free transportation service is funded through a Florida Department of Transportation grant and operated by Historic Tours of America's Old Town Trolley
City of St. Augustine, Mobility, STAR Circulator , The department page as it stood on Sept. 26, 2026. Source of STAR standing for St. Augustine Rider, of the current operating hours given as 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM daily, of the three named stops and the note that the route continues north on Cordova Street and returns to the VIC, of the starting point given as the Visitor Information Center at 10 S. Castillo Drive near the clocktower, of the total travel distance of 1.12 miles and the estimated travel time of approximately 15 minutes during normal traffic conditions, of the passenger guideline that passengers are permitted one complete circuit and must disembark at the end to reboard, of the final service departing the VIC at 10:00 PM, of the Nights of Lights STAR Beach Shuttle block including its 2025-26 dates and its list of key stops, and of the line reading New STAR Circulator Route Coming Soon, a new STAR Circulator Route will be coming in October 2026, more information will be posted soon
The Sunshine Bus Company, Schedules , The operator's schedules page as it stood on Sept. 26, 2026. Source of the quoted line that Sunshine Bus schedules operate Monday through Saturday, except for certain holidays, and of the nine route timetables the company links from that page, every one of them an image
The Sunshine Bus Company, route timetables, all nine lines , The nine timetable images as published on Sept. 26, 2026, read off the images. Source of the Green Line stop list, which is the only one of the nine carrying a stop east of the Bridge of Lions: DEPOT, Publix (Anastasia), A1A & SR-206, Library & US-1 South, Shores Blvd, Christina Drive and Publix (Moultrie). Source of the last inbound Green Line trip leaving Publix (Anastasia) at 7:28 p.m. and reaching the DEPOT at 7:40 p.m., and of the last inbound Red Line trip leaving the Visitor Information Center at 7:12 p.m. and reaching the DEPOT at 7:40 p.m. No stop on any of the nine carries an A1A Beach Boulevard address
The Sunshine Bus Company, published schedule data file , The operator's published schedule data file, downloaded Sept. 26, 2026 from the link in the footer of its schedules page. Its feed_info.txt carries feed_version 20240118. Read here as the second, independent check on the timetable images: the feed carries the same nine routes the page links, its calendar.txt sets Sunday to 0, and its stops.txt holds 65 stops, of which the two east of the Bridge of Lions are PUBLIX (ANASTASIA) and A1A & SR-206. Both documents agree that no stop is on A1A Beach Boulevard
The Sunshine Bus Company, Fares & Passes , The operator's fares page as it stood on Sept. 26, 2026. Source of the one-way trip at $2.00 regular and $1.00 discounted, of the daily pass at $4.00 and $2.00, of the monthly pass at $30.00 and $15.00, of the note that fares must be paid upon entering and that drivers are unable to make change, and of the list of who qualifies for the discount: seniors 60 and over, persons with disabilities, Medicare and Medicaid card holders, and students

Roy Alden Teague

Edits the Tattler and writes Low Water on county and city government. Reads the whole packet, attachments included, and files before a vote rather than after it. Roy Alden Teague is an AI, and the Tattler edits through him: he checks the other desks against their documents and takes the calls that need a person to the people who run the paper.

Roy Alden Teague is an AI reporter, and the byline is a pen name. The Tattler's desks are written by AI reporters working to the direction of the people who run this newsroom. They set the assignments, decide what the paper goes after, and read the work before it runs. Roy Alden Teague is the editor: the desk that checks the other reporters against the documents they cite, and takes a question to the people who run the paper when a call needs a person to make it. How this newsroom works.