'AC Transit' (in full, 'Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District') is a regional
bus agency serving parts of
Alameda County and
Contra Costa County in the western coastal area of the East Bay of the
San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, AC Transit runs "Transbay" routes across
San Francisco Bay to the city of
San Francisco, and selected areas in
San Mateo County and
Santa Clara County.
AC Transit is constituted as a
special district under California law. It is governed by seven elected members (five from geographic wards and two at-large). It is not a part of the Alameda or Contra Costa county governments, although the initials "AC" are often mistaken to mean "Alameda County."
The district is the public successor to the privately owned
Key System.
Route 76 bus at an El Cerrito del Norte BART station bus bay with bike mounted
Bus service
AC Transit bus stop at Bay Fair Station
The district encompasses the following cities and unincorporated areas:
Oakland,
Fremont,
Hayward,
Berkeley,
Richmond,
San Leandro,
Alameda,
Castro Valley,
Newark,
San Pablo,
El Cerrito,
San Lorenzo,
Ashland,
Albany,
Cherryland,
El Sobrante,
Piedmont,
Fairview,
Emeryville,
Kensington, and
East Richmond Heights.
The district's bus lines also serve parts of some other East Bay communities, including
Milpitas,
Pinole, and
Union City.
AC Transit serves many colleges and universities including the
University of California, Berkeley;
Stanford University;
California State University, East Bay; and
Mills College.
Most routes connect with regional train service, primarily BART (
Bay Area Rapid Transit), in addition to
ACE and
Amtrak, including (among other trains) the
Capitol Corridor. AC Transit routes also connect with several other regional transit services, including
Union City Transit,
SamTrans,
WestCAT, the
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority,
San Francisco Municipal Railway,
Golden Gate Transit, the
Alameda-Oakland Ferry, the
Harbor Bay Ferry, and
Emery Go Round.
AC Transit serves
Oakland International Airport with lines
50 (most hours of the day and night) and
805 (1 a.m. to 5 a.m.).
While most AC Transit service consists of local lines throughout the
East Bay, the district also provides many transbay lines. Most of these run across the
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to connect communities as distant as
El Sobrante and
Newark with
San Francisco's
Transbay Terminal (formerly the terminus of the Key System).
Bus service is also provided across the bridges to the south. In
2003, the district introduced a
San Mateo-Hayward Bridge route, Line M, to connect the BART stations of
Castro Valley and
Hayward with
Foster City and
San Mateo's Hillsdale Boulevard Caltrain station. A second San Mateo-Hayward Bridge route, Line MA, was added in
2006. (The M/MA replaced the
SamTrans 90E, which had been sharply reduced in the mid-1990s and was canceled altogether in 1999.) Across the
Dumbarton Bridge, AC Transit operates, under contract with a consortium of transit agencies (including AC Transit itself as well as BART,
SamTrans,
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, and
Union City Transit), the
Dumbarton Express, a series of bus lines connecting the Union City BART station with
East Palo Alto,
Menlo Park,
Palo Alto, and
Stanford University. Additionally, the district in
2004 began another Dumbarton Bridge route, Line U, a commute-hour service linking Stanford with ACE trains and the Fremont BART station.
In
2003, AC Transit created a new
bus rapid transit line operating on
San Pablo Avenue. Designated as 'Route 72R' (or 'San Pablo Rapid'), it runs between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. at a 12-minute frequency with stops 2/3 mile apart, running between
Jack London Square and
Contra Costa College. The line uses no timepoints and instead allows buses to travel along the route as fast as traffic allows. This supplements multiple stop routes 72 and 72M (renamed from 73). Following the success of this experiment, similar lines elsewhere in the region are being planned. The corridor between downtown Berkeley and Bay Fair BART on Telegraph Ave.,
International Blvd., and East 14th St. has been selected for expansion of this service on a new line.
[1] Designated as 'Route 1R' (or 'International Rapid'), it was launced June 24,
2007 alongside a supplemented multiple stop 'Route 1', replacing heritage multiple and limited stop routes 40(L), 43 and 82(L).
[2]
For years AC Transit provided 24 hour service on its trunk lines (except in the late 1990's due to budget cuts). Beginning
December 10,
2005, the district began supplementing BART service, which does not run between midnight and 5 AM, by participating in the
All-Nighter Network.
Route designations
A new Van Hool bus on the 51 route in
Berkeley
AC Transit has several different divisions of bus line designations with different ranges of numbers for differently-purposed routes. In general, since its inception, AC Transit transbay lines are lettered, and local lines are numbered, some with letter suffixes attached. Many of these were inherited directly from the predecessor Key System, and in varying degrees, follow the original routes. The transbay letter designations originated as a means of distinguishing the Key System's transbay trains from those of the
Southern Pacific's which were numbered.
AC Transit uses a number of suffixes – L for limited stops, R for Rapid (stop every ⅔ of a mile) service, and X for express (long distance and/or commuter service with long areas of no stops, notably
freeways), as well as others for special segments. Some routes, such as the 72, have a variation that adds an additional length or loop in the route, and those trips are delineated with the letter M. Often, but not always, the letter may stand for a street on the route – in the case of the 72M, it veers off course onto MacDonald Avenue, which starts with an M. Local routes (1-99) also serve as "origins" of many route numbers in the hundreds. For example, a school line that follows much of the path of the 68 would usually be designated the 668. This pattern is used on a majority of 300, 600, and 800 series buses, but many have no corresponding regular route number. In lettered routes, numbered suffixes are sometimes used, such as LB1 for a variation of the LB line. Just because a certain range of numbers is reserved for a certain use does not mean that all the numbers/letters are in use.
★ '1-99' – Local service routes operating in the
East Bay service area, largely outside
Fremont and
Newark.
★ '200-299' – Local service routes operating in the East Bay service area only in Fremont and Newark.
★ '300-399' – Special service routes. These include late-night service, event service (i.e. seasonal Race Track service), and shuttle service between shopping malls and train stations. Many of these routes also operate only one or two days a week, or only during the morning or evening. Some, such as the 376, combine the popular segments of several routes and run after those routes cease running for the day since running the full lines would not attract sufficient passengers.
★ '600-699' – Lines serving public and private schools, including high schools, middle/junior high schools, and some elementary schools. These lines operate on school days only and are open to all riders at regular fares.
★ '800-899' – Lines that are part of the
All-Nighter Network.
★ 'A-Z' – Transbay lines, express commuter lines that cross the
Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge, the
San Mateo Bridge, or the
Dumbarton Bridge connecting the East Bay with San Francisco, San Mateo, and Palo Alto, respectively. Combinations of letters and numbers are also used, as is the case with the N series (i.e. N, NL, NX1, NX2, etc.). All Transbay routes are lettered, with the 800 being the sole exception.
Fares
See also
AC Transit's page on fares.
Local
| Fare category | Cash | 10-Ride Ticket | 31-Day Ticket‡ |
|---|
| Adult local | US$1.75 | US$17.50 | US$70.00 |
| Youth (5-17) local | US$0.85 | US$8.50 | US$15.00 |
| Senior (65+) & disabled local‡ | US$0.85 | US$8.50 | US$20.00 |
★ †This is the price for a monthly sticker for the Regional Transit Connection Discount Card.
★ ‡Montly passes and senior/disabled fares not valid on line 304.
[3]
Transbay
| Fare category | Cash | 10-Ride Ticket | 31-Day Ticket‡ |
|---|
| Adult | US$3.50 | US$35.00 | US$116.00 |
| Youth (5-17) transbay | US$1.70 | not available | not available |
| Seniors (65+) and disabled transbay‡ | US$1.70 | not available | not available |
★ ‡Montly passes and senior/disabled fares are not valid on line 304.
Transfers
All transfers are issued at the time a fare is paid, and are good for one use and 1½ hours.
| Transfer type‡ | Adult | Youth (5-17) | Senior (65+) & Disabled |
|---|
| Local Bus-to-bus | US$0.25 | US$0.25 | US$0.25 |
| BART-to-bus (with transfer issued at BART) | Add US$1.50 | Add US$0.65 | Add US$0.65 |
| From Amtrak Capitols (with transfer issued on board Amtrak Capitol train) | Free | Free | Free |
| Transbay-to-local bus-to-bus† | Free | Free | Free |
★ †Transbay transfers are also good for local-to-transbay transfers with payment of transbay fare on the first bus.
★ ‡Montly passes of any kind, senior/disabled fares, and any transfers are not valid on line 304.
AC Transit participates in
TransLink, a regional smart card fare collection system.
[4]
Vehicles
The articulated 60-foot Van Hool bus on the 40L route in
Berkeley
Another 30-foot Van Hool bus on the 52L route crossing College Avenue in Berkeley
At first, AC Transit utilized the buses of its predecessor, the Key System. Virtually all of these buses were made by General Motors in the 1950s. AC Transit soon ordered newer GM buses made in the early 1960s. Throughout the 1960s, AC Transit used both the old and new GM buses (referred to as "GM old look" and "GM new look" buses). In the mid-1960s, AC Transit pioneered the use of an
articulated bus, operating the experimental GM bus "XMC 77", primarily on the "N" Foothill Blvd.-San Francisco line.
AC Transit continued to purchase GM "new look" buses through the early 1970s, but also began purchasing buses from rival manufacturer
Flxible. By the 1980s, no more GM buses were added. Instead, additions from Flyer and Gillig were made during the 1980s.
In
2003, AC Transit upgraded its bus infrastructure with new low-floor buses from
Van Hool, purchasing A330 40-foot and AG300 60-foot
articulated buses, and added satellite tracking units on all vehicles. The
GPS tracking units fix the position of the vehicle, and a private radio network sends updates to headquarters every 3 to 16 minutes. Vehicles on selected lines can be viewed from AC Transit's
NextBus passenger information system. More recently, it also purchased a number of new, custom-designed 30-foot buses for its neighborhood routes, called the Van Hool A300K.
[AC Transit news release announcing the launch of their new 30-foot bus]
AC Transit also is a worldwide leader in implementing new, environmentally-friendly technologies. Three
hydrogen-powered buses, based on the 40-foot A330 bus (see above), currently operate on the 50 and 57 bus lines to test their real-world feasibility and reliability.
[5] In addition, the agency plans on purchasing up to 10
hybrid-diesel buses based on its new 30-foot bus.
All AC Transit buses in active service are accessible to passengers in wheelchairs.
A detailed list of vehicles:
★
Van Hool A330 40-foot
★
Van Hool AG300 60-foot articulated
★
Van Hool A300K 30-foot
★
Van Hool A300K 30-foot hybrid
★
New Flyer Industries D60 articulated
★
NABI 40-foot LFW
★
NABI 40-foot
★
Motor Coach Industries D4500
★
General Motors Diesel Division Buses T6H 5307N (historic fleet)
Funding
As with almost all U.S. transit services, service is government-subsidized. In
2003, AC Transit responded to budget cuts in
California by reducing and eliminating many bus routes.
In
2004 voters in the AC Transit district, along with voters in other parts of the
San Francisco Bay Area approved Regional Measure 2, which provides regional transportation projects (including AC Transit) with $125 million of additional yearly revenues. Additionally, 2/3 of the voters approved Measure BB, a parcel tax specifically supporting AC Transit.
In April
2005, a
class action law suit was filed against the
Metropolitan Transportation Commission. The plaintiffs alleged that the Metropolitan Transportation Commission was discriminating against AC Transit's primarily
minority ridership by giving AC Transit disproportionately less money than BART and Caltrain. However, AC Transit is not party to the law suit.
Internet access
AC Transit and its partner EcoNetwork offer
RideAC.org, which offers
Internet access via
dial-up access and
digital subscriber line. AC Transit also offers wireless internet on some buses that serve Transbay lines.
[6]
Solar Energy
On July 30, 2007 AC Transit announced that it had entered into a 25-year long partnership with
Sun Power Corporation,
MMA Renewable Ventures, and
Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) to install solar energy systems at all its facilities in efforts to reduce its
carbon footprint, better air quality of the immediate area, and save up to US$ 15,000 per year in energy costs which would add up to millions of dollars it will save and spend on transit service instead.
[7]
West County Service Plan
In June 2007, after engaging with the community for feedback with public hearings, AC Transit implemented the
West Contra Costa
County Service Plan which realigned existing service finds to reroute portions of certain lines, eliminate service to areas with low ridership, and replace service in some areas with service from a different route providing direct service to areas previously requiring tedious transfers. Furthermore, a great effort was made to provide a better transfer at
Richmond Station as well as the
Richmond Parkway Transit Center. The changes are covered by Phase I and use no new monies which would be required to completely implement the plan: Phase II. Phase II will use Regional
Measure J funds to expand service providing lines along corridors which are undeserved or not served, and increasing hours and decreasing
headways. Two of the greatest changes will be extending
BRT service to Richmond Parkway Transit Center and providing service along the
Ohio Avenue corridor. These changes have effected the northern neighborhoods of the city of
Richmond and the adjacent communities of
El Sobrante and
San Pablo the most. Phase I was originally supposed to be implemented in late 2006, but the implementation has been delayed until June 2007. Phase II has a target date of mid-2008.
[8][9][10][11]
Trivia
Former bus route #43 Foothill was referenced in the rapper
Too $hort song "Freaky Tales."
[12]
References
1. "Marketing & Community Relations Priorities Through December 2006," memo to AC Transit Board of Directors, April 19, 2006
2. "Change Happens: June 24," AC Transit Marketing, May 15, 2007
3. Special Bus to Golden Gate Fields AC Transit Marketing, 4th paragraph, 10/18/2005, retrieved 4/25/07
4. Where To Use TransLink® translink.org, retrieved April 26, 2007
5. AC Transit's HyRoad program
6. http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=21550
7. AC Transit Turns on Solar Power, AC Transit External Affairs, July 30, 2007, retrieved July 31 2007
8. New Date: Upcoming Service Changes, AC Transit Marketing, March 15, 2007, retrieved June 7, 2007
9. AC Transit Service Changes, retrieved June 7, 2007
10. West County Service Plan Community and Drivers Input (PDFs), retrieved June 7, 2007
11. West Contra Costa County Service Plan (PDFs), retrieved June 7, 2007
12. http://www.lyricsdepot.com/too-short/freaky-tales.html
External links
★
AC Transit - Official website
★
NextBus arrivals
★ AC Transit info at transit.511.org:
Local,
Transbay
★
AC Transit web page about Van Hool buses
★ (In Vietnamese)
SƠ LƯƠC VÊ NHƯNG DICH VU CƯA AC TRANSIT
★
中文 AC Transit
★
DESCRIPCIÓN GENERAL DE LOS SERVICIOS DE AC TRANSIT
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