AC Transit

Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District
Overview
Locale	East Bay, California
Transit type	Bus
Number of lines	105
Daily ridership	215,000
Operation
Began operation	1960
Operator(s)	Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District

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

File:AC transit bayfair stop.JPG

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 and discountiued in 2007. (The M 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.

File:AC Transit 95 at BART.jpg

An older AC Transit Line 95 bus at Hayward BART in Hayward

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. 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).

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 have been lettered, and local lines have been 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). Some routes have a variation that adds an additional length or loop in the route, and those trips are delineated with a different suffixed letter. Currently "A" and "M" are in use.

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 NX3 for a variation of the NX 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, primarily in Fremont and Newark.
• 300-399 – Special service routes. These include late-night service, event service (i.e. seasonal service to the Golden Gate Fields horse racing track), 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: 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. 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.

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's Capitol Corridor (with transfer issued on board Amtrak Capitol Corridor trains)	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.

Vehicles

The articulated 60-foot Van Hool bus on the 40L route in Berkeley

AC Transit's 40-foot hydrogen-powered bus parked on Center Street in front of Berkeley City College for a conservation and green technologies conference

A 30-foot Van Hool bus at its terminus of route 9 at the Berkeley Marina

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 switched to new low-floor buses from Van Hool, purchasing A330 40-foot and AG300 60-foot articulated buses. More recently, it also purchased a number of new, custom-designed 30-foot buses for its neighborhood routes, called the Van Hool A300K.. Significant rider criticism followed the launch of these vehicles, claiming among other things a harsh ride, insufficient call buttons, obstructed rider views, and poor seating options for seniors.

Starting in 2003 AC Transit 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.

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. 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)

Most AC Transit vehicles are not air-conditioned. However, in 2007 the district's board of directors voted to purchase air conditioning when buying new buses.

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.

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.

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 (the "bus rapid transit" service provided by the 72R route, discussed above) 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.

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
• AC Transit classified ad placement for AC Transit commuters to buy | sell | trade