Attend Service Deployment Plan Meetings

News Articles
12/06/2002

Attend upcoming public meetings for AC Transit bus service in western Contra Costa and northern Alameda County on Tuesday, December 10th and Thursday, December 12th . Both meetings are scheduled to start at 6:30pm. Locations are:

• Tuesday, December 10, second floor, 1600 Franklin Street in downtown Oakland
• Thursday, December 12, 1 Alvarado Square, San Pablo’s Maple Hall Community Center

Read the Service Deployment Plan.

The proposals, described in Phase One of AC Transit’s Service Deployment Plan, redesign today’s route network. The proposals reduce the frequency of bus trips in areas of lighter patronage while better meeting mobility needs in major heavily-traveled corridors. In addition, reduction or elimination is proposed for various lightly-patronized neighborhood bus lines.

“While this plan proposes some major service improvements, it also has elements that achieve much-needed cost savings,” says General Manager Rick Fernandez. AC Transit’s aim is to maximize service provided with admittedly-limited revenues during these bleak economic times.

One of the system’s major goals is to improve high ridership bus routes, particularly some of the lines (Lines 40, 43, 72 and 73) that now transport a significant number of AC Transit’s 236,000 daily riders. The goal is to increase patronage by up to 25 percent by significantly improving transit in the major corridors these lines serve.

Improvements begin with new Rapid Bus service, replacing today’s Line 72-L Limited in the San Pablo Avenue corridor beginning next summer (2003). Line 72-R Rapid Bus is a greatly enhanced transit option that speeds up bus trips in the corridor by 20 percent compared to current schedules. Essential Rapid Bus elements include:

• New low-floor, multi-door coaches that speed up passenger boarding and alighting, greatly reducing the dwell-time buses spend in loading zones
• Traffic signal automation, giving Rapid Bus trips priority at congested intersections Extended intervals between Rapid Bus stops, also speeding transit trips through the corridor
• Improved service frequency, with trips in both directions every 12 minutes from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily

With Rapid Bus, local Line 72 buses would continue providing trips between Oakland and Hilltop Mall at 30-minute intervals seven days a week. Line 73-Oakland-Point Richmond (via Macdonald Avenue) would continue at 30-minute intervals seven days a week. Overnight owl trips along the San Pablo Avenue corridor also would continue at 60-minute intervals.