AC Transit Realign Archive

AC Transit Realign Archive


Realign Home

Additional Resources


Guiding Principles

Change Information


Draft Final Plan

Phases & Timeline

On October 9, the AC Transit Board of Directors voted to approve the Realign Final Network Plan. Find the Final Network Plan in the resources below, or visit the Draft Final Plan page for more tools to explore the near-final draft. Realign implementation is slated to launch as soon as August 2025. Stay tuned for updates to the launch timeline. This page will be updated in Spring 2025.


Goals

  • Assess today’s travel patterns and the community’s current AC Transit service needs.  
  • Implement an inclusive planning process that incorporates quantitative and qualitative data along with rider and community feedback – including the voices of hard-to-reach equity communities. 
  • Align service schedules, coverage, and frequencies based on major needs identified by the community, riders, travel pattern data, finances, and workforce availability. 
  • Update our service standards with best practices for the design of our bus service. 
FY 2023-24 Revenue Budget pie chart

Why Realign?

Ridership has not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, with more people working remotely or adopting hybrid work models. The decline in ridership directly corresponds with a reduction in farebox and local tax revenues, which are essential for funding operations. AC Transit's bus network faces additional challenges due to unstable state and federal funding and the difficulty recruiting frontline employees, particularly Bus Operators. Due to these financial constraints, Realign is a resource-neutral plan that requires tradeoffs within its proposed recommendations. 

Map sectional

Realign Draft Final Plan

The AC Transit Realign Draft Final Plan prioritizes bus lines serving transit dependent communities, improves reliability, and optimizes service efficiency while allowing for potential future growth. The Draft Final Plan suggests several types of changes to our service, including re-routing lines, combining or potentially eliminating others, and frequency and service hour adjustments. All proposed changes to bus lines are identified in the Plan with the label "DF.”

View Draft Final Plan
Realign Unconstrained

Unconstrained Vision Scenario

With direction from the AC Transit Board of Directors, an unconstrained vision as presented during Phase 3 will be moved forward on a longer timeframe than the immediate service changes. This extended time will allow for staff and community focus on the near-term Realign Plan as well as provide additional time to refine an unconstrained vision plan for Board and community consideration after an updated Service Standard Policy is approved. These recommendations will follow a separate process in early 2025.

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Service Standards

In summer of 2024, the Realign project team will update AC Transit’s service standards. This effort will take all public input received over the course of the project and combine it with the latest planning practices to draft a blueprint for how the agency will plan service and measure its performance now and into the future.

Phases & Timeline*

*Timeline is preliminary and subject to change

Phase 1 - Develop Plans and Learn Rider Needs

Dates: March - June 2023

Realign begins with a thorough analysis of current AC Transit service area conditions. The habits, needs, concerns, and priorities of riders and community members will be identified during this phase through quantitative data review, customer survey responses, and feedback through robust outreach. This phase encourages survey participation, which begins April 17, 2023. The survey will help us understand what’s important, identify priority destinations/connections, and weigh trade-offs/priorities that will inform the development of a draft set of guiding principles.

Phase 2 - Aligning Guiding Principles with Community Assessment

Dates: July - August 2023

This phase will solicit and incorporate feedback from riders, community members and AC Transit’s Board of Directors on the draft guiding principles developed from information gathered in Phase 1. In this phase, a final Guiding Principles document will be adopted by the Board and will establish the support, clarity, and direction for the development of Realign (new bus service network plan).

Phase 3 - Develop Service Scenarios and Gather Feedback

Dates: September - December 2023

Based on the feedback and direction from the first two phases, this phase presents draft service scenarios that offer alternative configurations of AC Transit’s routes and schedules throughout our service area. This is an important opportunity for our riders and community to provide feedback on these service scenarios. 

Phase 4 - Draft Final Service Plan and Plan Adoption

Dates: January - October 2024

Following the comprehensive review of data and community input on the draft scenarios, a draft Final Service Plan will be created, including an extensive update to AC Transit’s Service Standards. The draft Final Service Plan will be shared with the community during a formal public comment process. The Realign process will culminate with review and a formal vote by the AC Transit Board of Directors. An Equity Analysis (under Title VI of the American Civil Rights Act) will ensure that any negative impacts on both minority and low-income populations will be identified and presented for approval on a parallel track.

Phase 5 - Develop Service Standards and Inform Riders about Service Changes

Dates: October 2024 - August 2025

Once the Final Service Plan and updated Service Standards are approved, the new service is expected to begin in August 2025. In this final phase, robust promotion will educate riders and community members on how to use the new service network. The updated service policies and standards will help guide future planning and monitoring of AC Transit’s service network. These standards, including hours, days of operation, frequency, and location of bus routes, will guide how service we will operate on the streets and in neighborhoods throughout the AC Transit service area. The standards are based upon multiple factors, including equity, land use, population density, access to jobs, commercial activity, and major attractors such as schools, hospitals, and grocery stores.

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Additional Resources

Additional Resources

Board of Directors Meeting Materials

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