Transfers improving around the region
Bay Area transit agencies are starting to coordinate schedules more systematically, and the results are starting to show. These include improvements at the core regional rail hub connecting BART and Caltrain, many improvements linking bus connections to BART/Caltrain regional rail, and North Bay connections linking local buses to SMART rail and Golden Gate express bus service.
This is the first major announcement of the schedule coordination initiative of the region’s Transit Transformation Action Plan being co-managed by MTC and transit agencies as part of the region’s Network Management. The current set of schedule changes was put in motion this past March when agencies convened to share planned changes and look for opportunities to improve transfers.
The various agencies are now aligning their crew signup schedules to enable coordinated schedule changes twice a year in August and January. BART shared that there has been a 250% increase in the number of transit agencies changing their schedule concurrently twice each year, six of seven major transit providers are syncing their schedule changes at least once a year, and agencies are already working on another iteration of a coordinated schedule change to go into effect in January 2025.
Both BART and Caltrain will make changes to improve rail transfers at Millbrae Station that will go into effect when Caltrain launches its electric service on September 21. With BART’s schedule change on August 12 and Caltrain’s schedule change on September 21, ~85% of all weekday trains will have a transfer between 5 and 19 minutes at Millbrae Station. On the weekend, ~90% of trains will have a transfer between 5 and 19 minutes.
VTA is making changes to match upcoming BART and Caltrain schedule changes to ensure timed transfers are maintained at various locations across the South Bay and Peninsula.
SamTrans is improving several bus routes that serve BART stations. One noteworthy change is to bus route 292, serving both Millbrae and SFO BART stations, with frequency (the time between bus arrivals) to be every 20 minutes from 6am- 6pm to match BART’s frequency.
In San Francisco, Muni is making changes to improve regional connections, specifically, the 28 19th Avenue bus schedule serving Daly City BART station is changing to ensure East Bay riders can catch the last BART train to Oakland late at night.
AC Transit and Golden Gate Transit have improved schedules to be more coordinated at El Cerrito del Norte Station and along Cutting Boulevard west of the BART station. This alignment enhances reliability for riders traveling between Marin and West Contra Costa counties via the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge
The Napa Valley Transportation Authority is making changes to Route 29 from Redwood Park and Ride to the El Cerrito del Norte BART station to enhance the bus-to-train transfer timing. 71% of the trips will now have a 5- to 10-minute transfer time at El Cerrito del Norte, as opposed to 23% with the current schedule. The change will positively impact as many as 16,465 riders annually.
In the North Bay, a series of coordinated changes between SMART, Golden Gate Transit, and Marin Transit will improve service and connections along the congested Highway 101 corridor.
These improved transfers will be even more convenient when free and reduced price transfers go into effect with the launch of Clipper 2.0. More information about an updated Clipper 2.0 schedule is expected at the Clipper Executive Board meeting in September.
An underlying challenge with the BART/Caltrain transfer is that BART trains run every 20 minutes off peak and Caltrain runs every 30 minutes off peak. Funding is needed to get the services onto the same frequency and enable better transfers.
The new improvements are steps toward a more world-class connected network. The draft Transit2050+ Connected Network Plan calls for a billion dollar investment over the next 25 years to improve the coordination of inter-agency schedules, refine transfer timing at key regional hubs, and upgrade facilities to encourage easier transfers.
As the region improves its planning for seamless transit, we urge progress toward a system that is designed from the start for well-coordinated transfers, with goals to improve travel time for key trips that cross routes, agency and county boundaries, and then planning the service and capital investments needed to deliver the travel time goals.