12/20/23: *Psst* Transit transformation is the talk around town
Happy holidays from the Seamless family to yours! As our gift to you, we have a flurry of new blogs up on our website. So wrap yourself in a BART sweater (for those of you lucky enough to snag one), get close to the fireplace, and make yourself comfortable for these good reads about progress on achieving seamless transit in the Bay Area and around the State of California.
Statewide Transit Transformation Task Force has Seamless representation
This week, the state of California kicked off the new statewide Transit Transformation Task Force. Ian Griffiths of Seamless Bay Area was appointed to serve on the 25-member task force, along with members representing transit agencies, business, labor, nonprofits, state agencies and legislative staff. The Task Force was created as part of SB125, the 2023 state budget bill that provided transit agencies with flexibility in using funding for transit operations in the short term, and will make recommendations on reforms and funding that can improve transit rider experience and grow ridership statewide by October 2025. For more background on the opportunities of the task force, check out Seamless Bay Area’s blog from March on AB 761, the prior bill that first introduced the task force.
New from our blog:
Transformation Action Plan Two Year Update - Progress and Next Steps
On December 8, the MTC’s Regional Network Management Committee reviewed a two year status update for the Transformation Action Plan. The update covers welcome results for riders, as well as behind the scenes progress being made. The update summarizes progress on fare integration, mapping and wayfinding pilots, connected network planning, the groundwork for a regional funding measure and more. Read more here.
South Bay transit leaders: Prioritize schedule and fare integration
What did transit leaders learn from a recent study delegation to Switzerland, and how can these lessons be applied to the South Bay and the Bay Area? This was the focus of of Seamless Bay Area’s November 16th event, Transforming Transit: A Swiss-style rider-focused public transit system in the South Bay, in Downtown San Jose. Read more here.
Learning from Europe: Organize regionally and focus on the customer
Regionally integrated fares, service planning, and customer experience are practically universal attributes of public transit systems in Europe’s largest and most transit-rich metropolitan areas, and are made possible by regional Public Transport Authorities (PTAs) - or network managers - that have the legal responsibility to organize public transportation. This was one of the key takeaways from Seamless Bay Area’s November 2 webinar with Thomas Geier of European Metropolitan Transport Authorities (EMTA). Read more about European best practices for transit coordination we learned from the webinar in our summary blog post, or watch the recording on our YouTube channel.
Clipper 2.0 rollout expected for late 2024 with credit/debit card payment and free transfers
Bay Area transit riders will be able to pay fares with credit and debit cards by August 2024. This change will reduce barriers for first-time and infrequent users, making transit a more compelling travel option and helping regrow ridership. Read more here.
Happy reading - and happy holidays!