- By James Salazar | Examiner staff writer |
- Aug 9, 2024 Updated 19 hrs ago (SFExaminer.com)
Officials with public-transit agencies serving San Francisco say they’ve coordinated changes to their respective schedules to make it easier for passengers to transfer between systems and, thus, retain riders and attract new ones.
BART announced that its forthcoming Aug. 12 schedule change is coinciding with expected adjustments to the schedules of Caltrain and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, among others in the Bay Area. The regional rail line said the agencies first met in March to discuss improving transfers, and their leaders are working on another set of schedule changes to take effect in January.
BART officials said the Muni 28 19th Avenue bus to the Daly City BART station is changing so East Bay-bound riders can catch the final Oakland train of the night, while BART’s new schedule ensures 90% of weekend trains and 85% of trains have a transfer within 19 minutes at Caltrain’s Millbrae station.
“We want to make transit as welcoming and easy to use as possible for our riders,” Christopher Filippi, a BART communications officer, said. “Bay Area transit agencies are syncing schedules with a focus on improving transfers between systems and making schedule changes at the same time.”
Filippi told The Examiner that BART shared its new schedule with all partner agencies in March “to give time for them to ensure schedules are aligned and transfers are timed as well as possible.”
The schedule changes come amid a regional push to better synchronize service from the Bay Area’s disparate agencies. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission — the agency overseeing Bay Area transit planning and financing — is working with its subordinate agencies to design unified maps and signage, championing affordability programs that promote free or discounted transfers, and piloting easier-to-use fare payment methods than the current Clipper card system.
The MTC in May paused the rollout of a system allowing riders to tap their credit or debit cards at fare gates to pay for rides, rather than requiring a Clipper card, that was originally scheduled for the summer. Agency testing of existing systems revealed some agencies’ fare readers weren’t able to handle direct payments or fare integration because of outdated devices. Updates are expected at the September MTC meeting.
“These program challenges have proven to be more difficult than had been estimated,” Jason Weinstein, MTC’s director of electronic payments, wrote in a May report. “We are navigating a highly dependent systems integration process with multiple vendors and all the work must be completed prior to the next pilot test phase.”
BART officials said six of seven “major” transit agencies in the Bay Area are currently syncing their schedule changes at least once a year, adding that the goal is to roll out one set of changes each summer and another each winter.
Erica Kato, a spokesperson for the SFMTA, said the agencies “are working together to transform how people move around the Bay Area.”
“Our goal is an easier and more efficient way to take public transit wherever you’re going,” she said.
