AC Transit Transbay Buses: No magnetic tickets starting tomorrow

Attention AC Transit riders: if you take any Transbay line and pay with a magnetic striped (paper) ticket media, today is your LAST day to use it.

Starting tomorrow, October 1, 2009, Translink will take over all paper media for the Transbay bus lines. From what I've learned, they decided on this switch for three reasons: Need for quicker boarding due to temporary terminal to be opened soon, closure of the AC Transit ticket office at Transbay Terminal, and the fare changes with a three month grace period to fry the old transit tickets. This basically translates into cost savings for the agency.

This policy of forcing all paper ticket holders to switch to Translink is following a new trend; it's working very strongly on Golden Gate Ferry with over 70% of weekday riders paying with Translink, and Golden Gate Transit with about 24% of their weekday ridership using the card as well. Golden Gate gave-up on the paper tickets as a cost measure, but to also encourage people to feed Commuter Checks electronically via Translink to also save trees by not sending out vouchers to registered users.

For those paying with cash or you Cal students with a flash pass, you can still use those types of fare media.

A Summary of Public Transit Changes in SF Bay Area (Starting July 1, 2009)

Public transportation is going to hurt like hell in just a few days. So here's a summary of all the changes you will experience on July 1, 2009.



San Francisco Muni (see all info here):

• Adult cash fare increases to $2.
• Youth and discount cash fare increases to: $0.75.
• Adult monthly fast pass increases to $55.
• Youth, senior, and disabled fast pass increases to $15.
• Adult token ticket (10-ride) book increases to $20.
  
• Adult special event bus service (excludes AT&T Park) increases to $10.
• Youth and discount special event bus service increases to $7.
• Any passenger with a valid pass on special event bus services must pay a surcharge, that increases to $5.
• Route modifications, increases, decreases, and eliminations will happen in the coming months.
  

AC Transit

• Adult cash fare increases to $2.
• Youth and discount cash fare increases to $1.
• 10-ride tickets increases to $20 for adults and $10 for youth/discount.
• Adult local 31-day pass increases to $80.
• What won't change: Youth local 31-day pass stays at $15, and senior/discount monthly pass stays at $20.
• Adult Transbay fare increases to $4.
• Youth/discount Transbay fare increases to $2
• 31-day Transbay pass increases to $132.50.
• Translink will take-over all magnetic media for Transbay bus service in a couple of months.
• Changes in routes, including the 82/82L on July 3, 2009.

Golden Gate Transit & Ferry
There is a 5% fare increase for all services, except Marin Transit.

• For bus services: Depending on the zones you travel, cash fare will increase $0.15 to $0.45 cents, Translink fare will increase from $0.16 to $0.36 cents.
• Adult Larkspur and Sausalito ferry cash one-way service increases to $7.85.
• Adult Larkspur Translink fare increases to $4.90.
• Adult Sausalito Translink fare increases to $4.20.
• Youth and discount cash fare for Larkspur and Sausalito increases to $3.90.
• New route 101 (eff. June 15) and 92.
• Route 10 will not serve Geary Blvd. (eff. June 14th) and will go via Lombard St (92 to substitute with extremely limited service on Geary during rush hour).
• Route 26/27 will leave five minutes earlier (eff. June 15th).
• Route 4 and 93 will have an additional departure.

BART
(All info here)

• 6.1% fare increase for everyone.
• Inter San Francisco fare increases to $1.75 (but cheaper than Muni).
• San Francisco International Airport surcharge increases to $4.
• Eight stations will start participating in $1 per day parking.
• Weekend service wait time to increase to 20 minutes (eff. September).
• Weekend and night service to Colma, San Bruno, South SF, Millbrae, and SFO be reduced to one train line (FAIL coming soon!).

What you can do to reduce the impact of fare hikes and route changes:

1. Plan ahead! Check the agency's website for all route changes and remember to have your revised cash fare ready before you head out for public transit. Nobody likes waiting for you to pay your fare if you forgot the quarter.
2. Use NextBus on your cell phone and bookmark it on your home and work computer. It means less time waiting for your bus and instead spending that few extra minutes doing something else. If your agency doesn't use NextBus, read the bus/ferry schedule carefully.
   
3. If you ride AC Transit, Muni, and/or Golden Gate Transit/Ferry, get a Translink card. Faster payment means less hassle digging in your pocket for cash. Golden Gate gives a generous discount, even if you don't ride frequently.
4. Ask your employer for Commuter Check or a similar program. People can save an average of 20% on public transit, van pooling, and parking.
5. Since the previous BART strike, people like the AC Transit Transbay service and won't ever go back to BART. It's cheaper and you get a free local transfer.
   
6. If all else fails, casual carpool your butt. Just remember the rules of being a "slug," you are getting a free ride, so don't tell the driver to change the radio or give suggestions, always ask permission to open windows, don't pay the driver any money, and always say 'thank you' to the driver when you exit.
   

Thinking Smarter - AC Transit Making Transbay Passengers use Translink

While we let BART lag forever with trying to get Translink up and running, AC Transit is taking the next step in fare collection with the Translink program.

On Translink's website, they report that AC Transit has decided to eliminate sales of their magnetic stripe 10-ride and 31-day Transbay tickets, and is effective June 22, 2009. Therefore, if passengers who wish to continue using these types of fare media for their Transbay rides, will have to pay with a Translink card. This new policy does not affect those who ride the local buses and Cal Berkeley's sticker pass program.

The last day to use up any remaining tickets is September 30, 2009. For those who have extra unused tickets, they can be turned-in at the Transbay terminal ticket office for a free Translink card and have their card value credited to their account.

AC Transit explains that due to the new Transbay Terminal construction and future closure, there will be far less space at their temporary terminal and that means far less time for the bus to idle for passengers to board. Translink users know that it's much faster to use their cards than pay in cash or "dunk" their magnetic stripe tickets.

Also, since there's a fare hike coming up for this agency, it's pointless to produce new tickets when Translink can easily do the job.

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Smart move AC Transit! It's an easy way to stop producing paper/plastic tickets, thereby reducing cost, and makes your bus program efficient and faster due to quicker boarding.

See Muni? You can learn a lesson from this when you start charging a $10 surcharge for BART rides on January 1, 2010. Why waste printing extra passes?