SamTrans

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SamTrans (in full, San Mateo County Transit District) is a public transit agency in and around San Mateo, California in the San Francisco Bay Area. It provides bus service throughout San Mateo County and into parts of San Francisco and Palo Alto. However, service is largely limited to the Bay side of San Mateo County, and Coastside service south of Pacifica is poor. [1]

SamTrans is constituted as a special district under California law. It is governed by a board of nine appointed members (two county Supervisors, one "transportation expert" appointed by the county Board of Supervisors, three city councilpersons appointed by the cities in the county to represent the county's judicial districts, and three public members with one from the Coastside appointed by the other six board members).

The district was established in 1976 and consolidated 11 different municipal bus systems in the county. One year later, SamTrans began to operate mainline bus service to San Francisco.

In addition to fixed route bus and paratransit operations, the district participates in the administration of the San Jose-San Francisco commuter rail line Caltrain and provides funding for the San Mateo County portion of BART system south of Daly City Station, which serves the San Francisco International Airport. It is also given the power to alter service on this segment, as it has done before. ^[1] SamTrans also provides administrative support for the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, a separate board that administers a 1/2 cent sales tax to support various highway and transit improvement projects.

1 Bus service
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Bus service

A 35-foot Gillig Phantom SamTrans bus

Currently, SamTrans serves cities including Daly City, Colma, South San Francisco, Pacifica,San Bruno, Millbrae, Burlingame, Hillsborough, Half Moon Bay, San Mateo, Foster City, Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City, Atherton, Menlo Park, East Palo Alto and Palo Alto. Most routes connect with BART, Caltrain, or both. Also, SamTrans serves San Francisco International Airport and Transbay Terminal in downtown San Francisco.

Unlike most large transit operators in the Bay Area, SamTrans hires private contractors to operate some of its routes. The current contract operator for mainline service is MV Transportation. An additional route is contracted to the Coastside Opportunity Center.

SamTrans operates special service to 49ers home games and Bay To Breakers footrace in San Francisco.

[edit] Route designations

Since SamTrans reorganizated its bus routes in August 1999, SamTrans adopted a new route designation system to identify service types, geographical coverage, and connections to rail services.

All express bus routes are designed by a letter and X (e.g. KX, MX, etc). The lone exception is express route REX.

All local routes have either two or three digits. For three digit routes, the first digit identifies a rail connection:

1 – Connection to BART stations only (Primarily routes in Daly City, Colma, South San Francisco and San Bruno)
2 – Connection to Caltrain stations only (Primarily routes south of Millbrae)
3 – Connection to both BART and Caltrain stations (Only four routes have this designation: Two of them operate along El Camino between Daly City/San Francisco and Palo Alto/Redwood City, one serves within Millbrae and connects to the Millbrae BART/Caltrain station, and another route provides overnight service between Palo Alto and San Francisco as a part of the All Nighter network.)

All two digit routes are identified as community service routes. Most of these routes do not connect with rail and operate only on school days.

The second digit of the three digit routes, as well as the first digit of the two digit routes, identifies the geographical coverage of the route:

1 – Coastside (Pacifica and Half Moon Bay)
2 – Daly City and Colma
3 – Brisbane and South San Francisco
4 – San Bruno, Millbrae and Burlingame
5 – San Mateo and Foster City
6 – Belmont and San Carlos
7 – Redwood City
8 – Menlo Park, East Palo Alto and Palo Alto
9 – Multi-City service

[edit] Fares

Fare category	Single ride	Monthly Pass
Adult local¹	$1.50	$48
Adult local (boarding from San Francisco on routes 391, 292 and 397)	$3.00	$72
Adult express	$4.00	$128
Youth¹ (17 years or under)	$1.00	$29
Youth (boarding from San Francisco on routes 391, 292 and 397)	$2.00
Youth express	$2.00
Senior and Disabled¹	$0.75	$22
Senior and Disabled (boarding from San Francisco on routes 391, 292 and 397)	$1.50
Senior and Disabled express	$2.00

¹ Local fare applies on express bus routes CX and REX, which connect to BART and do not serve San Francisco, as well as KX for rides within San Mateo County.

SamTrans offers bus tokens for adult and youth local fares, at $12.50 and $8.00 respectively in a package of 10 tokens. Multiple tokens or a token and the cash difference are accepted for higher fare rides.

SamTrans does not provide transfers nor day passes. The Federal Transit Administration has recommended SamTrans to institute transfers and/or day passes as a way to increase bus ridership. ^[2]

BART Plus tickets and Caltrain monthly passes (with two zones or more) are honored on SamTrans as local fare payment.

[edit] Fleet

SamTrans currently has a fleet of 339 buses of various sizes for its fixed route service. 55 of them are articulated buses from North American Bus Industries. All 35-foot and 40-foot buses, with some of them low floor, are from Gillig. All the buses are equipped with GPS tracking units to provide visual and voice next-stop announcements and are accessible to passengers in wheelchairs ( ).