Agencies step up to improve transfers at more transit hubs

In August, transit agencies will take the next step to improve transfers for riders, adding four more transit hubs to the “big sync” initiative.

Transfers will be improved at Daly City BART, Palo Alto Caltrain, Dublin/Pleasanton BART, and Concord BART, adding to the transfer improvements in January at El Cerrito del Norte and San Rafael Transit Center.

A working group of agency staff reviewed data on the quality of transfers and made recommendations to improve connections that are too short (less than 5 minutes) or too long (over 15 minutes). For example, at Palo Alto Caltrain, staff have developed proposals to improve transfers for the Dumbarton Express and SamTrans #280, #281, #296 (owl) and #397 (owl).

The decisions consider factors including number of riders making these connections, other constraints (such as a bus that needs to make other connections), and local conditions (such as leaving more time for the Dumbarton which can be delayed in traffic). Decisions will be finalized in time for the regional August 2025 Service Change.

Next steps to communicate and strengthen schedule coordination

Over the next few months, the project working group will finalize the schedule improvements, and develop a communications plan for riders, the public, stakeholder organizations and policymakers. The communications are important because public support for transit is bolstered when people see the system become more rider-friendly.

The working group has dubbed the initiative the Bay Area Transit Reliability and Accessibility Network Scheduling Framework and Equitable Regional Plan (TRANSFER Plan). 

The working group plans to strengthen schedule coordination as a regular process, with a TRANSFER PLAN Project Framework that outlines how to streamline and improve the process, for example with more and better data about transfers from the Clipper 2 release, according to project manager Andy Metz of AC Transit and Ted Burgwyn, Caltrain’s scheduler, who presented the program update to Caltrain’s Citizen Advisory Committee on June 18. 

Next stop - invest to improve the network

The current schedule coordination improvements are constrained to current funding. This is a good thing, because riders want improvements to the current system without waiting for more funding.

But the process of analyzing how to reduce transfer time on popular routes traversing key hubs yields valuable insights that could and should also be used to plan new investments in capital and service frequency.

The next important step is to use the insights from improving transfers in the current budget to improve end to end travel time with targeted investments. For example, there is already a “Dumbarton Forward” initiative under development with signal improvements and a shoulder bus lane to bypass peak congestion. By analyzing these improvements to transfer time and reliability, agencies will be able to craft future improvements that are targeted to improve travel time and increase ridership.

Service led planning is an international best practice, where infrastructure improvements are designed and prioritized based on a strategy that increases ridership by improving speed, reliability and connectivity across agencies and jurisdictions. This resulting network is more cost-effective, because investments are designed to achieve rider goals. 

This is very different from our historical way of planning, which focused on bottom up projects proposed by local governments, without considering whether the whole is greater (or less than) the sum of the parts, leading to notorious gaps such as the 10 minute walk between rail and ferry at Larkspur.

There are several opportunities in the near term to advance these next steps:

  • Regional Network Management is doing a two-year evaluation of its achievements and goals. Its next set of goals ought to be a path toward consistent service-led planning for the entire Bay Area

  • The next round of regional transportation planning is about to get started.  The last round took baby steps by developing an overall network including service improvements. The next round should take the next step by identifying a regionally significant network and prioritize  investments based on specific goals for speed, reliability, and ridership.

  • The MTC and agencies are developing a first-generation Transit Priority Policy and Transit Priority Network. The first iteration will explicitly NOT consider transfers.  The second iteration should build on work at the regional and state level by considering end to end travel time, not just travel time along the specific transit priority route.

  • The State Rail Plan calls for service-led planning, but this is loosely linked to funding.  The State Transit Transformation Task Force should recommend, and the state should implement a stronger linkage with funding requirements to craft projects and investments based on service goals.

  • The State Transit Transformation Task Force should recommend, and the state should implement tools and technical assistance so that agencies in the Bay Area and across the state can more easily adapt to planning that puts rider outcomes first.

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Adina Levin