Ultimately, the coaches will be the backbone of AC Transit’s efforts to eliminate commuter gridlock across three of the Bay Area’s most congested bridges.
The move comes after a thorugh inspection from the agency, the TJPA, and the MTC.
Hub was temporarily closed last September as a precaution after fissures were found in two beams on a third level bus deck.
Will allow riders to purchase and activate tickets from their smartphone devices, plan trips, and get real-time bus location and schedule information.
Testing shows the vehicles have made significant progress toward commercialization, surpassing fed technical targets for fuel cell operating hours and reliability.
The program provides major benefits towards meeting the state’s climate and air quality goals, with a total reduction of more than 32 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
Agency heads from Baltimore; Long Beach, Calif.; Tampa, Fla.; Austin, Texas; Oakland, Calif.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Orange County, Calif.; and Indianapolis weigh in on this hot topic.
The pilot’s design employs smaller 12 seats buses (each fully-ADA compliant with Clipper Card readers and fare boxes) and offer riders the choice of which existing Line 275 bus stop they would like to begin and end their travel.
Two transit agencies in California — AC Transit and the Orange County Transportation Authority — will each deploy 10 buses. New Flyer will produce the buses in conjunction with Ballard Power Systems as the fuel-cell power plant provider.
The raffish, worldwide movement known as tactical urbanism appears poised to take on a meatier role in improving transit in bus corridors. By providing low-cost, agile alternatives to lengthy street improvement processes, “tactical transit” has the ability to jumpstart virtuous cycles of increasing bus ridership by speeding up travel times, improving passenger experience, and enhancing overall perceptions of riding the bus.