TO: AC Transit Board of Directors
FROM: Michael A. Hursh, General Manager
SUBJECT: Transbay Service Recovery Priorities
ACTION ITEM
RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):
Title
Consider approving staff’s methodology and priorities for Transbay service recovery across the next year. [Requested by Director Walsh - 5/12/21 and 7/28/21, and by the Board of Directors - 7/28/21]
Body
STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE:
Goal - Convenient and Reliable Service
Initiative - Service Quality
AC Transit plays a critical role in the regional mobility network by providing Transbay service to major job centers in San Francisco and the Peninsula. Much of that network was suspended during the pandemic and staff have developed a methodology for prioritizing lines to recover as more resources become available.
BUDGETARY/FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no budget impact associated with this item. It is a proposed set of criteria and priorities to guide decisions about what service to restore as budget and workforce become available.
BACKGROUND/RATIONALE:
Staff presented the Board with a set of system-wide service recovery principles in July 2021 (Staff Report 21-311) that provide staff, the Board, and the public with a roadmap of how decisions about which lines to recover will be made. That staff report placed Transbay service in a separate category from most other service and generated some questions about how staff plans to prioritize the return of Transbay service as resources become available. One key reason for Transbay service being in a separate category was most Transbay lines did not rank in the first or even second priority categories and would be unlikely to be implemented at all across the next year. Therefore, they were separated so that they could be mixed into sign-ups with Priority 1 line restoration.
As a follow-up to the board approved service recovery principles, staff worked to codify the methodology for how to prioritize Transbay service recovery and settled on four criteria:
1) Equitable Service
2) Ridership
3) Congestion Reduction
4) Available Alternatives
Attachment 1 goes into greater depth regarding the specifics of the methodology but in short, the next lines that staff will consider activating as more operators become available are those with higher ridership that serve more disadvantaged communities where there are fewer alternatives for their commute.
In addition to laying out this methodology, the attachment also discusses the rationale behind what lines were activated in the August 2021 Sign-up. Staff’s plan is to recover small amounts of service on peak-only Transbay lines with each sign-up along with restoring service on local lines.
ADVANTAGES/DISADVANTAGES:
The primary advantage of approving this set of service recovery priorities is to provide the Board, customers, and the public with clarity regarding staff’s methodology regarding how to prioritize the recovery of Transbay service as resources - bus operators, vehicles, and funding - are available.
The primary disadvantage of this set of priorities is that it is prescriptive down to the individual lines, meaning if more flexibility is required in the future due to rapid changes in ridership demand or the operating, hiring, or funding climate; staff will need to seek Board approval to change the priorities or not be able to respond effectively.
ALTERNATIVES ANALYSIS:
There are two main alternatives to this set of service recovery priorities. The first is to not set service recovery priorities. This would allow for maximum flexibility but would leave stakeholders and riders in the dark regarding which lines would be first to recover. The second alternative is to utilize a different methodology that may yield a different set of priorities. Staff has worked through several methodologies before arriving at the one in this report. Staff looked at prioritizing disadvantaged communities above all else (like the District’s Clean Corridors Plan), or ridership above all else but landed on the current set of priorities after blending multiple approaches together.
PRIOR RELEVANT BOARD ACTION/POLICIES:
20-180 - 2020-2021 Service Plans
20-311 - Service Recovery Priorities
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Transbay Priorities Memo
Prepared by:
Michael Eshleman, Service Planning Manager
Approved/Reviewed by:
Robert del Rosario, Director of Service Development and Planning
William Tonis, Director of Project Controls & Systems Analysis
Derik Calhoun, Director of Transportation
Salvador Llamas, Chief Operating Officer
Ramakrishna Pochiraju, Executive Director of Planning & Engineering
Chris Andrichak, Chief Financial Officer