SamTrans Bus Service Changes Reflect Improvements and Back-to-School Service

SamTrans will make scheduling and service changes to about a dozen of its regular bus lines on Aug. 10 as a way of improving on-time performance and increasing connections within its system. The adjustments also include changes to schedules that operate only on school days.

These adjustments will also allow SamTrans to provide a more reliable schedule for its passengers. The bus agency reviews and adjusts routes three times a year to account for changing traffic impacts and customer travel patterns.

The weekend Route ECR will be among the lines receiving changes on Aug. 10. The route will be split into separate Saturday and Sunday schedules because traffic flow along El Camino Real is different on those days, necessitating different scheduled arrival times at each stop.  The Saturday schedule will be adjusted by two minutes, and the Sunday schedule adjusted by four minutes.

This is the second scheduling adjustment following the full implementation of the SamTrans Service Plan (SSP), the most comprehensive reorganization of bus operations on the Peninsula in a generation.  The SSP is intended to be a living document that would be routinely reviewed and improved as conditions on the Peninsula change.

The aim of the SSP is to do more of what works, less of what doesn’t and to try new things. So far, the results have been exceedingly positive. Since the second phase of the SSP debuted in January, ridership on SamTrans has increased by 2.2 percent while on-time performance has improved from 79.4 percent to 84.5 percent.