Comments on: Alameda’s “West End” is not losing it’s bus service

By: Susan Paulukonis

Susan Paulukonis — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:29:08 +0000

While the West End isn’t losing service, the East End appears to be. My kids take the 63 to the Encinal/ACLC campus regularly, and I use it to get back and forth to BART. We’re good, green, taxpaying, public transit using community members – where did we go wrong?

I’ll park in someone else’s residential neighborhood so I can drive the kids to the West End and then catch a bus, because I can’t park at work in Berkeley. Are we really solving a problem?

By: AC Transit

AC Transit — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:28:59 +0000

Thank you for helping clarify the proposed changes.

We encourage riders and community members to attend our upcoming community workshops.

There will be a meeting in Alameda on Sept. 12 from 2-3:30 p.m. at Independence Plaza, 703 Atlantic (at Webster St). A complete list of workshops is available on the AC Transit blog here: http://rideact.blogspot.com/2009/08/attend-community-workshop-on-proposed.html.

By: Doug BIggs

Doug BIggs — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:59:00 +0000

Thanks for providing some clarity, John. Over the last few days we have seen fliers being circulated saying west end service is being cut., and those fliers are causing undue stress and trauma to our residents. I asked one person who was circulating the fliers not to because they were inaccurate, and she said and I quote “it doesn’t matter if they are true or not, we just want to get people out to the meetings”.

The fact of the matter is, that with the proposed change in service, residents of Alameda Point will actually see an improvement in service, by having 7 day on-time(hopefully) service to downtown Oakland an other areas off island, while also maintaining a connection to local shopping at Marina Center. For years these have been the main points (along with the late night service you refer to) that we have been advocating for, and it is great to finally see an improvement..

At the same time I recognize that there are other areas that are taking a hit, and I support efforts that are being made to modify the new route so that it does go down Lincoln, even though ridership along that corridor is low. The highest potential ridership for that portion of the line is going to come from multifamily apartments along Buena Vista, and it is probably easier for them to access either Lincoln or Webster than it is to access Appezzato. I also believe that ridership will increase with the direct route to Oakland.

Working together I think we can come up with a compromise that actually enhances West End service while still helping AC transit to reduce its budget.

Doug Biggs
Executive Director
Alameda Point Collaborative