In August 2024, SamTrans will restore Route PCX, which has not operated since 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Route PCX is a limited stop route designed to provide a faster connection from Pacifica to BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) in Daly City. Previously, Route PCX served similar areas to local Route 110.

With the reintroduction of the route, SamTrans will be using Highway 1 instead of parallel corridor, Oceana Blvd, between Brighton Road and Monterey Road. Using Highway 1 and the bus stops on Highway 1 will make the route a faster and more direct connection to BART. Stops on Oceana Blvd will continue to be served by Route 110.

With this change, Route PCX will serve the following stops on Highway 1 between:

• Highway 1 at Moana Way (northbound)
• Highway 1 at Pacific Ave (southbound)
• Highway 1 at Palmetto Ave (southbound)
• Highway 1 at Milagra Drive (northbound)

The following bus stops will no longer be served by Route PCX (but would continue to be served by Route 110):

• Oceana at Brighton (northbound)
• Oceana at Clarendon (southbound)
• Oceana at Eureka Square (both directions)
• Oceana at Paloma (both directions) 903
• Oceana – Good Shepherd School (both directions)
• Oceana at Milagra (northbound)
• Oceana at Manor (southbound)
• Highway 1 at Highway 35 Exit Ramp (no 110 service)

SamTrans will realign Route 120 to better serve a new Jefferson Union High School District facility at 123 Edgemont Drive that includes District offices, an adult education facility, special education services, community space, and employee housing. Route 120 will deviate from Southgate Avenue in Daly City using Higate Drive, Edgemont Drive, and Lincoln Avenue shown in Figure 1 below. Current riders may experience about three minutes of additional travel time on Route 120 to accommodate this change.

Route CSM is a new limited stop route between San Mateo Caltrain Station and College of San Mateo recommended in Reimagine SamTrans. In the approved plan, the route starts at 1^st Ave and B St outside the station. In August 2024, the route will start at the Caltrain Station on Transit Center Way. This will allow riders a seamless transfer to Caltrain, which will have improved frequencies when electrified service starts in fall 2024.

The approved Reimagine SamTrans network calls for 20-minute frequency in the morning peak period only on Route 278. This was responsive to pre-pandemic ridership patterns; however, recent Route 278 ridership shows more balanced ridership across the morning and afternoon.

Staff will be improving frequency to the route in the highest ridership hours of morning and afternoon, roughly the 8:00 AM hour and 3:00 PM hour. This change will allow SamTrans to provide more balanced service that matches rider demand and class schedules.

Route 296 Owl was created in Reimagine SamTrans to distinguish trips that operate late at night and have a slightly different alignment than regular Route 296 trips. Route 296 Owl trips end at Palo Alto Caltrain Station instead of E Bayshore & Donohoe in East Palo Alto.

However, some 296 Owl trips today operate well outside of the typical “Owl”, or overnight, period. Staff will convert current 296 Owl trips that operate before 8:30 PM and after 6:00 AM to regular Route 296 trips. Customers riding to/from Palo Alto or Palo Alto Transit Center on Route 296 Owl during the trips proposed to be converted to regular 296 trips will need to transfer to Route 281 or 280 to continue their trip from East Palo Alto to Palo Alto (or vice versa.)

SamTrans is exploring an agreement to use passenger loading and bus layover space inside Salesforce Transit Center in downtown San Francisco. With this change, Salesforce Transit Center would become the downtown San Francisco terminus for routes 292, 397, FCX and EPX.

Routes 292 and 397 would be realigned to serve the Salesforce Transit Center via 3rd Street and 4th Street in San Francisco. Routes 292 and 397 would continue to serve the Mission Street corridor but would no longer serve stops on Mission Street East of 3rd Street, including stops at Drumm & Clay Street, Mission & Spear Street, Mission & Main Street, Mission & 1st Street and Mission & 2nd Street. However, the new stop at the Salesforce Transit Center is within a 10-minute walk or roll of all discontinued existing stops.

Using Salesforce Transit Center will allow for enhanced waiting facilities for riders, including security, lighting, and shelter. Customers will have improved access to regional transit services provided by AC Transit, Golden Gate Transit, SF Muni, and WestCAT. The new location will also allow for one consolidated downtown San Francisco layover location with restroom and break space for our bus operators.

SamTrans is exploring an agreement to use passenger loading and bus layover space inside Salesforce Transit Center in downtown San Francisco. With this change, Salesforce Transit Center would become the downtown San Francisco terminus for routes 292, 397, FCX and EPX.

Routes FCX and EPX would be realigned to serve the Salesforce Transit Center via Harrison and Bryant streets in San Francisco. Passengers would have a faster connection from US-101 directly into the Salesforce Transit Center. Routes FCX and EPX would no longer serve stops on Mission Street or 9th and 10th Streets, including stops at:

• Drumm St & Clay St
• Mission & Spear St
• Mission & Main St
• Mission & 1st St
• Mission & 2nd St (in the southbound direction)
• Mission & 4th
• Mission & 5th
• Mission & 7th
• Mission & 8th
• Mission & 9th
• 9th & Folsom/Harrison
• 10th & Howard/Bryant

Using Salesforce Transit Center will allow for enhanced waiting facilities for riders, including security, lighting, and shelter. Customers will have improved access to regional transit services provided by AC Transit, Golden Gate Transit, SF Muni, and WestCAT. The new location will also allow for one consolidated downtown San Francisco layover location with restroom and break space for our bus operators.

Due to very low ridership, Reimagine SamTrans recommended eliminating school-oriented Route 85 which primarily serves Ormondale Elementary. Based on public input in 2021, the final network incorporated one afternoon trip, which had higher ridership than the morning trip.

As of October 2023, about eight students use the afternoon trip on an average weekday. This is 14 students fewer than the median school-oriented route trip. Route 85 also has higher costs and subsidies per passenger when compared to the average school-oriented route. Based on ridership and available resources, SamTrans cannot operate service in both the morning and afternoon periods.

Effective August 5th, with the start of the school year, Route 85 will discontinue afternoon service and begin morning service only. 

Between April 19-May 10, SamTrans collected data from a survey regarding Route 85 and the majority of respondents who live near the route (60%) were more favorable toward SamTrans providing the morning service over the afternoon service. Many respondents commented that the consistency of student's morning schedules made the morning more valuable to them. 

In March 2022, the SamTrans Board of Directors approved a set of changes to the SamTrans bus network through a project known as Reimagine SamTrans. This new network was crafted after careful consideration of what we heard from the public, from over 200 outreach meetings and thousands of comments and survey responses over the course of two and a half years.

We are now using this valuable input to implement a new, streamlined bus network with:

• Brand new routes and connections

• Faster and more direct routes

• Simpler, easier to understand routes

• Continually improving frequency

Three phases of Reimagine SamTrans implementation have occurred since 2022, and have included new routes, consolidated routes and a small number of eliminated routes. SamTrans also launched its new Ride Plus microtransit service operating in East Palo Alto/Belle Haven and in the mid-Coastside (Half Moon Bay and El Granada).

SamTrans is recruiting additional bus operators so we can implement the full Reimagine SamTrans service vision! Come join us to help deliver these exciting new services. Interested in becoming a bus operator? Click here.