Month: January 2016

1/26/16

If you still purchase the County Connection Monthly Pass (paper version) consider getting it on a Clipper Card. Why? Because on Clipper the monthly fare instruments are 31-day “rolling” passes. That means you’re not restricted to a calendar month. If you load your pass in the middle of the month it will be good for 31 days from the day it was first USED, making it more cost effective when planning vacations and around holidays when typical transit patterns are interrupted.

The 31-Day Pass (the East Bay Value Pass) is accepted on County Connection, Tri Delta, Wheels, and WestCAT fixed-route buses. They can be loaded on your Clipper Card monthly at your discretion, or set up to “Autoload” so you don’t have to worry about remembering to make the purchase. You can get the East Bay Value Pass for Regular or Express fixed route buses.

For more information about Clipper visit Clippercard.com

1/21/16

Plan Ahead For Getting Around January 30 – February 7

If you’ve never used County Connection buses to get to a BART station, now might be a good time to try. Superbowl is coming to town, and with it, tens of thousands of people coming into and moving around our communities. Parking at BART stations will become a bigger challenge than it is now.

Whether or not you’re a football fan, we’ll all feel the impact.  Hotels are completely booked and retailers and restaurants are staffing up.

Two big events in San Francisco start January 30 and run through February 7 that will impact traffic in the Bay Area. Superbowl City is a free public event near the Embarcadero BART station, and the NFL Experience is a ticketed event taking place at Moscone Center. Transportation around these events will be impacted.

The week before Superbowl – January 30-February 6

If you’re simply trying to go about your day to day travels:

• County Connection will be prepared to deploy additional buses if needed on routes that are already at capacity.
• County Connection will operate the Route 9 (normally only operates on weekdays) on Saturday, February 6th on its regular weekday schedule.

If you plan to attend any of the events in San Francisco: 

• Consider using a County Connection buses to get to BART. Parking in San Francisco will be at a premium. Route summaries, maps and schedules are on this website.
• Purchase a Clipper Card in advance- the pass is accepted on all regional public transit system. Available locally at Walgreens and Whole Foods.
• Check out the following links for more information on BART systems changes and resources,  street closures, and transit changes in San Francisco and Santa Clara.

http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2016/news20160111

https://www.sfmta.com/sb50

http://www.vta.org/getting-around/event-service/vta-to-super-bowl-50

https://www.clippercard.com/ClipperWeb/index.do

 

 

1/18/16

It’s taken a while but free Wi-Fi service is now available on all County Connection fixed-route buses. This is part of the real time improvement project which began two years ago. The free Wi-Fi service is secured through the sprint network. Now accessing the internet, email and social media accounts will be seamless. One note…hearing from some people that it’s slow, so if a lot of people on the bus are using the network (rather than their own) or streaming video – it will slow down.

1/13/16

Superbowl 50 is coming to town. And with it, a host of activities in San Francisco and Santa Clara the week before the big game. Regional transportation providers anticipate heavier than normal transit use, particularly during the mid-day hours. Hotels in central Contra are completely booked for this time period, and County Connection will prepare for higher than usual patronage by visitors using the buses to get to and from the BART stations.

Route 9, which operates between the Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill BART stations, will run a regular weekday service on Saturday February 6, 2016 to provide transit service to hotel guests along the corridor that has little transit service on the weekends. The Route 9 service span is approximately 6 AM to 10 PM.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which operates Muni, will be working around the clock to minimize delays to the transportation network with a focus on keeping San Francisco transit moving. Event setup and assembly impact transportation between Jan. 23- Feb. 12. Transit, bike and walking are the recommended ways to get around San Francisco and to/from both Super Bowl events. For more detail and how to sign up for the latest transportation information, visit the SFMTA SB50 website at www.sfmta.com/SB50.

For scheduled pre-game activities, transit, and parking options in Santa Clara, please visit http://www.vta.org/getting-around/event-service/vta-to-super-bowl-50

Visitors planning on using public transit to get around during this week should obtain a Clipper Card. Clipper is the regional transit fare card that is accepted on most Bay Area transit agencies. The most convenient place for most to obtain a Clipper Card and to load cash on to the card will be Walgreens Pharmacies.  For retail locations, please visit https://www.clippercard.com/ClipperWeb/map.do

2/11/16

County Connection buses will run the regular week day schedule on President’s Day, Monday, February 15th.

 

1/5/16

New buses are arriving on site daily and will hit the roads within the next few weeks. The 500 series of buses, which include the fleet used to provide the Bishop Ranch commuter service, is being replaced with new 40-ft. low floor vehicles. Immediately following is the 200 fleet of buses. In all 33 buses are being replaced. By the time most vehicles are replaced they’ve travelled over 400,000 miles in tough stop-and-go commuter traffic.