Thoughts on the new shuttle service
(Written by kencraw)
I didn’t get a post in about this last week when I found out about it, but Cal swapped out AC Transit for a private bus company to do the shuttles from Rockridge BART and Berkeley Amtrak. When I found out, I was unhappy because of the added cost. Last year I spent $8.50 for my whole family round trip. My two youngest are free and the eldest is $1.50 round trip, with adults costing $3.50 each. Silverado, the company that Cal contracted with, is charging $5 a person, which isn’t too much more for us adults, but really hits us with the kids. In all, we went from $8.50 a game to $25 a game, basically triple the cost. “I might as well pay for the parking on campus!?!” I said at the time.
My other fear was that Sliverado wouldn’t be able to handle the load or would have massive inefficiency problems. The point of this post is to give them props for doing very well. They were efficient in their simplicity. No complicated setup with going from one station to another. They just had a lady standing in front of the bus who you handed a $5 bill to and she handed you a raffle ticket and told you to hold on to it to the end of the game for the round trip. When one adds in their taking Telegraph instead of College (a much more open road) and dropping us off at Piedmont and Bancroft instead of College and Bancroft (in other words, at the top of the hill) and they did a great job.
The one minor complication was after the game they lacked appropriate signage for which bus was going where. With buses going to Rockridge BART, Berkeley Amtrak and a longer route that went to Lafayette BART and beyond into Contra Costa County, they really needed signs. But all one had to do was ask the drivers and they could figure it out pretty quick. The fact that it was again on Piedmont Ave instead of down on College was a benefit as well. Hopefully they’ll put up some signage for the upcoming game to improve in that area.
The final point of this post is to go into the background of why AC Transit is no longer providing the shuttle.
Turns out that AC Transit was the one to initiate the change, although that’s not what they had intended. They’re in the middle of doing a bunch of cost cutting and it turns out it costs them $200k a year to do the shuttle. That’s above and beyond the revenue they collected for the shuttle. So, they went to the University and asked them to pick up the $200k tab. The University balked and called around to find out who’d give them a better deal and Silverado was.
When I found that out I was really ticked off, and not at the University.
$200k a year!?! Why wasn’t I being transported in the gold plated bus that apparently I, as a tax payer, was paying for? Let’s do the math on this one:
$200k a year means $33k a game. Assuming they have about 30 buses a game, which from what I’ve seen sounds about right, that means about $1000 a bus. With each bus holding about 50 people that means every one was, in addition to the fare they paid, costing AC Transit about $20 round trip.
TWENTY DOLLARS PER PERSON ROUND TRIP!?!
This is the perfect example of how government is wasteful and hides it. I had always been under the assumption that AC Transit was running a profitable affair on game day. I mean, it’s the perfect environment for it. Full buses on a short run getting a full fare. Plus, it’s gravy fares for when AC Transit is usually unable to get a lot of riders (on the weekends). But no, that $8.50 I was paying was only a tiny fractional percentage of the $100 or so it was costing us all as tax payers to take my family to the game. Yes, $100 round-trip for my family. For what it is worth, a taxi, a very cost inefficient model of transit, would only cost about $20 round-trip.
Then, you’ve got to love this quote from the AC Transit folks:
We’re a little bit ticked off, to be honest, because when presented with our dilemma, instead of using us, Cal chose to pay public money to a private service.
Yeah, how horrible of the University. Instead of being ripped off by AC Transit, they went with someone who was able to give us a better deal. Notice the subtle assumption that Silverado is charging a similar fee, that they’re just as ridiculously over priced. I would bet my $20 per person in saved taxes that Silverado isn’t charging the University a penny and is thankful to get the contract to do it for free (plus the $300 a bus (the Silverado buses hold more people, about 65) that it’s getting from the fares).
Completely unbelievable that AC Transit is still in business. They’re just as bad as BART. Way to go Cal for not putting up with their crud. I’ll gladly exchange paying $25 straight up for $8.50 straight up and $100 in taxes. I still might be changing to paying for parking next year, seeing as how it’ll be cheaper for me, but I still support the University’s actions in response to the ridiculous and amazingly inefficient AC Transit.
UPDATE on 9/9 at 8:30 AM: Looks like I got the good end of the stick based on statements from other people including bar20 in my comments and a thread over at BearInsider. The two biggest things it seems they need to work on is signage of where to go and keeping the buses out of the flow of foot traffic, both of which are important. The one comment I don’t get is that it took too long because they went down to Telegraph instead of staying on College. I think that person just in their mind believes because it wasn’t the direct route it took longer, but I can tell you from experience it was well within the norm of how long it would take the AC Transit shuttle to go up College. College is a nightmare on gameday, particularly around Ashby. Between the lack of left turn lanes that make it so often only a couple cars can get through a light during each sequence and all the stop signs that further queue people up and prevent them from getting through the key lights like Ashby, it’s got to be one of the most inefficient roads in America. Telegraph on the other hand is a 4 lane road with no stop signs and was much more smooth. So while it was a longer route, I’d argue that it was at least as fast as staying on College and likely faster.
In fact, I was so impressed with Telegraph that I was disappointed when the buses took College directly on the way back and we sat in gridlock like usual on College (perhaps Telegraph isn’t as nice after the game). I also thought to myself that if I do switch over to getting parking through the University in future years, I’ll be taking Telegraph on the way to the game, not College as would be more convenient for where I’m coming from.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
How’s the parking situation at the Rockridge Bart station? Is there usually plenty of space, and does Bart mind you’re not technically a ‘patron’? How was the drive back post game? Thanks for the insight!
September 8th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I missed the AC shuttle from memorial to downtown berkeley post game. We might have to try the new service.
September 8th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
aBearFan, BART most definitely doesn’t mind that we’re not patrons. You can usually find a spot a hour before the game but it gets more dicey from there. There are two lots, one on either side of college, so there’s a lot of spots.
Just as important, there’s LOTS of on-street parking around the area, so even if you get there after the lots fill up, you’ll be able to find a spot within a couple blocks.
As for the drive back, College Ave is more of a parking lot than a street after the game. It will often take 45 minutes after a game. But on the bus, it’s not too bad because you get to chat with your friends. Another upside of the new bus service is that everyone gets a seat, so unlike before where it could be a very long ride standing, you’ll be sitting for sure on the Silverado coaches.
September 8th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
These buses blocked Piedmont Ave in front of the stadium. My wife and I had trouble getting around people that were trying to get on the bus as we tried to make our way to Bancroft Way. They need to move them to the south side of Bancroft. If this had been a close game with the crowd staying to the very end it would have been a nightmare.
September 9th, 2009 at 9:13 am
My husband and I very much enjoy reading your blog. So, as a token of appreciation, I’d like to give you our parking pass to the Underhill lot for the EWashington game if you’d like. Email me if you are interested!
September 9th, 2009 at 10:02 am
I think you got this whole thing all wrong. First of all, the shuttles ran a lot smoother with AC Transit. The pick up, how quickly they left, etc. Second of all, it cost me more than three times as much for the new crappy service. I had to pay $5, I did not use the bus to come back, but they only sold round trip. I paid $1.50 last year. So, in your efforts to say what a huge government waste this was previously, all I saw was paying 3X more and getting a service that had no idea what they were doing (our driver was asking for directions, and had no clue where he was going) and that caused pretty serious problems for people coming back home. Yet, you somehow made that into a good thing? Weird. I will now just go to Berkeley station, it was that crappy and that much more expensive of a service from Rockridge, which is a shame.
September 9th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Bunk, I agree with you that last years shuttle ran smoother, although only marginally so on the way there. They definitely had lots of problems on the way home, although they didn’t affect me.
But I also remember a day when AC Transit sucked too. The first few years after game day attendance spiked because of the Tedford Turnaround was pretty bad. But year after year they made improvements, slowly but surely. By 2006 it was a pretty good service.
I guess my point about this is that it’s unfair to judge the first week of Silverado against the refined AC Transit system. I’ll give 2-3 games for Silverado to work to improve their issues before I condemn them in that regard.
But I do agree that not selling the $3 one-way ticket was pretty crummy of them since they specifically said they would.
But what you’re overlooking in what I said is not that they were awesome, in fact I had my cost/inefficiency criticisms in the post for a reason, but the ridiculous loss AC Transit was running their shuttle at. Last year you didn’t pay $1.50 one way. You paid about $11.50 including the added tax burden that AC transit was creating. I’m wiling to put up with a few weeks of growing pains from Silverado to save us taxpayers (or the University/Athletic Department) $20 per person round trip.
September 9th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
These shuttles were terrible. Its easy to run a “smooth” operation getting you to the game, because everyone arrives at different times. The true test is whether they can get you to where you need to be after everyone leaves the stadium at once. The latter task was a colossal failure.
There’s was no indication of where to line up or what bus took you where. What’s more, there’s no real indication of who could answer your questions, because the ticket seller was just some chick in a t-shirt and jeans.
The crowd started to get unruly (and to my surprise – it wasnt drunk fans, it was the elderly who were tired of standing). All in all, it took us **1.5 HOURS** to get to Rockridge – it was quicker to walk there. I wouldnt mind buying a one way ticket, but as somebody already pointed out, that’s not an option.
That being said, I wholly agree that government generally, and Alameda County specifically, can’t run anything at a level even somewhat approximating efficient.
September 9th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Man, I clearly lucked into being in the right place at the right time, based on what I’m hearing from other people. All I did was exit the stadium after the game was over (I never leave early) through the north exit (by Maxwell field) and walked out the parking lot onto Piedmont (west side) and there were these buses waiting there, each with about 15 people in line. I asked the first one where he was going and he kinda wavered, in part because he was simultaneously being interrogated by a much more upset person. So without getting a firm answer I walked down to the next bus and asked him if he was going to Rockridge BART. He said yes, so I walked to the back of the short line, waited my turn, gave him my ticket and got on the bus. 5 minutes later we were navigating our way through the crowds down Bancroft and then sat in the parking lot that is College for 15 minutes before we got moving again. After that it was a relatively smooth drive down to the BART station.
I wonder if the people who had trouble all exited the south side of the stadium? Perhaps things were much more messy on that side… It was just so easy for me on the North side. If things are ugly for people next week I’d recommend making your way to the West side of Piedmont Ave (so away from the stadium) towards the North end of the stadium (so away from Bancroft)
No doubt, they need to have much better signage next week and solve these problems.