Why don't we do a role?

I think it's all my mom.

Yeah, go for it.

And Jamie, is uh Director Walsh online by any chance?

You're muted to me.

I'm checking to see if she's going on the iPhone.

I haven't got confirmation yet.

We can start and then if she signs on, we can uh we can go back to checking her in.

That's okay.

Excuse me, I'm easily confused.

All right, shall we begin?

Um good morning and welcome to the October 16th, 2025 City of Alameda AC Transit hybrid meeting.

No action shall be taken during a disruption that will prevent members of the public from offering public comments, just a call-in or internet-based action.

This meeting is being recorded, or the members of the public who have dialed into this meeting by telephone.

You must press star nine to raise your hand when the agenda item you would like to speak on is called.

The committee secretary will unmute you at the appropriate time and call the last four digits of your phone number.

If you're attending the meeting via Zoom, you may use the raise your hand feature and your name will be called when it is your return to speak.

If you decide not to speak, you may dial star nine or click lower your hand and zoom.

And that all other audio devices are starting off.

Each speaker will be allowed two minutes to present their comments or be notified when their time is up.

Um I will now turn it to the chair to uh open the meeting.

I do want to point out that Director Walsh is available online, and Director Walsh is the alternate for this meeting.

However, we do have a forum, so Director Walsh, do you want to participate as a committee member or would you prefer to just listen in?

If you participate as a committee member, we'll we'll just give you the just cause um questionnaire.

Good morning everyone.

I'm sorry I couldn't be there in person today to fill in as alternate.

I'd like to just observe and participate remotely if that's okay.

Great.

Okay, thank you.

And feel free to raise your hand if you have a question or thank you so much.

Alright, so uh on to roll call, representing the city of Alameda.

Uh we have uh Mayor Ashcraft present as the alternates and council member Days of representing AC Transit.

We have Director Young here and Director Sayed is absent.

Um Director Walsh is participating as a member of the public.

Okay, why don't we we did the roll call?

Is there any public comments and or announcements?

Hearing none, why don't we move on?

I don't know.

We I don't know what we do with agenda item number three, you know, in the previous LC meetings.

Is that something we want to discuss?

Um only if there are questions from the committee or the public, but otherwise, if none, why don't we move on to the main discussion items?

Number four, free bus pass program for seniors and people with disabilities.

Update City of Alameda.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh to get this started, I want to introduce Liz Escobar, who some of you have met before.

She is our wonderful paratransit coordinator.

And I also wanted to acknowledge that Morris McKay is here.

He is the lead of the Mastics Senior Center where the paratransit program is run out of.

So we have this.

Good morning, everyone.

Lisa mentioned, my name is Liz Escobar, Prior Transit Coordinator.

I'm excited to be here today to provide an update on the free bus class program.

This initiative is part of our commitment to enhancing mobility for older adults and people with disabilities in the city of Alameda.

As we aim to move away from using the term paratransit, I would like to introduce to you our newly rebranded program, Alameda Connect.

Alameda Connect will serve as a new name for all transportation programs and services offered through the City of Alameda.

Meaning the free bus pass program, the Alameda Independent Mobility Program, and all outreach events will fall under kind of this umbrella name from here on out.

We can type into our program update.

Next slide.

So our program this year has reached its highest membership level yet, with a total of 960 participants.

However, we do have a wait list of an additional 65 individuals who are very eager to join.

In June, I implemented a strict renewal process for the fiscal year 2025-2026, which has resulted in the deactivation of 263 passes.

This effort aims to ensure that passes are available to those who truly need them the most, and to remove those who are no longer eligible, such as those who's low income status has changed and are now not considered low income.

And for those who have moved out of Alameda.

As it stands now, we have a total of 697 current members.

It's important that we continue to support our active participants while also working to reduce our wait list, as this is a very popular program, as AC Transit is a very highly utilized service here in Alameda.

If I could pause, I think the slides are not showing off the Zoom.

So if I have to go here.

Okay.

There you go.

Thank you.

Looking ahead, we do have plans to begin clearing our wait list in November.

I'm super excited about this because I have at least two people every single day, even on my days off, and Morris can attest to that who come in and inquire about the free bus pass program.

And we have to turn them away because it's currently closed.

Next slide, please.

So before I end, sorry.

So before I end, I'd like to take a minute to just briefly touch on these lovely pictures shown on the screen.

I'm excited to share that I recently launched a new travel training workshop designed to help older adults and people with disabilities gain the knowledge and confidence they need to travel independently and safely using public transit systems.

The workshop included a brief presentation followed by a field training trip using AC Transit Bus.

For the first trip event, we did travel together to local farmers market.

The trip was very successful, and we received overwhelmingly amount of positive feedback from the attendees, and I look forward to providing more travel training workshops monthly or quarterly throughout the year.

With that, I would like to close with a huge thank you for your continued support and commitment to providing transportation accessibility in Alameda.

And any additional information, you can click on our link and we have information on our programs there.

Thank you for your presentation.

I'll for any public comment first, and then we'll take questions or comments from members.

Any questions from the public?

Okay, hearing that.

I will open it up to the floor here, I believe the mayor has questions.

I have a couple questions.

Thank you for that great presentation, and I'm very enthused about this program.

What I'm trying to understand, and maybe you can help me is if the highest program membership was 960, and the current membership is 697.

Why do we have a wait list at all?

So we are we did just finalize a renewal process where we were able to reduce the number to 697.

We just concluded that at the end of September, and we're hoping to take the opportunity for um to look at our cost and member and ridership levels in the month of October to see if the trends did decrease a little bit so we can begin to open up the program.

So is it a matter of positive?

So we're at the peak of what we can afford.

Um and coincidentally, the number of people that were removed from the enrollment from the from the passes after the enrollment period, uh enrollment renewal period was about the same as the number of non-active enrollees.

So you see we have 290 people who weren't using their passes on any given month.

Um then we had 263 who didn't renew for whatever reason.

So we know that some of those people are the same people because why would you renew a pass that you're not using?

Um, so we just want to watch the ridership for the month of October, one month, and then make sure we can afford to let people off that wait list.

We think we'll be able to, but it's it's all it has a little bit of uncertainty, and so that we're just taking one month extra to.

Okay, I I, you know, I get the the explanation, and so does it is a participant considered non-active if they haven't used the pass for one month, or is it more than that?

Because I just think that someone could be ill, somebody could there could be a number of reasons besides that they're choosing not to use this anymore.

Um, and at the same time when we're talking about one month, one month can be a long time for someone who has a hard time affording transit and needing to get places, but I I I can see there's a process in place.

To clarify, we didn't remove the non-active people, we removed the people who didn't uh re-enroll ICE.

Whether because they didn't have you know they weren't low income or they weren't residents, or they didn't do it, um so the non-active is just on any given month, we had about that number of people who didn't use it, and so there's some uncertainty about which which ones was were the ones who weren't using the passes that didn't enroll we renew their enrollment.

Um we're just taking a month to see what the trends are, okay.

And before you remove someone, do you reach out to them?

We did make an effort to reach out to them a few times.

Okay, it was a long process, it started in June.

Oh, yes, and concluded in September, the end of September.

And when and last question, and I love that you did the training recently and took folks to the farmers market.

You mentioned for both seniors and also persons with disabilities.

Have you ever done a presentation about this program to our commission on persons with disabilities?

No, this was our very first um event, um, but I would love to.

I coincidentally, I'm in the process of interviewing um applicants for there's an opening on the commission on persons with disabilities right now, and so when I talk to Lily and Jules this afternoon because we're gonna finish our interviews, it's okay, I could mention that this would be a great program to have presented at the commission.

All right, thank you so much.

Following up on her question, unless there's additional question, um, with respect to the waiting list.

For the people who are on the wait list, are you suggesting that they enroll in the first star program as a means of at least lowering their costs while they're on the wait list?

I know this is a this has been an issue of discussion at AC trends of how to get more people enrolled on that program.

Um any thoughts or comments there?

Yeah, so what I've been doing to kind of supplement that uh or the having them on the wait list is I do have Kim Ridgway from AC Transit uh Accessibility Department come in every month the first Friday of each month, and she issues um senior clipper cards.

The majority of the folks are over 65, so they've um they they come in and they'll apply for for a senior clipper card, um, but I have not been suggesting the smart card, so that would be another great resource, okay.

We would really appreciate enrollment on this, and any work you can do on that would be much appreciated.

Yes, it sounds like you guys are at funding capacity.

Is that correct?

Yes, well, it turns out, and mayor can chime in on this that potentially the passage if there is a passage of SB 63.

Oh, SP 63.

Oh, okay, sorry.

Well, it passed well.

Yeah, well, the governor's side.

Assuming the actual ballot initiative passes, there's gonna be a potentially an additional, there's estimated to be an additional 10 million dollars coming to ACTC that is gonna be awarded in some sort of way that's up to the discretion of the body.

I know that I'm pushing for those bad money to be awarded to the free student bus pass program, but it certainly makes sense to open it up to free senior passes as well.

And I just want to put this out there for you guys to talk to your member on ACTC.

And if you don't make sure that we push for that, assuming the ballot measure passes.

Assuming it gets to the ballot.

Assuming it gets to the ballot, and we have a couple of hurdles.

We're assuming that.

It's gonna take all of our work.

So, unless there is any additional comments on this item, want to thank you for your time.

And why don't we move under item five, realign implementation of a AC transit?

Sure.

I can take this one, and then Mike's can jump in with any details.

Good morning, Robert Del Rosario, Director of Service Development and Planning for AC Transit.

As many of us in the room are aware, we implemented our realign new network plan on August 10th.

So it's been in service for about a couple of months, just over that.

I will say that from an operations perspective, the rollout implementation itself was fairly smooth.

We didn't have too many lost operators, everyone was aware, both the public and our operations were familiar that there were significant changes coming on August 10th.

We do have some bus stop work that needs to be completed.

There are a lot of bag poles up there out there, and then we have to replace those with sort of decals, and so there's a significant amount of work that needs to be done on the bus stop side, but we're making a lot of progress overall.

There were 1500 stops that had to be adjusted, and we have a pretty skeletal-sized uh poll crew that is responsible for that work.

Um the target is to try to complete uh a significant amount of the bus stop uh final work uh by the end of the year.

Um, so we know that there were um significant changes for the city of Alameda, and it has had some um impacts on uh ridership patterns, both Trans Bay and local.

Um, some of the ones we are aware of and we've tried to address um in the field, uh line O.

We know that there's some overcrowding on line O, primarily as a result of the changing of the OX, with that being combined with the W.

Um, the OX is no longer an option for line O riders.

Um so we're seeing some crowding there.

We've been able to uh deploy um a standby bus um whenever um available uh to help manage the the loads on line O.

Um, one thing to also keep in mind is that uh when our board uh went through the approval process for realign, they had to make some very tough decisions about where to invest their resources in a cost neutral or even a cost deficit environment.

Um a lot of the focus was on trying to focus uh improve frequency on the local service.

Um but coupled with that is that you have um uh I think a big push of return to office, particularly in San Francisco, and so I think we're seeing the impacts of that uh now.

Um line 19 was the extension to uh Alameda Point.

Um, that one um the the running times need to be adjusted, and we're uh aware of that just to get that route on schedule.

It's one of the most challenging ones that we have of all of our network um changes uh that that we know we have to fix.

Uh line 31, of course there's the change to the airport.

We haven't heard much, maybe one customer comment about the uh the loss of the service to the airport.

Um, it didn't have very high ridership before that.

Um, and then on the other end, um, which may affect uh Alameda residents less is uh trying to serve both Skyline High School and uh the Chabot Servatory.

Um so that may be a great connection for some folks in Alameda.

Um, the last one is uh line 96.

Um, that service uh we on the Oakland side we've uh connected into Brooklyn Basin, um, which is something that we were really intent on in serving new developments in uh in the plan.

Um but I think serving Brooklyn Basin has created some uh travel time changes for folks who are going from Oakland to Alameda, particularly the trying to remember the school, the academy, um, west side.

Yes, I think that's it's um kids have adapted and families have adapted, but we have been talking to families, and we look like we may it looks like we're seeing if we can shift the schedule um a little bit to better accommodate um those trip patterns.

Um so those are the issues that we're primarily seeing in um in um Alameda.

Um we do have a January sign-up where we want to try to make adjustments and see what we can do to um to uh um address some of these uh comments um and challenges um for pattern changes that we have heard about, um so we're looking closely into that, particularly if there's any resources or capacity improvements, say on the O or reliability improvements, fixing the schedule on the 19, uh adjusting that trip on the 96.

Um so we're looking at sort of, of course, we're again operating in a resource neutral environment.

So that's the challenge in all of this is trying to get creative with uh the resources we have so that we can address these things.

Um, and these aren't just unique to Alameda, there are also similar issues that we've seen in other cities, and so it's it's all uh a moving of the shell game to try to make sure that we can um best use our limited resources to address out these issues.

Um so hopefully we'll have um more news as we go in terms of what we can do with our January service change.

So with that, I'll pause it and uh uh see if there's any questions.

I also want to point out that we do have our uh uh newly appointed uh uh chief operating officer, uh Aaron Vogel, uh audience.

So um we've been working very closely, our two departments on trying to address a lot of issues that we've seen.

Thank you for the presentation.

Why don't we open it up for any public comments?

Okay, Carrie, you know, public comment.

Do we have questions from members of the company?

Of course we do.

Go for it.

Thank you, for that update.

You mentioned when you were talking about the um line 19.

This is your most challenging one.

Why is that?

Uh the the schedule we put out there, um, there's a couple things I maybe crystal can jump into some details.

Um the the schedule we put out there uh it it didn't have the the runtime that we um thought it should have basically, but I think the second piece is a lot of the detour work that's going on out there um on the Alameda Point side, and so trying to navigate through that, and I think it's dynamically changing, and so we're trying to figure out what's the best route that we could put out there that can avoid the detours.

Crystals I guess you want to add.

Um yes, uh, there's been some frustration with operator confusion and delays associated with um that extension into Alameda Point.

We realized kind of early on that there was a missing street sign out in Alameda Point.

Um, probably just taken out sometimes during construction and forgotten to put back in.

So we brought to the attention of the city, it was got very, very quickly.

Um so thank you to city staff so much uh for helping with that.

We've also been coordinating um with city staff to clarify the current and upcoming road uh enclosures and detours and trip point so that we could better plan those detours.

Um so that should help.

I was gonna say that city staff could probably help you.

Were you gonna add anything, Lisa?

I haven't had it obviously.

Yeah, well, that's what I was thinking.

Um I think both base reuse and economic development and um and uh public works, which are both out at uh city hall west, but I mean you can lease a great conduit.

So okay, thank you for that clarification.

Yeah, it's uh it's challenging for those of us who drive who live here.

So uh question and a comment.

The question is the outset you can grab with something called few lost operators.

What is that mean?

Lost operators, yeah.

Um, did I mention so um operators um who may not be familiar with the routing?

Okay, we lost them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think that's I guess my comment, thank you.

I think my comment is I I do notice because I take the first O when I take the bus.

I do notice that it's getting a little bit more full.

Yes, you know, because I I always like to you know get the first seat in the front because I love the front because of the big window and all that kind of stuff.

It's like uh several people have already taken it.

Yeah.

So I do notice it.

Yeah, yeah.

Are people standing there.

No, no, no, no, we're not at that.

I mean, at that early, that early, yeah, no.

No, the the 7:30 a.m.

trip is the one that is impacted the most um where we are um seeing standings or possible pass-ups, and that's where we're trying to bring in the additional vehicle to help with that.

A co-worker who lives in Jack London Square wants to catch the O when it comes out of two, but we fortunately.

Oh, I guess yeah, that's the people.

Yes, yes.

Um by the time you get closer to you in Webster um on the O of the Santa Clara, it'll start to get very cracked.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any additional questions, comments?

Hearing none.

Why don't we move on to item six and measure B bus project with our city?

With Alameda.

Thank you.

Lisa Foster, transportation planning manager for the city of Alameda.

I'm just gonna give a very quick uh verbal update on this one.

Um, as you all know, the city's been working toward repurposing the funds from the named Measure B the bus project that was in the 2014 transportation expenditure plan for measure B B.

Uh most recently it was uh set aside for the Raoul Pasado Memorial Parkway plus leaves project, and then the realign process did not you know identify that as a as a next step, and so we are repurposing it for transit-focused multimodal projects on Lincoln Avenue, Marshall Way, Pacific Avenue, uh Stargill Avenue, and Westline Drive.

Um, and this body discussed it in January, and then the City Council approved the concept in May, and AC Transit Board in June.

So the update is that at the end of September, as you know, the Alameda CTC Commission voted to initiate a 45-day comment period to make this uh amendment to the TEP, and that comment period ends in mid-November.

Um, and then at that point, Alameda CTC staff will remove return to the commission to report or any comments received and to recommend final action.

Uh and then that would approval of the final commission resolution would be early next year.

Correct.

Public comment on the item.

Okay, hearing none.

Questions, comments from thank you for the update.

We are well aware of it, and obviously we'll continue to work together to hopefully get it past at ACTC.

We were in the room when it happened.

Okay, moving on, status briefing items.

What do we do with the asking for the status queen planes we can't go through uh quickly?

Yes, so we can also um provide uh updates on the subject.

So I look put it on the first row.

Great.

If we have any updates on any of the status pre three items to the extent that we have them, why don't we present them if not that is well?

Yeah, this is very fast.

Sorry, yes, this is you guys.

Thank you.

Hello, welcome.

Hi, Brian McGuire, uh landing transportation planner for City of Alameda, and in this case, um, also one of the city appointees to the Alameda TMA board and our board president Mike O'Hara also here.

Um, add to the update.

Um just just maybe a quick we just hot off the presses.

We got um our our third quarter update from the Bay Pass uh MTC staff um dashboard, which shows thus far in 2025 the the um we've got about 1500 and change active users of the Bay Pass and the Alameda TMA, which is our northern waterfront redevelopment area projects as well as our Alameda Point folks that includes city tenants and new development residents and uh commercial properties that have been sold and have employees so um they the Alameda TMA purchases it's a transfer easy Passes and then the Bay Pass is an add-on to that program, so um it's in its third, 30.

This I think this is oh no, this is the second full year um of the Bay Pass add-on.

Um, and we're seeing thus far about 148,000 trips through October on the Bay Pass, and 33% of those trips are on AC transit.

Um really sort of you can kind of get an idea of pretty balanced ridership on this pie chart showing AC Transit as the leader with 33%, although uh the ferry is catching up to y'all um with 30% of the riders as well as 22% on Bard and 13% on Muni.

Um and then you know it's good on all 22 transit agencies in the region.

So um folks are using it for Cal Train and even the Smart Train up and Marin County, etc.

So um, you know, we've got folks who are using it a couple times a month as much as people who are using it as much as four times a day.

So really seeing some people doing trip connections between agencies really reducing those barriers.

Um next steps on the Bay Pass.

We're actually meeting with um Bay Pass staff today to discuss the sustainability of the program.

Um we pay full fare um to all the agencies, they they have to do this sort of projection on the ridership, and um uh the costs have increased and they're increasing a little bit more um next year, and we're looking at the budgets of the Alameda TMA, um which relies on tenant transportation fees and and development impact fees basically for transportation to fund that.

So we're we're trying to figure out um how sustainable that program is, or if we have to make some modifications, looking at some potential solutions.

We've got some employers at Alameda Point that um are much more employee-dense than others, and and it starts to break the economics a little bit um for the funding that is available.

So that's what we're working on.

Mike, you want to give any other things?

We're we've we're thrilled with the results out of the Bay Pass thus far, um, and we we want to figure out how to you know, what we we will we will figure out a way to implement that, continue to implement that, and we're thrilled to hear they've got funding slated through 27, I believe.

So um, so we're we're very excited about that.

The results are phenomenal.

Um we're hearing anecdotal things too that are really noteworthy, such as um people saying that you know it's a huge reason why there's why they're staying employed in Alameda is because of that, because they've got an opportunity to do that, and so from an economic development standpoint, it's it's uh there's some tremendous benefits to the city.

So the only other thing is we do have uh meeting with staff tomorrow or tomorrow regarding the um the easy pass um continuation.

We've been in contract for several years, and it comes up every two or three years, and we're at the end of the end of our current contract.

So we're meeting uh tomorrow to get that rolling, so there's no um no gap in coverage.

So anyway, we're we're we're we're thrilled with the way things are are working right now with with you all.

Oh thank you for the update.

Do we have any public comments or anyone?

Do we have any questions, comments from members of the committee?

Floor, so thank you.

Um thanks, Mike.

Great report.

Nice to see you.

Um, so how many?

So well, I I think um Brian answered the question as he was explaining.

So I was trying to figure out the difference between Bay Pass and the Easy Pass, but Bay Pass basically covers all the transit systems.

Exactly.

So the the we can't do a Bay Pass without the without the Easy Pass.

Okay, so the baseline is everything that we do we have to start with it, starts with the Easy Pass.

Okay, so that's that's all AC Transit, and then uh the Bay Pass add-on is um covers all of the rest of the transit agencies in the Bay Area.

So it's it's really a pretty amazing um piece to add um to add on to give, especially with Alameda with I heard this stat the other day.

The only uh the only city with more than one permanent stop on the ferry system, which has three, so this kind of blows everybody uh away.

We try to keep that under the radar when we're talking to we did it, but uh that's green island.

So anyway, but yeah so it was I mean it it just so that I think that that ties in quite well with with Alameda point um and everything so um yeah so the train so so how many Bay passes are out there how many so we have uh currently 2600 um eligible participants from whether it's the residential projects or the employers um although that number may be a little bit outdated needs to be updated similar to the to the uh senior bus pass program um and going into next year to make sure we've got the right number and there's 1537 of those eligible are active which means they've actually used um their passes this year so um that's a slight um decrease in utilization from in terms of number of active participants from last year and we think some of that might be folks who have maybe dropped off or not not using it and we've had some we're in the midst of some some staff turnover at the TMA it's a mighty one and a half uh FTE organization um so uh it could be you know as we're onboarding our new general manager hopefully imminently um we'll re-up that outreach to to improve that that uh utilization rate all right and and the cost what is the cost of the program um so this is pulling out of my memory but it's it's a little over a hundred dollars a year per person for the AC Transit Easy Pass and then the Bay Pass is about a 200 add on on top of that so a little over 300 a year per person um which is obviously a significant cost but it's significant benefit to sort of reduce the friction between all these different agencies and and the TMA is able to fund a hundred percent of that.

So the the TMA's budget is comprised of three basic things first is there's some CFD funding at Alameda Point there's a portion of the that CFT that's allocated for that there is uh tenant um uh Alameda point tenant rents that that um a portion of those funds are utilized for it and then the third is is homeowner assessments that go through HOAs etc that HOAs are property management companies if it's an apartment um and those that that funding is guaranteed by uh project approvals for for those projects and so they're not specifically tied to um one particular thing but it's typical of uh residential developments they'll have a mitigation measure that requires the provision of an easy pass for every household and so I was on the planning board for six years yes yes yeah so to supplement that to date the TMA has been able to cover 100% of those costs um we probably dipped into the reserves just a tad this year to cover the increased costs um the marginal increase for next year is not going to be as big but uh the question of whether um it is you know whether there will be need to be any tweaks um to how we structure the program to to cover any potential short costs but we're very close I think we can we'll figure out a solution but it may take a little creativity one what yeah please just to add on that I'm sorry one other thing is that those funds that are collected are utilized for multiple programs including wood stock you know including the Alameda of water um shuttle so that's so it's trying to tie a direct correlation between one or the other there's there's there's a all that money kind of goes into a pot and the TMA distributes it for their various programs.

And when you say there's 2600 eligible participants, 1537 active, but are we just paying for the 1537 active?

No.

So it's an insurance model, right?

So everybody who's eligible pays um the I think the easy pass model is maybe a little bit different.

There may be some some a price break, I think um for the bulk discount.

The Bay Pass add-on uh the the way that MTC was able to get the agency buy-in was that the Baypass pilot would fully reimburse agencies for the cost of the trips taken through the BayPass model, which you know, for MTC as a policy question for policymakers is there a way for to get the agencies to buy into this idea.

Well, people are taking, you know, I think BayPass would tell you potentially 40%, 30%, 40% additional trips because they have the BayPass.

And so, you know, is there an opportunity to get a little bit more of a value proposition for the partner organizations to make sure it's it's um desirable, they're giving uh the extra value by enrolling everybody, but everybody it's it's paid based on enrollment.

I see, okay.

And perhaps additional marketing.

I just think gosh, if I'm a homeowner and I'm paying out HOA fees, uh I'd want to be getting my money's worth out of this.

Sure.

Yeah, the the way the program is administered is the potential user has to has to enroll.

They have to notify, yeah.

They have to opt in, that's exactly right.

So um, yeah, I it's it's been something where we uh continually trying to get the word out there, outreach, door hangers, um, you know, pop into the leasing office, all of those kind of you know, touch points are really important, and we we we do implement all of them.

So, and one of the reasons the cost went up so much in the second year was turns out we used a lot more transit than the PayPass folks thought we would in the first year, so they had to sort of adjust.

So the more we use the more like they're gonna if the current structure of the program, they're gonna essentially adjust the cost of the program for us for the next year, right?

And so they're sort of looking looking at past data to project the cost of the future.

Um, so yeah, sort of we are doing that outreach, but it also the more we use, then the program, every successful program ends up being short of funds.

All right, well, that's a great program.

Thank you for all that information.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Um, what do we move on to item number eight?

Do we have any updates there?

Thank you.

Lisa, do you have an update on OAP or do you want me to either way?

Um, so open aloe via assets plan.

I think we're all very familiar uh with this uh coming construction um for what will be a great project, but of course we have to go through um construction phase.

Uh, this is a project led by ACTC in conjunction with Caltrans to better connect the uh the tubes to uh 880.

Um, so the construction itself will have significant impacts.

Um, I believe construction um will start at the beginning of the year.

And yes, and um there, I think the start will be with the Webster tubes, um, Webster tube, and then that will have like a six-month uh period where the single lane um will be uh going through the tube.

Um, and then I believe the posey tube follows with a with a 12 month uh period where it would be a single lane going through the two.

Obviously, there's lots there's lots of impacts to City of Alameda residents, also AC transit riders.

Um, there is there are lots of meetings um and coordination meetings going on with ACTC, both on communications um and planning.

Um from my perspective as the uh head of planning for AT Transit, um, there will need to be a decent amount of collaboration um between now and the end of the year uh to make sure, or even just to understand what the real impacts are going to be to transit.

Um is crossed this is like an LA carveget up situation, and you know people are gonna figure out other ways to uh travel, um, but we can't apply for that, obviously.

Um, so we have a decent amount of uh of working coordination to do here to figure out what will be the best thing to do for our transit service, as well as how can we adapt as the project uh progresses in construction.

Um, so I don't know, Lisa, if there's anything else you want to add to that on later.

Um I can say uh you know Caltrans doesn't yet have the full proposed schedule from contractor yet.

Um, once they've had that and digested it, then they will share it to the technical teams, AC Transit City, and we'll we'll get some more details.

Um I know that Caltrans, which is taking over communications for the project for construction, uh, are planning once they have a schedule, so some months up down uh public workshops in Alameda and Oakland.

Umdates on the uh bus uh only lane on 7th Street.

Only that uh the city of Oakland has committed to it, which is a big big plus for us.

Um, as well as what anything that we can do about optimizing um signals for transit along Broadway.

Um, I imagine that that left term from Broadway to 7th will be um a challenging one during uh construction.

So Oakland is doing what they can again, so the dense period of time, so we just gotta start moving and make sure these things go into action.

Okay, uh any public comment on this item, hearing none.

Any questions or comments from members of the community?

Mayor the other floor is your so I'm the vice chair of AC Alameda County Transportation Commission.

I will say that our new executive director, Tony Tavares, is taking this project extremely seriously.

I finally feel that Alameda is getting the attention and um recognition that it deserves that this is, and as I've told them, I'm a huge proponent of this project.

It is not only getting cars from the tube to 880 faster, it is the pedestrian safety aspect getting through on there when you turn on to 7th Street when you come out of the tube.

Um, people have been hit, people have been killed, and it's also the air that is that the residents of Oakland, Chinatown, West Oakland are breathing and the higher asthma rates and all that.

So the benefit is going to be wonderful, especially for Oakland.

All of the burden, virtually all of the burden, most of it is on the city of Alameda.

But we get it, it's worth it, but it has to be done in to get our public transit users and public safety and people who live and work on or off the island, um, moving.

So what Tony has committed, and he's brought in Susan Chang, who is an engineer previously with Caltrans and he brought her out of retirement.

But she had um experience from the Cypress Mandela taking that three-way down and getting things going again after the earthquake, and she is overseeing this, and already she has told me that the contractor, which is Bay Cities, I want to say, is um is working to reduce the number of months of the closures.

So, as Lisa said, we'll know more when we know more, but I do feel that um we've we've finally succeeded in getting Alameda's needs known.

And then I think we just all have to keep an eye on the communication piece because we went from May until August with zero communications from Caltrans.

They had last said that well, the bids came in over budget, true fact, but it didn't, you know, the project didn't stop.

And so then the rumor mill started and people were oh, this is gonna happen.

Oh, and they're gonna build a bridge from Oakland to Alameda, and that's gonna take care of it.

Well, they will eventually, but not before this project.

But so I really leaned on them to you gotta get out of monthly communication.

I don't care if you all you're saying is nothing has changed since last time.

But heck, we do have a contract, even though the goods came in over budget, we've got a contractor, they're moving along.

So hopefully, and we will all lean on them, we'll get that regular communication between now and the project start date.

But but um AC Transit, you you and public safety are like top of mind for me to make sure that your schedules can be kept.

This is just so important.

Thanks.

Thank you for your advocacy.

I appreciate your support on the board.

Yep.

Um, to item nine, we have an update there.

We have Will Buller, our traffic engineer.

Yeah, hello, Will Buller, AC Transit Traffic Engineer, but I'm here supporting Maria, who will be given up.

Good morning, Maria Henderson, External Affairs Representative of Legislative Affairs and Community Relations at AC Transit.

So with Park Street TSP project, transit signal priority project in Park Street in Alameda.

That's from Blanding down to Otis.

We have been coordinating closely with the city.

We've completed the first stage of design, and we're proceeding to the final stage of design.

There are two steps in the design process, and we've completed the first step.

We are trying to complete this work before the Oakland Alameda Access Project per the city's request and direction.

And we will be presenting to the City of Alameda Transportation Commission in November or December of this year.

So as of this time, we are just trying to make sure that we can expedite the work before the Oakland Alameda Access Project starts.

And that's all I have today.

Thank you for the update.

We have any public comment hearing none.

Do we have any questions or comments on the floor?

Hearing none, okay.

Why don't we move on to item 10?

There is an update there.

Otherwise, we can move on to item.

I can do that with personal line transformation plan at AC Transit.

Um, your agenda packet includes the attachment with the performance summary for lines that are operating in Alameda from May through August.

Um, like Robert said earlier, we don't have too much realigned data available just yet, but from what we see in the table, um, ridership has been pretty consistent.

Most of the lines are meeting our on-time performance target, 72%.

Um, uh, you can see for August that line 19 and the trans bay lines are struggling, and that can be attributed to the routing confusion and passenger overcrowding that Robert discussed earlier.

But um, we are continuing to monitor it and address it as we can with the limited resources that we do have.

Um, the agenda packet also includes information about the customer complaints that we've received, and uh the ones that stand out really are again the 19, uh the 2021 or 3031, um, and then the translating uh line of overcoming.

Thank you for your update.

Do we have any public comment?

Hearing none, we have any questions or comments on the floor?

A slide zero, so why don't we move on to item number 11, next meeting?

The next meeting is February 12th, 2026.

Um, and then the we have the rest of the year scheduled out June 11, 2026, October 8th, 2026.

Okay, fantastic.

Um, request future agenda items without going into this item into detail, if I may, um the proposed ILC's restructure will be going to the board on October 22nd, and we've taken most if not all of the recommendations that came from the ILC about how to uh dial system.

So we'll be able to report out of those to change.

Okay, um, announcements, no announcements.

This meeting is.

Oh, I guess if I could just make one briefly, I just wanted to say that um the memorial service that AC Transit did for um our former director Chris Peoples at the end of September was it?

Was just lovely.

And I um I met bus drivers who had driven for AC Transit for more than 30 years, and they talked about how Chris Peoples knew their names and listened to their concerns, and I mean that was just Chris.

So, anyway, lovely job.

Thank you for your attendance to that.

With that, this meeting is adjourned.

Nice to see everybody.