The County Connection (officially, the Central Contra Costa Transit Authority, CCCTA) is a

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

-based public transit agency operating fixed-route

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

and ADA

paratransit Paratransit is the term used in North America, also known by other names such as community transport ( UK) for transportation services that supplement fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. ...

(County Connection LINK) service in and around central

Contra Costa County ) of the San Francisco Bay , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = California , subdivision_type2 ...

in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. Established in 1980 as a

joint powers authority A joint powers authority (JPA) is an entity permitted under the laws of some U.S. states, whereby two or more public authorities (e.g. local governments, or utility or transport districts), not necessarily located in the same state, may jointly ex ...

, CCCTA assumed control of public bus service within central Contra Costa first begun by

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

-based

AC Transit AC Transit (Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District) is an Oakland-based public transit agency serving the western portions of Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. AC Transit also operates "Transbay" ro ...

as it expanded into suburban Contra Costa County in the mid-1970s (especially after the opening of

BART Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc. Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Barthol ...

). In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of .

History

In March 1980, the Central Contra Costa Transit Authority was created by a joint powers agreement between the cities of Clayton,

Lafayette Lafayette or La Fayette may refer to: People * Lafayette (name), a list of people with the surname Lafayette or La Fayette or the given name Lafayette * House of La Fayette, a French noble family ** Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757� ...

, Martinez, Pleasant Hill,

Walnut Creek A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, ''Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true bo ...

, the town of

Moraga Moraga is a List of municipalities in California, town in Contra Costa County, California, Contra Costa County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The town is named in honor of Joaquín Moraga, member of the famed Californio family. As ...

, and the County of Contra Costa. Upon their incorporation, the town of Danville and the city of San Ramon also joined CCCTA. CCCTA is governed by a

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

, with a representative appointed from each of its member cities and the county. Day-to-day operations are overseen by the General Manager. On July 1, 1980, CCCTA began service, with its first route serving Walnut Creek. The changeover from AC Transit to County Connection was somewhat gradual, with County Connection assuming the remainder of the service by 1982.Darlene Bonanno v. Central Contra Costa Transit Authority
/ref>

Fixed-route service

As of May 2020, the County Connection operates 25 weekday routes (three of which also operate on weekends), seven weekend-only routes, and 19 school tripper routes within central Contra Costa County.
All routes, with the exception of some of the ''600''-numbered series select service trips, connect with regional train service, primarily

, in addition to

ACE An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the c ...

in Pleasanton and

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

, including

Amtrak California Amtrak California is a brand name used by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Division of Rail for three state-supported Amtrak commuter rail routes in Californiathe ''Capitol Corridor'', the ''Pacific Surfliner'', and the ...

Capitol Corridor The ''Capitol Corridor'' is a passenger train route in Northern California operated by Amtrak between San Jose, in the Bay Area, and Auburn, in the Sacramento Valley. The route is named after the two points most trains operate between, San ...

and San Joaquin services in Martinez. Among its 30 weekday routes, the County Connection operates seven express routes (Routes 91X—98X). With support from the city of

, the County Connection also operates a free downtown circulator with trolley livery (Route 4) with service between

and Broadway Plaza. Major points of interest in the area served by the County Connection include: *

Diablo Valley College Diablo Valley College (DVC) is a public community college with campuses in Pleasant Hill and San Ramon in Contra Costa County, California. DVC is one of three public community colleges in the Contra Costa Community College District (along with ...

in Pleasant Hill * Diablo Valley College, San Ramon Valley Campus, in San Ramon Route 35 * Cal State East Bay in Concord Route 93X and 260 * Sunvalley Mall in Concord Routes 9, 18,19, 20, 98X, 314, and 316 * Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek Route 4 *

Saint Mary's College of California Saint Mary's College of California is a Private college, private Catholic Church, Catholic college in Moraga, California. Established in 1863, it is affiliated with the Catholic Church and administered by the De La Salle Brothers. The college of ...

in Moraga Routes 6 and 250 * Bishop Ranch Business Park in San Ramon Routes 21, 35, 36, 95X, 96X, 97X, and 321

Route overview

Weekdays

Weekday service is provided on all routes except ''300''-numbered series routes, which operate only on weekends. ''600''-numbered series routes are select service trips convenient to area schools and operate on school days, with service timed to school bell times.

Weekends

Service is provided on the following 11 routes:

Fixed-route fleet

The current fixed-route fleet consists of 135 wheelchair-accessible buses manufactured by

Gillig Gillig (formerly Gillig Brothers) is an American designer and manufacturer of buses. The company headquarters, along with its manufacturing operations, is located in Livermore, California (in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area) ...

. Each bus is accessible by a ramp and has space for two wheelchairs. Buses feature Clever Devices

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

-based automatic voice annunciation (AVA) and visual next-stop announcements. Each bus has the capacity for two bicycles on a front bumper-mounted rack, with an additional two bicycles permitted aboard at the bus operator's discretion.

References

External links

* {{San Francisco Bay Area Public Transit Bus transportation in California Public transportation in Contra Costa County, California Transit agencies in California