Dumbarton Express is a regional public transit service 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 G ...

connecting

Alameda An alameda is a street or path lined with trees () and may refer to: Places Canada * Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan ** Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan Chile * Alameda (Santia ...

, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties via the Dumbarton Bridge, the system's namesake. The bus service is funded by a consortium of five transit agencies (

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" r ...

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 ''Bartho ...

SamTrans SamTrans (stylized as samTrans; officially the San Mateo County Transit District) is a public transport agency in and around San Mateo, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It provides bus service throughout San Mateo County and into porti ...

Union City Transit Union City Transit is a public transit service in Union City, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. , Union City Transit operates 5 bus lines that connect riders to local destinations, such as schools, shopping centers, and the Union City ...

, and VTA). Dumbarton Express is administered by AC Transit and operated under contract by MV Transportation. AC Transit also operates bus service across the Dumbarton Bridge on Route U, which connects Fremont BART and

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

. Route U is not part of the Dumbarton Express system.

Service area

Dumbarton Express serves the cities of Menlo Park, Newark,

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

, and Union City.

Hubs

Service is provided to two major transit hubs:

Palo Alto station Palo Alto station (also called Palo Alto Transit Center) is an intermodal transit center in Palo Alto, California. It is served by Caltrain regional rail service, SamTrans and Santa Clara VTA local bus service, Dumbarton Express regional bus ...

(connections to Caltrain, SamTrans, VTA) and

Union City station Union City is a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station serving Union City, California. The station sits near Decoto Road east of Alvarado-Niles Road, directly behind James Logan High School's campus. Local bus service is provided by Union City ...

(connections to AC Transit, BART and Union City Transit). Both lines additionally serve Ardenwood Park & Ride.

Routes

As of December 12, 2012, Dumbarton Express operates two routes: Dumbarton Express has an "open door" policy that allows passengers to ride locally in the East Bay and Peninsula, without crossing the bridge.

Fares and transfer policies

Fares

Fares can be paid with cash (exact change only) and

Clipper card The Clipper card is a reloadable contactless smart card used for automated fare collection in the San Francisco Bay Area. First introduced as TransLink in 2002 by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) as a pilot program, it was rebran ...

s, and are identical to the AC Transit fare structure.

Cash fares

Clipper fares

Note: Local travel is within the East Bay or Peninsula only; Transbay travel is across the Dumbarton Bridge.

Transfers and passes

Dumbarton Express accepts transfers and passes from several connecting transit agencies for full or partial fare. VTA Express Eco Passes and AC Transit Transbay 31-Day Passes are accepted as full Transbay fare. The following are accepted as full local fare or partial Transbay fare: * AC Transit local 31-day passes *

Caltrain Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as fa ...

monthly passes * SamTrans monthly passes * Union City Transit passes * VTA day or monthly passes BART-to-bus transfers are accepted as full local fare but not as partial Transbay fare. As of January 1, 2013, BART Plus tickets are not accepted. Transfers issued by Dumbarton Express are valid for 2 hours and are accepted by AC Transit, SamTrans, Union City Transit, and VTA. Union City Transit has a $0.25 surcharge, payable on board Union City Transit. Transfers to SamTrans are valid only for passengers using Clipper cards.

Future expansion

On August 2, 2017,

, one of the five transit agencies that jointly operate the Dumbarton Express, released a study that examined the feasibility of adding additional bus routes to the service. The study recommended two new bus routes: an express bus route traveling between the Union City BART station to the Redwood City Caltrain station, and a local bus route between the Union City BART station to job centers in northern Mountain View and

Sunnyvale Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwest Santa Clara County in the U.S. state of California. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the nort ...

, the introduction of which would lead to a 34% increase in ridership. The study also reiterated SamTrans' ultimate goal of reintroducing rail service across the

Dumbarton Rail Bridge The Dumbarton Rail Bridge lies just to the south of the Dumbarton road bridge. Built in 1910, the rail bridge was the first structure to span San Francisco Bay, shortening the rail route between Oakland and San Francisco by . The last freight tr ...

, ultimately connecting the Redwood City Caltrain station to the Union City BART station via conventional passenger rail.

References

External links

The Dumbarton Express
{{San Francisco Bay Area Public Transit Bus transportation in California Public transportation in Alameda County, California Public transportation in Santa Clara County, California