Dumbarton Express is a regional public transit service in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

connecting Alameda, 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 is the main Public transport bus service, bus transit operator in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. AC Transit is the third largest bus operator in California, serving the western portions of Alameda and C ...

BART Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves List of Bay Area Rapid Transit stations, 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running t ...

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, and VTA). Dumbarton Express is administered by AC Transit and operated under contract by

MV Transportation MV Transportation, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, is the largest privately owned passenger transportation contracting services firm in the United States. The company can provide paratransit, fixed-route, campus and corporate shuttles, and student ...

Service

Dumbarton Express operates two weekday-only routes: *Route DB operates between Union City station and the

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

campus via Palo Alto station *Route DB1 operates between Union City station and the

Stanford Research Park Stanford Research Park (SRP) is a technology park established in 1951 as a joint initiative between Stanford University and the Palo Alto, California, City of Palo Alto. It was the world's first university research park. It has more than 150 com ...

Dumbarton Express allows passengers to ride locally in the East Bay and Peninsula, without crossing the bridge.

History

began operating peak-hour service between Union City station and Palo Alto station on September 10, 1984. The yearlong trial service was funded by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. The DB1 route serving the Stanford Research Park was added within a year. By 1987, route DB was also extended to the industrial park via a different route. A private company took over operations in January 1989, with AC Transit continuing to administer the service. In 1993, five transit agencies (AC Transit,

, Union City Transit, and VTA) formed a consortium to fund the service. A third route, DB2, was introduced in October 1998. It operated between Union City station and the East Palo Alto area. The route saw low ridership and was discontinued on June 30, 2001. AC Transit again became the service operator in March 2005. AC Transit introduced a separate Dumbarton Bridge transbay service, route U, on August 29, 2004. Not part of the Dumbarton Express brand, it serves Fremont station rather than Union City station. On December 23, 2007, AC Transit extended its route M over the Dumbarton Bridge to Union City station, replacing route MA (which operated via the San Mateo Bridge). The route M extension was discontinued on March 28, 2010. It was replaced with AC Transit route DA between Ardenwood and Redwood Shores, which operated until December 15, 2013. By 2009, some reverse-peak trips (eastbound in the morning and westbound in the afternoon) were routed via East Palo Alto and designated DB3. On December 19, 2011, route DB3 was discontinued, and

replaced AC Transit as the operator of Dumbarton Express service. At that time, the service cost $2.1 million annually to operate, of which fare revenues covered $0.5 million. Service was increased by 80% on July 2, 2012, with service on route DB1 tripled. Route DB was rerouted to terminate at

The Oval The Oval, currently named for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club sinc ...

on the Stanford University campus, while route DB1 was extended to cover part of the former DB route in the Stanford Research Park. On August 2, 2017,

released a study that examined the feasibility of adding additional bus routes to the service. The study recommended two new bus routes: an express route traveling between Union City station and Redwood City Caltrain station, and a local 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 northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the north, ...

. The introduction of the two routes was expected to more than double Dumbarton Express ridership. Rail service between Redwood City and Union City on the

Dumbarton Rail Corridor The Dumbarton Rail Corridor is a proposed transbay passenger rail line which would reuse the right-of-way that was initially constructed from 1907–1910 as the Dumbarton Rail Bridge, Dumbarton Cut-off. The Dumbarton Cut-off includes the first ...

is also proposed.

References

External links

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