Last year the city’s Transportation Commission appointed a subcommittee to identify transit priorities for AC Transit’s Service Expansion Plan. The subcommittee identified three specific priorities.

• The members expressed their desire that AC Transit invest the money from any budget cuts that affect Alameda into additional service elsewhere within the city. 
• They also asked that AC Transit maintain existing service on Line O on Santa Clara Avenue. The members stressed that if AC Transit should shorten service on Line O, that savings should be invested locally. 
• Thirdly, the members asked that AC Transit maintain direct service to Fruitvale BART despite its additional cost. 

In addition to these three priorities the subcommittee expressed its preference for a Northern Waterfront bus line.

Interim City Manager Liz Warmerdam echoed the subcommittee’s desires in a letter she wrote to AC Transit General Manager Michael Hursh last November. “Restoration of AC Transit Line 19 serving the Northern Waterfront . . . is the highest priority for the City of Alameda,” Warmerdam told Hirsch. 

She asked Hursh to consider altering Line 19’s proposed route to include Marina Village and to increase the frequency of its service. She also asked that AC Transit fund a bus route connection to the Main Street ferry terminal, and modify Line 31 to provide service between the College of Alameda and Laney College. Warmerdam also expressed the city’s opposition to changes in Line O, echoing the transportation subcommittee’s sentiments concerning this line 

The City Council is scheduled to discuss these and other bus-related issues at its Tuesday, Feb. 2, meeting.