Since this Wiki’s inception, some transit corridors have shifted from bus to rail with the introduction of rail services. For example, the Link Line 1 service expanded from Downtown Seattle to the University of Washington in 2016, then to Northgate in 2021, and most recently to Lynnwood last year. Sound Transit Express bus 512, the primary route connecting Everett and Downtown Seattle, adjusted its route to connect with the Link once it expanded to Northgate. The route was further shortened with the Link’s extension to Lynnwood. Community Transit previously offered extensive commuter bus services to both Downtown Seattle and the University of Washington before 2021. However, the UW commuter service was mostly shortened when the Link reached Northgate. When the Link extended to Lynnwood, commuter buses to Northgate and most buses to Downtown Seattle were eliminated in favor of more local services connecting with Link stations in Snohomish County.

The Link has been a significant investment. The 1 Line north of Downtown Seattle is entirely grade-separated and operates frequent service throughout the day, offering traffic-free access to key commuter destinations previously served by peak-hour buses. Despite the current capacity constraints on the Link, service frequency should improve when the 2 Line extends to Lynnwood upon the completion of the East Link project across Lake Washington.

While Seattle exemplifies integrated planning and coordination among transit agencies, the Bay Area still lags behind. Despite the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit beginning service in 2017 in the North Bay, there hasn’t been a plan to evaluate regional services on the Highway 101 corridor in Sonoma and Marin counties. The same corridor served by SMART also has a daily regional bus service on the adjacent freeway. The transit agencies in the North Bay began a study on regional transit coordination last year (Marin-Sonoma Coordinated Transit Service Plan – MASCOTS), with recommendations expected sometime this year.

Some key findings from the study:

• 2/3 of all trips to SF from North Bay begin from San Rafael and points south.
• SMART carries more riders (3600) than Golden Gate Transit Route 101 (680).
• A significant portion of ridership on some Golden Gate Transit routes are within a single county, despite the primary objective for inter-county travel. For example, 55% of riders in Golden Gate Transit route 114 are within San Francisco. (Golden Gate Transit buses started to carry intra-SF riders during the pandemic when Muni cut most of commuter service and excess capacity was available on Golden Gate Transit. Routes like 114 stop in the Marina and serve the Financial District.)
• More commuters take the ferry (3690) than buses across the Golden Gate Bridge (2300), despite higher fares on the ferry.
• The study consultant believes there are too many bus routes (Golden Gate Transit and Marin Transit) serving Highway 101 in Marin County.

On the question of which role bus or rail should have in the future for regional transit, we should take a look in the past:

• Steam trains began serving Sausalito with a ferry connection to San Francisco in 1874, with commuter service extending to San Rafael. The railroad company also operated the ferry line.
• In 1903, commuter interurban service (eventually became part of Northwestern Pacific Railroad) was electrified with a third rail, which was quite advanced for the time. San Francisco mainly had cable cars then, as electric streetcars were disfavored due to overhead wires, a policy that changed after the 1906 earthquake.
• Rail held a monopoly in southern Marin until a competing company introduced an automobile ferry at Sausalito in 1922.
• The Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937.
• In November 1939, Marin County voters rejected a proposal to make the NWP interurban system publicly owned, as a sharp ridership decline threatened the privately run service.
• Rail and ferry services at Sausalito were discontinued in February 1941, and Greyhound buses became the only commuter transit option into San Francisco, covering the same cities served by NWP interurbans.
• The Golden Gate Bridge District reintroduced ferry service to Sausalito in 1970 and took over the unprofitable Greyhound bus service in 1972, with bridge tolls subsidizing transit operations.

Before SMART opened in 2017, transit within Marin was mostly highway-based following the discontinuation of NWP. While reorienting transit around rail, as in Seattle, and reviving the glory days of NWP is desirable, many barriers exist in the North Bay. A multi-modal solution appears to be more suitable.

Although SMART uses the former NWP right of way, which went as far north as Eureka, the southernmost SMART stop is Larkspur, covering only a small section of the previous interurban system, which extended only as far north as San Rafael. Buses continue to serve other communities once served by NWP, and more people in those areas commute to SF than those living near SMART. Infrastructure issues hinder co-locating bus hubs at rail stations. Currently, there are two locations where bus transit center are co-located with SMART stations: San Rafael and Petaluma. In Santa Rosa, the distance between the SMART stop and the downtown bus hub is a 10-minute walk, making daily use impractical, especially those with mobility difficulties. The same issue exists in Larkspur between the rail station and the ferry terminal. The old NWP rail-ferry hub at Sausalito allowed for much tighter connections without long walks. Other transit systems, like BART, feature full off street transit centers at many stations. Co-locating bus hubs at SMART stations is challenging due to limited right of way and surrounding land use.

Numerous single-track sections on the SMART system limit the improvement in frequencies. The current schedule shows the closest headway is 32 minutes. A desirable transit feature, short of very frequent service every 15 minutes or less, is a clockface schedule. Buses could operate on such a schedule, but currently, SMART cannot. SMART and Ferry service remain high-cost compared to buses and cannot cost-effectively provide service during periods of low demand. Currently, the last northbound SMART train leaves Larkspur at 8:50 p.m. on weekdays and 7:45 p.m. on weekends. The last Route 101 trip departs San Francisco around 11:30 p.m. to Santa Rosa.

Some riders depend on transit but are wary of transfers, especially those with disabilities. Without fixed-route bus service on the corridor directly to San Francisco, more may opt for paratransit, which is much more costly per trip to taxpayers.

Because of these issues, I believe the corridor should maintain basic mainline bus service like the current Route 101 from Sonoma County. However, the route could be modified to coordinate with SMART by scheduling bus trips between train trips to improve overall service level on the corridor, harmonizing fares between agencies, and possibly shifting location of bus stops. Keeping a direct bus to San Francisco would benefit travelers from areas north of Sonoma County. Greyhound has already abandoned intercity bus service from San Francisco to Arcata, and its substitute, the Amtrak Thruway, only connects with trains at Martinez, with no service into San Francisco. Without a bus like Route 101, accessing San Francisco from the North Coast would require at least one additional transfer. Additionally, HOV lanes are being added to the Marin-Sonoma Narrows and should be completed this summer. These lanes should improve the reliability of bus service. In the long run, SMART should upgrade its infrastructure to allow better bus transfers and implement clockface schedules. Improving train and ferry transfers at Larkspur should also be discussed, even though such solutions could be cost-prohibitive.

Returning to the Seattle example, while Link expansions have led to bus route shortening and cancellations, the corridors north to Everett and south to Tacoma both have Sounder commuter rail service. Since these lines operate with diesel locomotives on tracks owned by freight railroads, Sounder trains are limited to peak-hour, peak-direction service only. Therefore, express buses are essential because they provide off-peak and reverse commute options, even though express buses and Sounder operate on separate corridors and share stops only at the endpoints in Everett and Tacoma. The long-term goal is to replace the express buses with Link, which can offer a much higher level of service. Although SMART operates more services than Sounder, it’s still not as frequent as Caltrain, let alone systems like Link or BART.