SamTrans ends extra bus for Coastside students

Monday, about forty Coastside schoolchildren who ride SamTrans to and from school will be turned away. Last week an extra bus was added by the nonprofit Coastside Opportunity Center, which operates the buses for SamTrans, to one run in the morning and one in the afternoon.  The Center added the bus when it discovered that students, mostly from Cunha Intermediate School, were unsafely crowding onto existing buses.

But SamTrans has terminated this extra bus.  Friday, after it was told by SamTrans to stop the service, the Center gave students riding the buses the following letter:

Dear Passengers of the Coastside Opportunity Center –

We are very sorry to inform you that late last night, the Coastside Opportunity Center was informed by SamTrans that we may no longer run the additional buses that we added this week to help with the overcrowding issue.  We are greatly saddened that starting on Monday, March 6th we will only be offering one bus with a full capacity of 18 seated and 2 standing passengers for each run of Route 17.  Unless another solution presents itself over the weekend, this will be the case for the foreseeable future. This was a decision of SamTrans and not the Coastside Opportunity Center.  If you have any questions, please contact Jonah Weinburg, Public Information Officer at SamTrans 650-508-6238.

Jonah Weinberg, public information officer at SamTrans, told Coastsider that the additional bus could only be a temporary measure, saying "We can’t guarantee that level of service and there is no funding for additional buses." He also noted that SamTrans is forbidden by statute from providing school bus service.

Ongoing disclosure: Cheri Parr, executive director of the Coastside Opporunity Center, is my wife.