They should call this bus line the BART line because you can use it to get from the 12th Street/Oakland City Center BART Station to the 19th Street BART Station to the MacArthur BART Station to the Downtown Berkeley BART Station. But why would anyone ever take a bus from BART station to BART station when BART is faster?
Well, sometime between late 2018 and early 2020, BART had a major problem on its Red Line. I was on the train headed to work that morning, and when we stopped at MacArthur Station, the train operator helpfully informed us passengers that there was a major issue up ahead and the train would be holding indefinitely.
Mind you, I rode BART every weekday from San Francisco to Downtown Berkeley for almost ten years. This was not my first BART major-issue/meltdown rodeo, and while I had used some clever tricks to get from affected station to non-affected station--or to bypass affected station altogether--I had never just gotten off the train and sought a form of transportation other than my feet.
But I couldn't very well walk from MacArthur Station to Downtown Berkeley, so I pulled out my phone and decided to ride AC Transit for the first time in many years. I was able to find the stop easily enough, and I was surprised by how direct (and quick) the bus ride to Downtown Berkeley was. All of this despite how long it took the the bus to pick up and let off passengers at each stop.
There were many other frazzled BART riders with me early on, but most of them had left the bus long before we got to Southside Berkeley. The bus driver then informed us that there was an issue with his regular route, so he would be detouring in such-and-such a way. I had no idea what his regular route was, but I knew where he was headed, so I stayed put. Worst-case scenario, I'd get off the bus south of campus and walk to work. But the bus ended up where it was supposed to, and I was only about twenty minutes late for work. All my previous nervousness about my Clipper Card not having enough regular money (as opposed to BART-specific money) stored on it was like most of my nervousness: completely unnecessary but also ridiculously indefatigable.
So thanks, AC Transit 6 bus! You really made my day that day, and I predicted then that I would have ridden you again by now, but COVID, and the world, etc. read more