San Francisco Bay Area’s AC Transit orders an additional 20 fuel cell-electric buses from NFI’s New Flyer.

(TSX: NFI, OTC: NFYEF) NFI Group Inc. (“NFI” or the “Company”), a leading independent bus and coach manufacturer and a leader in electric mass mobility solutions, announced that the Alameda Contra Costa Transit District (“AC Transit”) has awarded NFI subsidiary New Flyer of America Inc. (“New Flyer”) an order for 20 zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell-electric 40-foot Xcelsior CHARGE H2 heavy-duty transit buses.

The purchase was made through California’s State Cooperative Procurement, which New Flyer was selected for as a top-scoring approved supplier in 2019.

Supported by Federal Transit Administration funds, the order follows AC Transit’s 2019 purchase of ten hydrogen fuel cell-electric and five battery-electric buses from NFI, and demonstrably advances AC Transit’s Clean Corridors Plan (a commitment to operate a 25% zero-emission fleet by 2023) and ultimately its implementation of the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) Innovative Clean Transit Regulation that requires all California agencies to transition to zero-emission bus fleets by 2040.

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Based in Oakland, AC Transit is one of the largest bus-only systems in America, serving Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the San Francisco Bay Area’s East Bay, delivering over 52 million rides annually.

Paul Soubry, President and Chief Executive Officer, NFI.

Since 1980, NFI has delivered over 740 buses to AC Transit, and we are pleased to continue expanding zero-emission mobility in the greater San Francisco Bay Area through this follow-on order.

“AC Transit is an innovative leader focused on delivering the best in urban mobility for its riders, and we look forward to supporting AC Transit on its continued journey to a fully zero-emission fleet.”

Chris Stoddart, President, New Flyer and MCI.

With more Xcelsior CHARGE H2 fuel cell buses in its fleet, AC Transit can count on proven range performance, cleaner transportation, reduced noise pollution, and elimination of greenhouse gases – with buses that produce only clean water vapor from the tailpipe.

NFI is a leader in zero-emission mobility, with electric vehicles operating (or on order) in more than 80 cities in four countries. NFI offers the widest range of zero-emission battery and fuel cell electric buses and coaches, and the Company’s vehicles have completed over 40 million EV service miles.

NFI supports growing North American cities with scalable, clean, and sustainable mobility solutions through a four-pillar approach that includes buses and coaches, technology, infrastructure, and workforce development. It also operates the VIC, the first and only innovation lab of its kind dedicated to advancing bus and coach technology and providing workforce development.

Since opening late 2017, the VIC has hosted over 300 interactive events, welcoming 3,000 industry professionals for EV and infrastructure training.

San Francisco Bay Area’s AC Transit orders an additional 20 fuel cell-electric buses from NFI’s New Flyer, WINNIPEG, Manitoba, June 14, 2021

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Five people were injured in San Francisco Wednesday when an AC Transit bus rammed into another AC Transit bus, crashed into an occupied vehicle, careened onto a sidewalk, and stopped between a high-rise building and some scaffolding, “narrowly missing” traffic light poles, police said.

The bus was traveling northbound near Fremont and Folsom streets at the time of the crash, which was reported around 9:25 a.m., Officer Robert Rueca told reporters.

The five people who were sent to area hospitals include the drivers of both buses, a bus passenger and a passenger in a private vehicle, according to AC Transit spokesman Robert Lyles. 

“We wanted to transport them as quickly as possible, knowing that the traffic in the area was going to get heavy and that their health was our biggest concern,” Rueca said.

One of the five victims appears to have taken themselves to the hospital at some point after the collision, Lyles said.

Passengers aboard the bus said the entire experience lasted between 15 and 20 seconds, but it felt like an eternity.

“We were crossing Folsom, and we felt a couple of sharp jolts and I thought maybe they were pumping their brakes,” said Dave Zemke. “But then we hit something really big.”

That big bump was another bus. The green vehicle only came to a stop after hitting the scaffolding of a building on the 200 block of Fremont Street.

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There is an AC transit bus on the sidewalk on Fremont St btwn.Folsom &Howard. Passengers tell me driver passed out, hit another bus and pole pic.twitter.com/TqFvvskRa8

— Sam Brock (@SamNBCBayArea) September 27, 2017

A commuter seated near the front of the bus said the driver appeared to be on the verge of passing out.

The driver “started coming down” the hill, Carrie Murphy said, “and you know how the buses line up, and there’s like a passing lane and she tried to ask one of the other bus drivers to let her in because she wasn’t feeling well.”

Rueca said that the bus didn’t hit any pedestrians on the 200 block of Fremont Street, otherwise the crash could have been much worse. 

“There was a gentleman who I was talking to that said he was walking down the sidewalk, looked back, saw the bus approaching and jumped into a planter and actually watched as the bus went over!” Zemke said.

Traffic in downtown San Francisco was “heavily impacted” for several hours because the buses couldn’t be moved until police officers had processed the scene of the collision, said Rueca.

For hours after the crash, crews removed the scaffolding above the bus one piece and pipe at a time. Two tow trucks were then needed to hoist the bus from the pavement. 

The crash closed the Fremont/Folsom Street and Harrison Street off-ramps from Interstate 80, but both have since reopened, Rueca said. As of around 4 p.m., the only remaining street closure was on the section of Fremont Street between Folsom and Howard streets.

Rueca said it is too early to comment on the cause of the crash. An investigation is ongoing.

AC Transit buses typically traverse the city “safely,” he said. “This is a rare occurrence.”

Lyles said AC Transit has collected video from the involved buses and is checking to see if any San Francisco city buses in the area have video that might be helpful.

“We’re very grateful that the injuries were limited, and that there weren’t more bystanders or pedestrians involved in this,” Lyles said. “We are investing considerable energy and effort into trying to ascertain exactly what happened.”

Lyles said that Fremont Street was cleared fairly quickly and buses on the popular Transbay bus line were able to regain access to the San Francisco terminal by around 1 p.m.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — Two AC Transit buses crashed into each other near Howard and Fremont in San Francisco early Wednesday, injuring five people including both drivers, authorities said.

Click here to view related image.

San Francisco police spokesman Robert Rueca said police received the call reporting the crash at 9:22 a.m.

A bus traveling north on Fremont near Folsom collided with several vehicles, including another bus, then went onto the sidewalk and struck the scaffolding of a building, Rueca said.

The bus came to a stop on the 200 block of Fremont. He said the bus did not strike anyone on the sidewalk.

AC Transit officials said the two buses exited I-80 onto Fremont Street. One attempted to make a right turn onto Folsom Street. The second bus behind it should have been attempting to make the same turn, but lost control.

A total of five people were sent to area hospitals near the crash, including the drivers of both buses, a bus passenger and a passenger in a private vehicle, according to AC Transit spokesman Robert Lyles.

One of the five people appears to have taken themselves to the hospital at some point after the collision, Lyles said.

He also noted that neither driver has ever had any major issues.

“Each of the operators are experienced and have been with AC transit for a number of years,” explained Lyles. “There’s no indication there’s any problem with any of the operators.”

Video of the scene showed an AC Transit bus on the sidewalk, at least one light pole on the ground and a tree knocked over in the South of Market neighborhood. The front of the bus had crashed into a building under construction.

Danielle Marquis was on her way to work at a nearby dental office when she saw a bus careening down Fremont Street, striking other cars and another AC Transit bus before coming to rest on the sidewalk.

Without thinking, Marquis boarded the bus to see if the driver was okay.

“I wanted to keep her alert, conscious. Make sure she didn’t pass out. She did great,” said Marquis.

She said it was clear something went wrong before the crash.

“Very clear she lost consciousness. Also based on what other passengers said as they left the bus,” explained Marquis. “As soon as the bus stopped everybody jumped out the windows”

Chad Preston was on a job site across the street. He and other construction workers helped Marquis keep the driver conscious while waiting for medical attention.

A few other construction workers said they were lucky to be able to get out of harms way before the bus hit.

“My friend here saw the bus coming when we were underneath the scaffolding,” said construction worker Don Lipary. “He said, ‘What the hell?!’ And I just started running.”

Lipary said the bus was “going 40 mph when it went on the sidewalk.”

Police said the scaffolding the bus crashed into is still something authorities were worried about.

“Its definitely a concern. We must talk to the building engineers to see how it’s affecting the scaffolding,” said Rueca.

The crash closed the Fremont/Folsom Street and Harrison Street off-ramps from Interstate Highway 80, but both have since reopened, Rueca said.

As of around 4 p.m., the only remaining street closure was on the section of Fremont Street between Folsom and Howard streets, where crews were still working to remove the bus that crashed, Rueca said.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Lyles said AC Transit has collected video from the involved buses and is checking to see if any San Francisco city buses in the area have video that might be helpful.

“We’re very grateful that the injuries were limited, and that there weren’t more bystanders or pedestrians involved in this,” Lyles said. “We are investing considerable energy and effort into trying to ascertain exactly what happened.”

Lyles said that Fremont Street was cleared fairly quickly and buses on the popular Transbay bus line were able to regain access to the San Francisco terminal by around 1 p.m.

TM and © Copyright 2017 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Bay City News Service contributed to this report.

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San Francisco and federal officials on Wednesday toured a transit center called “The Portal” that is under construction and slated to bring regional and city transit together and recently went up in cost by more than $1 billion.

Shortly after the price hike, tech billionaire Elon Musk claimed his tunneling company, the Boring Company, could build the project for 1% of the multibillion-dollar cost.

This will take an eternity and hurt taxpayers badly.

The @boringcompany can solve this problem for ~1% of this cost.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2023

READ MORE: Cost of San Francisco Downtown Rail Extension Swells to $8.2B

An official leading the project’s construction pushed back on Musk’s claim after the tour.

“What we’re doing is different than their company was founded to do, at least to date,” said Adam Van de Water, executive director of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, which is heading up construction of the transit center.

Van de Water said Musk’s company specializes in smaller tunnels meant for single-occupancy vehicles and not tunnels meant to accommodate mass transit.

“I did see [Musk’s] tweet, and we’re excited [The Portal] is getting more exposure and awareness,” Van de Water said.

READ MORE: What is ‘The Portal’? San Francisco’s Future Downtown Rail Line Plan Gets a New Name, and Merch

Transbay Joint Powers Authority Executive Director Adam Van de Water shows acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su the space under the Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco on Wednesday. A new high-speed rail terminus is going to be built under the facility. | Source: Michaela Vatcheva for The Standard

The Portal, formerly called the Downtown Rail Extension, is a tunneling project that will link Caltrain from the station at Fourth and Townsend streets to AC Transit and San Francisco Muni buses inside the Salesforce Transit Center at 425 Mission St.

The Portal is viewed by transit boosters as a linchpin of a regional transit system that will eventually unite Caltrain, San Francisco’s bus system and high-speed rail.

Van de Water said Caltrain is expected to service the Salesforce Transit Center via The Portal by 2032, and that if high-speed rail were fully funded immediately, those trains could service the station by 2033.

After the tour, acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su lauded and expressed support for unions that worked on the project, which Van de Water said used labor and materials from 48 U.S. states.

Transbay Joint Powers Authority Executive Director Adam Van de Water shows acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su the Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco on Wednesday. | Source: Michaela Vatcheva for The Standard

“President Biden believes by investing in America, investing in workers, we can build a stronger nation,” Su said. “All of that can be done through good union jobs and a path to the middle class.”

The Downtown Rail Extension has been decades in the making, and its estimated cost has ballooned from $6.5 billion to a staggering $8.25 billion since October 2022, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. In 2016, the cost of the rail extension was estimated at $3.9 billion. 

Transbay Joint Powers Authority Executive Director Adam Van de Water shows acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su the space under the Salesforce Transit Center. | Source: Michaela Vatcheva for The Standard

Of the recent cost increase, $729 million is attributed to a request that the federal government credit the costs of a train box at the transit center that Van de Water described as “mostly completed.”

The remaining $7.5 billion in cost is completing the platforms at Fourth and Townsend stations and the Salesforce Transit Center and boring a tunnel miles through the ground to connect the two stations with Caltrain service.

Caltrain’s new electric fleet was available for a first-glance tour in San Jose on July 29. | Source: Joel Umanzor/The Standard

The Transbay Joint Powers Authority said in 2022 that the rail extension would bring “California’s statewide high-speed rail service into Downtown San Francisco at the TJPA multimodal facility, Salesforce Transit Center, which currently connects nine transit systems (found within and around) to eight Bay Area counties.”

California has been developing a high-speed rail system running between San Francisco and Los Angeles since voters approved it in 2008. As of May 2023, 90 miles of guideway, a track or riding surface to support or guide transit vehicles, have been built, with another 119 miles of the project under construction, according to the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

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More than a year before the November 2024 election, the race for who will represent Downtown San Francisco on the Board of Supervisors is heating up.

Sharon Lai, a former transportation official, announced Friday morning that she will run to represent District 3, which covers the northeast covers of the city, including the Financial District, Chinatown, North Beach, Nob Hill and Russian Hill.

Lai, a Chinese American immigrant, is hardly new to city politics. She worked for the Planning Department earlier in her career and served on the board of directors of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency from 2020 to 2022. She later resigned from the board position to pursue a master’s degree at Harvard University. Upon graduating in May 2023, she moved back to the city and currently works for the World Economic Forum, an international lobbying nonprofit.

“We’re tired of the dysfunction that we have experienced in the city,” Lai said Friday at a Chinatown rally. “It’s time for us to start leading.”

As a victim of sexual harassment on public transit, Lai said her focus will be on public safety, as well as homelessness and economic recovery. She was an outspoken advocate of transit safety for Asian Americans during her term as a transit commissioner. 

San Francisco’s politics are frequently divided into progressive and moderate camps, and while Lai acknowledges that some of her political ideology is more progressive-leaning, she said she has “always worked across the aisle.”

Lai may be able to appeal to Chinatown’s large voting bloc because of her Chinese immigrant identity and fluency in Cantonese and Mandarin. She has also garnered strong support from the city’s progressive Chinese American leadership, including current and former supervisors Norman Yee, Sandra Lee Fewer and Connie Chan.

Two other candidates, Deputy City Attorney Moe Jamil and Democratic County Central Committee Vice-Chair Peter Gallotta, have announced runs for the seat, too. Former North Beach Neighbors president Danny Sauter, who challenged Peskin in 2020 and is expected to run again, told The Standard that he will have more to share soon.

Asked about running for office in a district into which she had only recently moved, Lai told The Standard she had spent a lot of time there because it’s close to her kids’ school and it’s where she shops. She also emphasized that during her career as a city planner and transit official, she focused on the Downtown and Chinatown areas.

“I feel strongly that this is the heart of San Francisco,” Lai said. “I would feel so honored to be able to fight for this community.”

Current District 3 Supervisor and Board President Aaron Peskin is terming out after two decades in city politics. Neither Peskin nor Mayor London Breed, who appointed Lai to the transit board, were present at the campaign kickoff.

“We need to focus on issues, not political teams,” Lai said by way of addressing their absence. “If I have to pick a side, I’m on the side of San Francisco.”

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Parking, driving and public transit will be affected in  Downtown, Civic Center, the Financial District and South of Market neighborhoods on Saturday for the 30th annual Pistahan Parade.

READ MORE: San Francisco’s Filipino Cultural District Eyes the Dying Westfield Mall

The parade starts at 11 a.m. in Civic Center Plaza and ends at Yerba Buena Gardens, where the annual Pistahan Festival will be celebrated on both Saturday and Sunday.

As a result, streets will be closed and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency will reroute service in the area, altering 16 Muni streetcar and bus lines and moving over 100 stops.

The 2023 Pistahan Parade route. | Courtesy SFMTA

Street Closures

These streets will be closed from 7 to 11:45 a.m.

• McAllister Street, between Larkin and Hyde streets
• Fulton Street, between Larkin and Hyde streets
• Grove Street, between Larkin and Hyde streets

These streets will be closed from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

• Market Street, between Hyde and Fourth streets
• Fourth Street, between Market and Howard streets

Muni Service Changes

Most Muni lines along the parade route will be diverted to Mission Street and others will switchback—changing from inbound to outbound—before arriving at Market Street.

The following 16 lines will run altered routes:

Delays are expected on the 12 Folsom, 14 Mission and 14R Mission Rapid lines as the parade reaches Yerba Buena Gardens.

See a complete list of route changes and alternate stop locations on the SFMTA’s website.

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Considering that each procession was attended by pallbearers carrying flower-strewn coffins, the public transit funeral marches held in San Francisco and Oakland on Saturday had a decidedly celebratory atmosphere.

A brass quartet belted out “Amazing Grace” on Market Street. Oakland protesters energetically shouted “Gavin Newsom!” and responded. “Finance the bus!” The march in San Francisco was led by a man wearing a black suit and a long top hat.

“The call went out that we needed a little street theater and I said ‘sure,'” said Josh Kelly of San Francisco, who describes himself as a “safe roads and transit justice organizer” since my kids are small and I participate she had to go to school via Geary (boulevard).”

What drew Kelly, wearing the top hat, and more than 200 public transit advocates to rallies on both sides of the bay was a desire to increase Sacramento’s chances of receiving a $5 billion grant in the upcoming federal budget for local public transport. That money, spread over five years, would help cover operating deficits for systems like BART, Muni and AC Transit.

Public transit advocates march near City Hall during a fake funeral for public transit in San Francisco on Saturday, June 3, 2023. Video: Benjamin Fanjoy special on The Chronicle

Without them, operators and advocates warn, systems will have to cancel some routes and cut service on others – undermining progress in increasing ridership on buses and trains that have been paralyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The state budget for 2023-2024 must be approved this month. Governor Gavin Newsom does not include a public transportation bailout in his proposed budget, citing the need to close a government funding gap estimated at $31 billion.

This short-term step would have long-term effects, speakers warned on Saturday.

“It’s so much easier to keep what we have than to restore it later,” said Jaime Viloria, a Tenderloin resident who was a speaker at the rally at Civic Center Plaza that followed the march down Market Street introduced. “We need the bridge funding” to maintain current service levels until a long-term solution is found, such as a regional transit tax.

A pro-transit group marches on Market Street in San Francisco for a rally and simulated pro-transit funeral procession.

Benjamin Fanjoy/The Chronicle Special

The idea of ​​a mock burial came up last week and gives the individual marches an adrenaline rush. In San Francisco, for example, there were calls for volunteer pallbearers before a crowd of about 125 people made their way from United Nations Plaza, with Kelly impromptu preaching a sermon of supposed commemoration.

“The cause of death is neglect,” he stressed. “The cause of death is abandonment. … Gov. Gavin Newsom is ready to pull the plug.”

The closest a Newsom defense attorney came to was state senator Scott Wiener, who helped drive the push for a virtual five-year extension of state transit subsidies, an early response to the pandemic.

“There’s a lot of good in the governor’s budget — it preserves so much of the safety net,” Wiener told the crowd, which had grown to around 200 at the time of the rally outside City Hall. “But in this area the budget is simply not enough.”

Brandon Yung helps carry a model AC Transit bus and replica coffin at the Transit rally in downtown San Francisco on Saturday.

Benjamin Fanjoy/The Chronicle Special

Speakers emphasized the role of transit in reducing carbon emissions and its importance for marginalized groups in society, such as low-income, elderly or disabled residents. Frustration over conditions with systems like BART has been little spoken of – a factor cited by former and current drivers in a recent survey.

“It’s hard to imagine San Francisco and the Bay Area without excellent public transportation,” Wiener said. “We should never take it for granted.”

At the same time, Wiener said that talks with other lawmakers combined with pressure from public transport fans could create an opportunity for some sort of subsidy in the upcoming budget: “I’m more optimistic than ever that we’ll get this resolved,” so additional cuts are not necessary.

In Oakland, speakers were AC Transit Directors Jean Walsh and Jovanka Beckles, and BART Director Lateefah Simon. Public transport advocates taking the mic at the San Francisco rally included Mayor London Breed and supervisors Rafael Mandelman and Dean Preston.

A group carries a model Caltrain car during a mock funeral procession in San Francisco, a rally for public transit funding. Proponents called for more funding to be allocated to the state’s public transit companies.

Benjamin Fanjoy/The Chronicle Special

“These are a merry bunch for a funeral procession,” Preston remarked at the beginning of his speech.

The idea of ​​mock catulls for a mock funeral “came naturally out of the idea of ​​a (financial) death spiral,” said Lian Chang, board member of Walk San Francisco. She also collected the playful protest art during three hectic nights with friends at her Richmond District apartment.

However ad hoc the result, “I’m glad we made it,” Chang said. “I’m not happy with the circumstances, but it was a way to draw attention to the seriousness of the (possible) cuts if no solution is found over the next few days.”

Reach John King: jking@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @johnkingsfchron

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Note: GJEL Accident Attorneys regularly sponsors coverage on Streetsblog San Francisco and Streetsblog California. Unless otherwise noted in the story, GJEL Accident Attorneys is not consulted for the content or editorial alignment of the Sponsored Content.

Advocates held mock funerals Saturday in Oakland and San Francisco for BART, Muni, AC Transit and other agencies that may be forced to make significant benefit cuts because of ongoing Sacramento budget negotiations. From reporting in SFGate:

BART issued a statement last week outlining what those cuts would look like if the agency “fell off the tax cliff” without government funding for transit operations: Trains would only run once an hour and never after 9 p.m. there would be no weekend service and some stations and entire lines would be closed entirely. SFMTA said in a similar statement that without the necessary funding, Muni service would have to be scaled back to where it was at the height of the pandemic — meaning 40 percent fewer Muni routes and no service after 10 p.m

Another picture of the mock funeral from KidSafeSF Twitter

All interest groups, big and small, in the Bay Area participated and are working to put pressure on Gov. Newsom and the legislature.

Together, @SFBART and @SFMTA_MUNI are the fourth largest transit agency in the country, but these two systems are planning devastating service cuts as early as next year. pic.twitter.com/3J3OWzgbDQ

— SPUR (@SPUR_Urbanist) June 1, 2023

The rally managed to draw media attention to the issue (see SFStandard, SFChronicle, NBCBayArea, theFrisk, CBS for more information). Proponents again urge members to keep up the pressure. From Streetsblog ally Friends of Caltrain:

Can you call the governor and lawmakers NOW to save mass transit? We need to cut their phone lines during the negotiations. Noon or anytime during business hours is good.

State leaders are currently negotiating possible funding, but the proposed budget bills on the table do not yet provide enough funds to prevent larger cuts.

Hundreds of people took part in rallies over the weekend, which drew widespread media attention. Now decision makers need to hear directly from Californians.

So far, the main funding on the table would cannibalize funding for large capital projects — meaning forgoing over $6 billion in federal funding — or leave the Bay Area with a life-size railroad museum — large train stations with no rail service.

Negotiations are in the hands of the state’s leaders – Governor Newsom, Budget Chairs Ting and Skinner, Senate Speaker Pro Tem Atkins and House Speaker Rendon. The new parliamentary speaker, Rivas, is waiting in the wings.

Caltrain, BART, SFMTA and AC Transit face potentially catastrophic service cuts if the transit fiscal cliff isn’t averted.

Here’s how you can help now, ahead of the June 15 budget deadline:

* Make brief phone calls to Governor Newsom and senior negotiators during business hours. We need to burn down their phone lines.

* Send a letter to the state’s leaders telling them that we cannot sustain the state’s economy and meet our climate goals if public transportation collapses

* Sign up to volunteer to distribute flyers on trains, buses and ferries

Lawmakers are negotiating accountability measures to ensure agencies are committed to improving service, increasing ridership and long-term financial sustainability. But these improvements won’t happen unless we stave off the fiscal cliff – your help is important.

Streetsblog can only confirm this message! Be sure to make your voice heard in Sacramento.

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Public transit advocates rallied in San Francisco Saturday to support Bay Area public transit with a different kind of march: a mock funeral and rally.

The crowd lamented the potential loss of public transport and the impact on the local economy if the state didn’t provide urgent funds, they said.

“Without this bridging funding, just to get through the difficult period when ridership has not yet returned, agencies will have to stop their services,” said Lian Chang, a public transport advocate.

The group marched, stating that transit companies have kept essential workers moving during the pandemic, but federal aid is running out and they want the state to step in.

“So we need a little more funding, firstly to continue the recovery and secondly to get to where we can adopt a regional measure, a local measure, to keep the bus running, to keep the train running,” he said Cyrus, supporter of public transport hall.

As the rally grew, so did the crowd near San Francisco City Hall.

State Senator Scott Wiener addressed the crowd.

“We know how to solve this. “We need about $1 billion a year for five years, which is totally doable in the state budget, and we’re going to keep fighting over the last week to make that happen,” he said.

Wiener shared his perspective on what is happening in Sacramento.

“I am now more optimistic than ever that we will solve the problem,” he said. “Both houses of the legislature have said they want to resolve the issue and we now need to work it out with the governor.”

Advocates said they would continue to advocate for those who rely most on public transport.

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