In the Community
In The Community
Tour with Elizabeth Fox from the Office of Representative Swalwell
In August of 2017, AC Transit welcomed Lizzy Fox, Legislative Assistant to Congressmember Eric Swalwell, to tour the Training and Education Center and Division 6 in Hayward. Within our service area, Congressmember Swalwell represents the communities of Ashland, Castro Valley, Cherryland, Fremont, Hayward, San Leandro, and San Lorenzo. Beverly Greene and Estee Sepulveda kicked off the tour with an overview of AC Transit highlighting information on ridership, service, bus fleet, and facilities. They presented the Economic Impact Map, which shows where AC Transit buses and their major components are manufactured by state. This demonstrates that public transit not only relieves congestion and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, but contributes to the economy by sustaining local and national manufacturing jobs. They also presented the 2017 Report to Congress and discussed the District’s progress on the East Bay Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), which received a Small Starts Grant from the Federal Transit Administration.
This was followed by a presentation and tour of the TEC by Michael Flocchini and Ron Lee. Lizzy was able to explore the training maintenance shop and start an engine! We then boarded a Flex bus to take the delegation to Division 6. Staff took the opportunity to discuss the Flex pilot programs. We drove through the fuel island were Sal Llamas discussed the maintenance process when a bus returns to the yard. The delegation then walked through the first floor of maintenance and over to the solar panels, which were installed through a federal grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. We ended with Derik Calhoun and Dwaine Crawley giving a tour of the transportation offices and gillie room. They discussed the day to day activities of our bus operators and what it takes to keep the East Bay moving! We appreciate Congressmember Swalwell’s continued support and look forward to working with Lizzy on federal issues affecting AC Transit.