The National Park Service and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency are teaming up to expand public transit access to the Marin Headlands in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
San Francisco Muni has expanded its Route 76 bus route to the weekend, adding Marin Headlands bus access to Saturdays and Sundays. The bus is named the 76X Marin Headlands Express.
Route 76X provides bus service for park visitors and employees from the
Montgomery BART Station in San Francisco, with limited stops in the city,
to the beach, hiking trails, Fort Barry Hostel, and the Marine Mammal
Center in the Marin Headlands.
The expanded service is a pilot project for the next two years to allow Muni to test the effectiveness of service changes to address travel time and reliability, and test ridership demand for expanded service to Marin on weekends. As part of the pilot, SFMTA staff will collect data about the route's reliability, ridership, and customer satisfaction to assess benefits of the change.
“This is an exciting advancement for our commitment to reducing the carbon impact of these parks on the Bay Area, and our dedication to serving the public,” Superintendent Frank Dean said in a statement. “We want people to have the opportunity to get to these amazing parklands and enjoy themselves, and this increased schedule allows for people to really take advantage of being so close by while making it even more affordable.”
The weekend pilot includes more limited stop spacing in the city than Route 76 had, and discontinues the portion of the route south of Market Street to Caltrain to address reliability issues.
Route 76 service first began in 1976, and is designed to offer a way for
people to reach the Marin Headlands without the use of private vehicles. In addition to weekend service, Route 76X will continue to offer holiday
service on Jan. 1, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and
Christmas. The fare for using this bus service is the standard $2 per adult
each way; all special fare rules pertain to this route.
Visit Muni's website for more info on Route 76X, as well as a full schedule.
