Evaluating the Success of SamTrans’ Route FCX: A Commuter Express Route between Foster City and San Francisco

This study provides the first comprehensive performance analysis of FCX by evaluating performance metrics and standards according to SamTrans’ Service Plan of 2013 and SamTrans’ Express Bus Feasibility Study of 2018, as well as analyzing service quality from a passenger perspective. The SamTrans Operations Planning department provided data for the following metrics: ridership, boardings per vehicle revenue hour, farebox recovery, cost per passenger, and subsidy per boarding. Once the appropriate metrics and standards were set by SamTrans, they were compared against the actual data for the period of August 2019 to February 2020, FCX’s first seven months of operation. To determine service quality from a passenger perspective, this study used public responses gathered from the FCX Rider Survey conducted by the SamTrans Marketing Department from September through December 2019.