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The story
Golden Gate Transit service began on January 1, 1972, as the culmination of years of work for the Golden Gate Bridge to alleviate traffic congestion, reduce pollution, and take over unprofitable commuter bus service operated by Greyhound. GGT had previously began operating local bus service in Marin County under contract with Marin Transit beginning December 15, 1971. Initial service ran on two corridors in San Francisco: Civic Center routes on Van Ness Avenue and the McAllister/Golden Gate one way pair, and Financial District routes on North Point Street and the Battery/Sansome pair.
The system initially operated with 152 buses, including 20 leased buses, out of garages in Novato and Santa Rosa and a temporary facility in San Rafael. A permanent garage opened in San Rafael in 1974, and the facility was expanded in 1987 to house additional administrative staff. Transbay commuter bus service was reduced in 1987 as a result of declining ridership associated with a shift in jobs from San Francisco to Bay Area suburbs. However, that increase in the number of suburban jobs led to the initiation of commuter bus service from Sonoma County to Marin County employment centers in 1990.
In 1992, the District opened the San Rafael Transit Center. The transit station was designed as the hub in a hub-and-spoke local bus system and immediately became GGT's busiest transit station. In 1993, acting on behalf of MTC, GGT began operating service between Marin and Contra Costa counties via the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge. That same year, the district initiated inter-county paratransit service, as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act, through an agreement with Marin County and its paratransit contractor, Whistlestop Wheels.
Significant service reductions were implemented in 2003 as a result of a declared fiscal emergency. As a result of the restructuring, all GGT service to the Sonoma Valley and Sebastopol was eliminated. Ferry Feeder bus routes to the ferry terminals in Larkspur and Sausalito were also discontinued. This fiscal emergency helped spur the passage of Measure A by Marin County voters in 2004. The sales tax measure established a new funding source for Marin Transit and was a catalyst for changes to the contract the District had with Marin Transit. Marin Transit assumed control over local bus service planning, and it began transitioning some service to private contractors.
On June 15, 2009, Golden Gate Transit began operating Route 101, which provides all-day service between Santa Rosa and San Francisco with fewer stops, similar to many bus rapid transit "light" systems that rely on stop spacing changes rather than capital improvements to speed up buses. Introduced initially as a weekday-only route, service was expanded to Saturdays in June 2010 and to Sundays and holidays in September 2011.
On December 13, 2015, service to Contra Costa County on Route 42 was merged with Route 40. The next day, service began on Route 580, which was the District's first transit line into nearby Alameda County. The latter experiment failed and Route 580 was discontinued in September 2016, however the numeric designation was revived when Route 40 was renumbered to Route 580 in December 2021. GGT buses returned to Alameda County in February 2019 to provide Early Bird Express bus service under contract with BART, which was discontinued in January 2024.
As a result of declining ridership due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting loss in operating revenue, including a reduction in Golden Gate Bridge tolls, bus service was dramatically reduced throughout 2020. GGT had 27 routes at the beginning of the pandemic and just seven routes by December 2020. In March 2022, Route 4 was revived as Route 114. Limited additional service was restored in January 2024 with the addition of Routes 164 and 172X and April 2024 with the addition of Route 580X.
From Wikipedia’s article on Golden Gate Transit, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4