AC Transit

The Community Says NO to Fare Hikes

admin — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:17:12 -0500

AC Transit Board Can Be Persuaded – Final Vote on June 11

On Wednesday May 21^st, about 100 bus riders, community and labor groups and elected officials gathered outside of an AC Transit Board Hearing at Oakland’s City Hall to prevent proposed FARE HIKES. They then proceeded to testify at a packed, 3-hour hearing before AC Transit’s Board (longer description follows).

Thwarting Buy American Laws to Buy Belgian

Editor2 — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:50:49 -0600

By Robert Gammon

AC Transit had to subvert the intent of federal law to buy its Belgian buses.

Belgium or Bust

Editor2 — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:49:06 -0600

By Robert Gammon

As AC Transit's service and finances took a wrong turn, its employees made more than 100 trips to Europe — possibly for nothing.

The Belgian Connection: Second of Two Parts

Shortly after Rick Fernandez took over as the general manager of AC Transit, the agency's board of directors awarded him the authority to approve employee travel. Sixteen months later, in April 2001, Fernandez and four of his staffers took an all-expense-paid trip to Europe that included a visit to the headquarters of the Van Hool bus company near Antwerp, Belgium. The excursion cost taxpayers $20,133 — and it was just the beginning.

In the years since, travel records show, AC Transit employees have jetted to Western Europe on more than one hundred separate occasions. The vast majority of these junkets were to Belgium, at a total cost to taxpayers of nearly $1 million. The cash-strapped agency has even paid for an Oakland bus inspector to live near Antwerp for more than five years, at a cost in excess of $500,000, not including his salary.

The Buses From Hell

Editor2 — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:45:52 -0600

By Robert Gammon

After AC Transit purchased costly foreign buses that drivers hate and many riders fear, its service and finances took a wrong turn.