"B" Shuttle Would Serve New A's Park

A new free shuttle serving downtown Oakland has started running on Broadway Street, going from Jack London Square to Uptown.

Any of the shuttle's Jack London Square stops are just a handful of blocks from the new waterfront ballpark sites identified by Oakland officials. And you can be sure that the free shuttle will expand to include a ballpark stop as soon as the A's choose one of the sites.

When a new A's ballpark is built on the waterfront, the shuttle will be yet another form of public transit that will ease stadium access for A's fans. The Oakland waterfront sites — especially Victory Court, located just south of Jack London Square — already are served by Lake Merritt BART, a ferry boat pier, an Amtrak station where Capitol Corridor and ACE commuter trains stop, and two freeways.

Until then, the free Broadway Shuttle — already nicknamed "The B" — arrives at each stop every 10 to 15 minutes, and it runs from 7 A.M. to 7 P.M. on weekdays. The shuttle also will make stops in or near Chinatown, the City Center, the Kaiser Center, Old Oakland and Lake Merritt. The eastern-most stop is at Grand Avenue and Webster Street, where Uptown meets Auto Row. The western-most stop is on Embarcadero West, between Broadway and Franklin streets, at Jack London Square. Late-night and weekend service probably will be added soon to serve Oakland's burgeoning nightlife and restaurant scene.

Using clean diesel fuel, "The B" will be an environmental hit by removing 350 cars from downtown Oakland each day, and by removing five tons of greenhouse gases per year.

In other words, the bus shuttle could be a future green option for the Green-and-Gold.