Ashley Swearengin showed up a couple of minutes early at the Manchester FAX station and handed me a copy of her plan to improve mass transit in Fresno.

She was there because two months ago I publicly asked the mayoral finalists to ride a bus with me and pitch their ideas for upgrading service.

Henry T. Perea answered the challenge first, but I had to postpone our ride because of a family illness. Frankly, Perea's eagerness didn't surprise me. During the primary, he promised to expand bus routes into all neighborhoods and implement much-talked-about-but-yet-unseen Bus Rapid Transit, or BRT.

I had other reasons for asking the candidates to take the bus -- seeing how they handled themselves in a truly public setting and whether they've actually ridden FAX in the past 10 years.

Trust me, it's easy to detect someone faking FAX familiarity. A dead giveaway: "You mean I have to change buses when I get downtown?"

Swearengin passed the test, smartly bringing dollar bills for her fares and mingling comfortably with the riders. In retrospect, I shouldn't have been surprised at how well she hung out with regular people. Her husband, Paul, makes his living yakking about sports on the radio, for heaven's sakes.

We rode south on Blackstone Avenue to the Courthouse Park station, transferred to a bus taking us to southeast Fresno and then boarded another bus for our return to Manchester. We were accompanied by Ken Hamm, the city's transportation director, at Swearengin's invitation.

Living up to her reputation as a go-getting multitasker, Swearengin used the down time between my questions to ask Hamm about BRT, which dedicates express buses on high-traffic routes. She also asked about something called Personal Rapid Transit -- futuristic pod cars on guideways running every 30 seconds or so in a concentrated area.

Hamm was quite helpful -- you would've been, too, knowing that in a few months Swearengin might be the mayor.

Swearengin said that she has been riding the bus lately to check out the service, so I asked her to grade FAX.

"I've had a solid B experience for what I've needed," said the Regional Jobs Initiative director and mother of two young children. "The buses are on time, they're air-conditioned and the drivers are courteous, helpful even.

"But for anyone wanting to go from a two-car to a one-car family, I'd say it's a C-minus, maybe even a D."

The hang-up is that the buses aren't convenient enough for folks to park their cars. And that's a problem in Fresno, which has some of the nation's most unhealthy air.

So, what's Swearengin's plan to beef up FAX?

For starters, she wants buses on existing routes to be on time, clean and safe. She would like increased service into neighborhoods where people depend on the bus and more express service to the colleges, regional malls and downtown. She said that bus drivers and riders deserve a bigger voice in route selection "because they are the ones in the buses every day."

Swearengin is on the BRT bandwagon, calling for the first routes -- Kings Canyon Boulevard and Blackstone Avenue -- to be running in two years. Such a system would cut commute times on those routes nearly in half and double ridership, according to FAX officials. Swearengin also said that building BRT ridership "will pave the way for light rail in Fresno."

In fact, Swearengin talked at length about light rail, saying that it or something similar must be part of a "bold, long-range transit plan" and that the Planning Department must preserve light-rail right-of-way.

Now, the big question: How would she pay for this new and improved transit system? Promising is easy, delivering is difficult.

Swearengin said she would pursue state and federal dollars to supplement Measure C, the county's transportation sales tax. The key, she said, is coming up with a "compelling plan" that attracts new funding.

Taking a poke at Perea, the City Council member, Swearengin said: "This is something that I have experience at. It's a job for an executive leader. People who approach it in a political way aren't going to be as effective."

Because I love a good scrap as much as an on-time bus, I can't wait to hear what Perea says about mass transit -- and Swearengin.

The columnist can be reached at bmcewen@fresno bee.com or (559) 441-6632. Check out his new blog at fresnobeehive.com/news.

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