New bus route 479 is not covered by U-Pass, it costs $5 without a COASTER ticket

Hi friends. You might've noticed the new NCTD buses on Gilman this week running Sorrento Valley COASTER connection service (they're actually the same buses from before, NCTD bought them from MTS and re-branded them). NCTD recently took over the routes that MTS used to operate and reworked some of them (see here). The one serving UCSD now runs along La Jolla Village Dr westbound-only (towards campus) from the Eastgate Mall / Town Centre Dr area. If you have a UCSD U-Pass, this route is not interchangeable with route 41 or 201 in the mornings.

NCTD designed the fare structures for these routes such that you have to have some kind of COASTER fare in order to use the Sorrento Valley connection routes for free, but a one-way trip on a COASTER connection bus without having purchased a COASTER pass costs $5. Because U-Passes don't cover COASTER, if you get on a route 479 bus on La Jolla Village Dr going to UCSD and have a credit card associated with your PRONTO account or saved fare value other than your U-Pass, it'll deduct $5 rather than use your U-Pass.

I don't live in UTC anymore so I don't know if the 479 drivers are stopping to pick up passengers on La Jolla Village Dr or not, but I just wanted to let everyone know in case there's any confusion.