King County Metro is starting the process of planning South End service around Link ahead of whe n Light Rail opens to the airport. Sound Transit and King County Metro are looking for meeting members to help plan the process. I know Sims was talking about using McCellan/Mt Baker station as a transit hub for buses through that area, and I would bet that something similar is being planned for Tukwila.
The requirements for members:
The agencies are looking for sounding board members who:
- Ride the bus frequently;
- Live or work in an area that will be served by light rail; or
- Would like to represent a specific community, ethnic group, or set of special-interest bus riders – such as students, night-shift workers, and people who are elderly or have disabilities.
Should be good. If you live in the Rainer Valley, Tukwila or Beacon Hill and ride the bus often, I’m sure they’d love to have you.
It seems like they could improve service by not taking all buses all the way downtown, to just have them stop at the Rainer & MLK station and have them drop the passengers off.
Better policy is to not force riders to transfer to the train, but rather to just make it convenient for them to do so. Let folks vote with their feet, so to speak. Bi-State Transit did this in St. Louis; they left the “competing” bus service in place. Turned out that nearly everyone transferred to the train for the final leg into downtown. Transit agency came back later and truncated the bus routes at issue, with no negative feedback. Much better PR this way.
I just hope they make the two fare systems compatible, and that a Metro card can be used on light rail, or that light rail will accept transfers. It would suck to pay a bus fare to get to the train, and then have to pay another fare on the train to downtown. I don’t want my daily commute costs doubled AND slowed by an added, unnecessary transfer.