Pierce Transit, to observe their 30th anniversary of emerging from Tacoma Transit, is launching a PT Tomorrow campaign, which is being billed as a potential total redesign of the route system.
There are basically no details about what kind of changes, but that may be because the first step is to gather public comment about the current system and what’s missing from it. A series of public meetings will run from October 6 to November 12, where PT invites you to comment on the following:
- Prioritizing service. The economic recession has shown us that we can’t always have everything.
- Where you’d like to see improvements and least like to see reductions. Destinations? Time of day? Frequency? This is your opportunity.
- Regional connections. Travel beyond Pierce County is important to a growing number of transit riders.
Of course, you can also comment electronically. This input will lead to a plan in April 2010.
Pierce Transit is in an unusually good position, given that their sales tax is only at 0.6%. That means a 50% tax revenue increase is available given local political will.
One thing that Pierce Transit needs to stay away from is the interlining of their busiest routes. The have already done this for Rts 1, 2, and 3. Interlining saves money and layover space, but at a price. It can lead to unrealistic schedules and unreliable service. And operators end up driving long routes with little recovery. Metro is trying to get away from that, like the 7/49 and 43/44 break up. Anyone who lives in West Seattle can tell you that interlining sucks when you’ve been waiting for a 54 that was bogged down in traffic on the other side of the city.
The solution is improving speed and reliability. Breaking up interlines is like treating cancer with advil; the underlining problem (in this case unreliability) goes untreated while the pain (increasing costs and diminishing ridership) proves relentless. I give credit to the proprietors of this blog who emphasize exclusivity and priority as essential to rapid transit. Or even good bus transit.
Given my experience on these three routes, the 1 is the worst. It needs to be broken up into the N/S section and the E/W section along Sixth. It may be advil but it would help. Pacific Ave can get really bad in traffic. I have seen a Rt.1 bus pass the Rt.1 bus I was riding. The Section that heads south would also benefit, in my opinion, with some articulated buses. They are running at ten minute headways and a lot of times are packed to the gills.
It used to be, the 25 6th Ave and 46 Pacific St.
I was once talking with an operator about that. I knew it used to be two routes but I could not remember the numbers. It should be that way again.