As Pierce Transit is considering deep service cuts, some cities have begun to rebel saying that if cuts are made then their taxes will be used to fund little or no local bus service. The Tacoma News Tribute reports that five cities are looking are leaving Piece Transit.
Representatives from Bonney Lake, Buckley, Orting, Steilacoom and DuPont met last week to discuss the possibility of “de-annexing” from Pierce Transit.
So far the group is just researching its options, officials said. But they agree their residents shouldn’t pay for service they don’t receive.
Tacoma Tomorrow has two excellent posts covering the issue in detail. First, Chris Karnes has a post covering the amount of revenue from the various cities that goes to Pierce Transit. The five suburbs raised about $3.1 million in 2009. The second post, by Evan Siroky, covers the effects of upcoming service cuts on the individual cities which certainly belies this action. All of the cities would have reduced service in the future, except Orting, which has no service at all right now.
According to the TNT article, the cities don’t yet know of a legal solution to actually leave Pierce Transit, so it’s likely this story is being floated to implore the agency to target its cuts toward other cities and carve out service for the suburbs in question. As we’ve noted in the past, Pierce Transit only levies a 0.6% sales tax, with the state maximum being 0.9%. Both Community Transit and King County Metro levy the full 0.9%, so Piece Transit has some capacity to raise additional revenue. However, even a plan from Pierce Transit assuming new funding would cut service for these suburbs.
One note: the cuts in local bus service could be a pain for these municipalities, but a county-wide bus system is primarily in existence to reduce congestion and increase mobility — on a limited budget — for a county as a whole, and local interests may sometimes conflict with that mission.
Taxation without representation – or something similiar to that.
I can understand how frustrating it is for small cities to cope with transit needs, but a fragmented, gerrymandered Pierce Transit does little good for the cities or Pierce Co. as a whole. It just makes regional service less efficient, and probably uncoordinated, plus several million for local bus routes doesn’t get you very much these days.
I think it would take a revision to RCW’s to amend how the Metropolitan Transit Benefit Districts work, and that’s a pandoras box, when opened. I think Everett/CT were grandfathered in, as a special case, but haven’t checked it out recently. Politically, it’s not good for PT to have a divided house – especially come vote time to increase from 6/10’s, as it seems likely to try for come the next major election cycle.
Looks like the existing service is mostly commuter routes headed into Tacoma, which makes me think that the result of de-annexation would be an increase in peak time traffic.
Not sure how you conclude this, but none of the routes going through each of the possible seceder cities enter Tacoma. See my post here.
After the proposed service cuts, how much congestion relief will PT really be providing in these cities?
There’s service to Orting (though extremely limited and can’t be used for regular job access): The Orting Loop runs Tuesdays and Thursdays every 120 minutes and on Saturdays by request only.
It replaced the old 403 (which had real service, but was very underused)
It’s always interesting for me to learn about these old routes. Where exactly did the 403 go?
From the Wayback Machine: http://web.archive.org/web/19990219111812/www.piercetransit.org/imagemap/403/403.htm (granted, the route map is no longer available)
Going Wayback to Feb 1999
Nice Work and thanks for this resource!
As I thought, it turns out that the service was only from South Hill Mall to Orting and only 5 buses a day. When PT has these routes that only go so far that ultimately require two transfers to get to Tacoma or other regional centers, what more can be expected besides small ridership?
The difference between the 403 and the Orting Loop is that the 403 ran every weekday (at regular bus fare), but the Loop only runs 3 days a week (but it’s free). Also, the Loop does run a bit later, but doesn’t have an exact timetable
ah well, can’t have it all. Then again, considering how early the 403 did stop running, good luck getting off of work at South Hill Mall (or Downtown Tacoma) at 6-7.
Origonally the 403 started at the old Puyallup Transit Center i want to say in 93 or 96 so and made about 4 Round Trips to orting a day. in 1999 when the South Hill Mall TC opened, its terminal was moved up there.
http://web.archive.org/web/19970130082156/www.ptbus.pierce.wa.us/imagemap/403/403.htm
It was never a high performer. It was one of the post I-695 cuts replaced by the loop service a couple of years later (yes orting payed into the PTBA and recived no service, however they also pay into the RTA (Sound Transit) as well and have no direct service from them either).
With the Sounder Connectors the corridor would be great for such a route however there are no suitable P&R facilitys available, and well money to operate the service.
As for cities taking on the public transportation on their own, good luck! First the PTBA rules need changed, than once you really get into it your 2 million wont buy you much, Mabye 50 hours of service a day (of which you would have to consider ADA paratransit requirements which could chew up to 50% of those hours). That dosent even include capital and overhead such as vehicles, ORCA, Administrative, and Maintenace staff. Those capital costs will be there regardless of whom operates the service and will have to be paid for somehow.
Take a glance at the Sound Transit service area. http://www.soundtransit.org/Documents/pdf/about/STDistrictMap07_10.pdf
Pierce County includes a lot more of its rural portion than Snohomish County does. The Pierce County portion of the Sound Transit taxing district narrowly voted against ST2.
There are both goods and bads here if these towns leave the PT taxing district.
It appears that Gig Harbor is in the PT district, but not the ST district. And yet, Gig Harbor is still served by ST 595. How did that happen?
Like it says on the ST Map: “The 595 is outside the district and is funded by PT”. I’m not sure how the actual arrangement works
So, did the cities ever vote to be part of PT? Does anyone know the history; was it part of Tacoma city bus service that expanded ala KC Metro?
Bernie, yes Pierce Transit was originally the municipal transit department of the City of Tacoma. Voters created a PTBA which absorbed Tacoma Transit. The boundaries were agreed to by the organizing body required under the PTBA law.
A couple of points about this discussion among the cities. I was struck by the comment of Steilacoom Mayor Ron Lucas who actually advocated for REDUCED service to Tacoma in favor of the Bonney Lakes of the world. That, I suspect, is one the agendas here. If they can carve out some service from Tacoma for their communities, these generally conservative mayors will then argue there is no need for the sales tax increase.
If Pierce Transit places the sales tax increase on the ballot, its best chance for passage is with the voters of Tacoma. Cutting service in the city is NOT the way to assure those votes.
Those of you who have commented on the ST2 vote in Pierce County need to look at it more closely. The vote in favor of ST2 in Tacoma was strongly supportive, the vote in the sprawling mess that is east Pierce County was strongly opposed. I don’t want to decide transit routes based on who is willing to pay and who is not, but that point needs to be part of the equation. This is a political process after all.
I’ve always wondered about the mentality of East Pierce County in terms of what they want with transportation. There used to be the 582, 585 and recently the 564 ST bus routes. These were the only routes serving East Pierce County whereas now the only ST route near East Pierce County is the 578. The ST District stretches all the way to what I believe is the southern UGB of 224th, yet the closest service is miles and miles away. Is it really that the people in this area are conservative or do they just not like Sound Transit because the service provided isn’t helpful for them?
There were proposals early on in ST (1998 or so) for Route “R” a South Hill to DuPont Express. either via the Cross-Base Hwy, or 512. None of the options ever made it to implementation.
Its my opinion that Pierce County’s overall transportation problems relate to the fact that its a giant bedroom community for Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, and Olympia. One only has to look at the congestion on I5, and highway 167 to confirm this. It makes for a difficult area to serve, as with Southern King County you need to have base service going into the major cities for those whom rely on public transportation, but you also need an overlay for those whom commute out of the county, complete with express buses, and Sounder feeder services. All of which are expensive propositions. Park and ride’s would have to be constructed, express bus service is more or less peak-direction, and in order to be of any use cannot make many stops which means you have a high cost to operate with deadheads. I think just about everyone wants more sounder service, and even Sounder to the eastside to relieve pressure on 405 and 167. I’m sure you’d fill every seat you put on a line to Bellevue and Redmond within the first few weeks of operation.
A combination of these services, with ample time to grow them is probally what is best for the area. Local service on major streets, with Regional service running 7 days a week (I.E. Seattle, Bellevue, and Olympia) with added Peak hour/direction service. Add in Sounder feeders for Puyallup and Sumner mabye with better connections to N. Hill, Orting, More of S. Hill and B. Lake. But of course they are expensive to operate since you cannot loop the vehciles back in a timely fashion to meet the trains from some of these destinations.