Good afternoon, Sound Transit is hosting a public hearing this afternoon regarding the proposed service changes in the 2011 Service Implementation Plan (SIP) [Update: this is actually a joint hearing for the budget and the SIP]. Turnout is relatively light, without about 20 or so in attendance. This is a live-blog so please refresh for ongoing updates.
12:01pm: Fred Butler opens the public hearing and goes through public comment rules. Butler quickly reviews the scope of the changes in the SIP.
12:02pm: Mike Bergman, ST service planning lead, introduces the highlights of the Draft SIP.
12:03pm: Bergman goes through the proposed changes route by route. He starts with Snohomish County. You can view all the revisions online at ST’s website.
12:08pm: One of the highlights of deleting mid-day service on the 540 (Kirkland-U-District) is the availability for people to use the 255 and transfer at the Montlake Freeway Station.
12:10pm: Original proposed revisions for 545 will not take place after all, due to public input.
12:11pm: 560 to SeaTac/West-Seattle will be truncated at Burien at times outside weekday peak periods.
12:14pm: Route 566’s original proposed extension to Redmond will be deferred.
More below the jump.
12:15pm: Bergman goes over the addition of the new Tacoma Link stop. Headways would actually increase from 10 min to 12 min, and 20 min to 24 min.
12:17pm: Mike Bergman concludes his presentation and returns to the mic to Fred Butler, who reviews the current budget situation.
12:18pm: Joni Earl presents a quick overview of the budget: the early $3.1B shortfall, and the actual $3.9B hole that was discovered later.
12:22pm: Fred Butler notes that December 16, 2010 will be the date for finalizing the budget.
12:23pm: Public comments are now underway. Butler quickly goes over the rules for testifying. Before opening to communications, Dave Enslow asks a question to clarify the difference between service alignments and cutting projects in the project.
Earl says that the Board cannot cut projects from ST2 plan without going through a lengthy process. Nothing in board’s actions will eliminate anything from ST2 Plan. The program alignment plan is a mere financing strategy.
12:25pm: Thomas Payne, a chief of GNP Railway, is first to testify. He talks about GNP’s intent to reactivate freight along the Eastside corridor.
12:28pm: Payne testifies about the benefits of Eastside rail and how there are TOD opportunities along the corridor.
12:28pm: Doug Engle, CFO of GNP Railway, echoes Payne’s remarks and testifies that ST advocacy groups have “stonewalled us” in regards to transit options along the Eastside corridor.
12:31pm: Engle refers to the $50 million contribution from ST if a private-public partnership was formed and is frustrated that ST has seemingly reneged on that.
12:32pm: A representative from SeaTac testifies regarding the need for a South Corridor work plan. It looks like a lot of commenters are not here for the SIP revisions.
12:34pm: Paul Locke, who frequents ST board meetings as a critic, testifies about getting ST’s cost down. He argues that labor is too expensive.
12:35pm: Locke says that operating costs need to go down and ST should thinking about contracting out operations, potentially to private operators.
12:37pm: Pete Lewis, Mayor of Auburn, testifies about Auburn’s ongoing 15-year conversations about parking at P&Rs.
12:38pm: Lewis says that the Auburn communities are always getting the “short end of the stick.”
12:40pm: A representative from Bothell wants ST’s financial support for the Bothell TC project.
So far, not a single comment about the specific revisions in the SIP.
12:43pm: Thomas Reedy, a private citizen, testifies about bus operations and would rather have less-frequent service than total elimination of service.
12:45pm: Reedy testifies that the quality of his life has diminished with the shrinking choice of transit options.
12:46pm: Steven Paul Schneider, a resident of Lakewood, testifies about the 599. Finally.
Schneider argues that the elimination of trips should be considered, instead elimination of routes.
12:49pm: Representatives from All Aboard Washington testify that Sound Transit should continue being involved in the Eastside Rail Partnership. Apparently, some 460,000 residents live along the corridor.
12:52pm: Federal Way Mayor Linda Kochmar testifies on behalf of the South subarea communities. Kochmar wants ST to adhere to a light rail commitment to the South.
12:56pm: Another citizen testifies in support of ST committing to the $50 million Eastside Rail partnership contribution.
12:58pm: Fred Butler asks if there are any other commenters. There are none. The meeting is adjourned.
Recap
According to Fred Butler, there were an unusually high number of individuals testifying today, indicating the importance of various projects. Only a few folks explicitly testified about the proposed service revisions in the Draft SIP Plan. The timing of the meeting probably doesn’t help for private citizens that would be concerned about the SIP. Eastside rail corridor advocates also came out in full force today and its apparent that losing the $50 million contribution will be a big deal to them.
Sherwin, are you staying for the Capital Committee meeting? It looks like they are going to be discussing the East Link SDEIS.
I won’t be able to stay, which is too bad– since the SDEIS has been so long-awaited. I’ll try to get notes.
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Apparently, some 460,000 residents live along the corridor.
My guess is that they are including municipalities all along the rail corridor, including Snohomish, Monroe and Issaquah, and unincorporated King and Snohomish counties.
A quick look here:
http://www.ofm.wa.gov/pop/april1/finalpop.pdf , and adding up the incorporated cities gets to about 360,000.
Please look at a map, and tell me how Issaquah and Monroe are along the ESR?
My guess is that they have defined “along the ESR” as within X miles of the rail as the crow flies. Figguring out what that distance is might be interesting, There are portions of Seattle that would be included before Monroe would be using that type of calculation. I would accept up to 5 miles away as along the corridor ;)
Lor Scara
I don’t know where the person got the numbers from, I’m just speculating.
Monroe and Lake Stevens could be considered as a source for a portion of the riders from Snohomish, and there is a lot of unincorporated county out there.
Issaquah could be considered as a feed to the Bellevue station.
Like I said, you can account for 360,000 people living along the corridor, at least. Just speculating how the rest of that figure got filled in.
Although this portion of the I-405 Corridor Program from section
1.2.1 Growth in Travel Demand
Between 1970 and 1990, communities in the I-405 corridor grew much faster than the central Puget Sound region as a whole. During the 20-year period, employment in the study area increased over 240 percent from 94,500 to 323,175 and population grew nearly 80 percent from
285,800 to 508,560.
might give us a clue.
(available online here:
http://www.prrbiz.com/_img/content/I405TDM_Report.pdf
on page 11 )
The population (based on the above link) for all of the incorporated cities allong the ESR from Renton North (including the Redmond branch and Everett come up to 451,000 If we add the unincorporated areas, we may be pushing close to the 460,000.
Including Everett because it was done in the PSRC report, (and gets us to the magic 460,000 number)
Although, the I-405 Corridor Program’s numbers didn’t include anything outside the study area. Everett wasn’t in the study area. Neither was anything on the Woodinville Sub north of Woodinville.
So, aside from speculating where the 460,000 number came from in the All Aboard Washington testimony, one wonders where the I-405 Corridor Program came up with the 508,560 figure.
I hadn’t dug that far into the documents, since I never thought to question that figure.
Paul Locke…
That old man has too much time on his hands… And doesn’t spend enough of it thinking up rational arguments.
Where does his disporportionate level of influence stem from? Is he some wealthy landowner who just chooses to be eccentric?