In February Community Transit will execute a substantial service reorganization coupled with a 20% reduction in hours, making the total decline 37% since 2008. As usual, they have an clear and graphically appealing website that goes through all the changes, and the schedules themselves are available as well.
The area maps are exceptional, with different colors for Swift, Commuter routes, and everything else.
I especially like the graph you posted, with the green line indicating service hours over the last several years.
It’s all over the place!
You’re right about the website. Won’t know ’til I’ve checked out new schedules, but will probably be able to readjust my own Lynnwood work travel. However, as with all transit “cuts”, there’s one underlying reality that’s nothing but bad:
The unfortunately very accurate message the average working person is getting is that when it comes right down to it, your car can take you through a Depression, but your transit system can’t.
It won’t take very many years of that reality to destroy every major advancement in transit, and worse, leave behind at least a generation of voters convinced to their dying day from hard experience that public transit is a luxury and cars are survival.
For those of us who don’t want to live in the situation that will result: What’s our political game plan to start fighting back?
Mark Dublin
It’s quite possible that the only way to ensure this is profitable transit, or at least very high farebox recovery.
Transit that covered its own costs and externalities would be competitive with SOV travel for many trips if SOV travelers also covered their own costs and externalities. All motorized transportation would become less competitive against walking, which is probably a good thing. And the whole thing would influence development patterns in an overwhelmingly positive way.
I mean, the only other way is to somehow build a political consensus for transit. In Snohomish County? Good luck!
can someone please explain CT route 201/202 … http://www.commtrans.org/News/Documents/201-202changes.pdf why two numbers for the same route? do they skip stops?
The 202 has an extra stop at the end that goes to Stillaguamish while the 201 turns around at Smokey Pt Dr and Smokey Pt Blvd. There’s no stop skipping, just two different last stops.
It’s actually the type of numbering I’d like to see on Metro’s current 5 configuration. Living in Northgate it would make it a little easier knowing which 5 I could catch back from Downtown.
I’ve thought same thing about the 5, although the Northgate variant will go away in the Fall.
better yet is the distinct numbering schema for normal routes vs commuter routes vs UW routes, etc …
No. The difference is north of 100th St NE in Marysville. Rt. 202 takes 51st Ave NE and then cuts back over on 152nd St. Rt. 201 just goes straight up State Ave. / Smokey Point Blvd. South of 100th St. there is no difference in the routes 201 / 202. Both routes will end at Smokey Point after February. Currently they both go to the stilly senior center. The 240 and 220 will get people there after the changes.
SMH, the difference between the map and the schedule is way to confusing. My only expereince with the route was when I lived in MLT and would sometimes catch the 201/202 to LTC instead of the 113.
Anyone know what’s up with the schedule discrepancy then? At least the service change will end this particular bit of fun.
err…*too
The routes differ somewhat between Marysville and Smokey Point. Look carefully at the maps.
yup … missed that … otherwise they are identical
In my opinion there should just be twice as many 201s and the 202 should go away.
Having lived off of 51st Ave NE when the only service operated on Highway 99, I disagree. There are not enough east-west streets to trek the mile between the two.
I sometimes take a local route to one of two P&Rs to get to the U-District, but the thing that always made it inconvenient was the fact that the local bus would arrive at the P&R literally two or three minutes after the commuter bus leaves. Meaning I would have to wait another 20+ minutes outside…with nothing to do. It appears that this will remain a problem, having just checked a couple local-commuter connections. 10 minutes I can handle, but 20 minutes, especially in the cold, is not a very good way to get people to take a local bus to the P&R. Instead, we end up driving.
Allen, you may have put your finger on a good political first step toward damage control from service cuts. Coordination of scheduled transfers, and improved communication to insure that connections are made, are good examples of means to keep passengers from having to drive.
It might be good if everybody presently being involuntarily forced to drive (as the anti-transit forces would frame it) make you elected politicians aware of details.
Mark Dublin
This cut has prett well wiped out my husband’s ability to commute. He currently rides the 422 bus from Stanwood to LTC and then catches the 120 to his teaching job in Lynnwood.
He will now have to drive to Smokey Point, ride the 201/2, and walk nearly 2 miles a day between the bus stop and his work. This change will make door to door trip time will increase by 20 minutes to 1.5 hours for a 35 mile trip. His miles driven per day to ride the bus will also increase from 2 miles to 20 miles.
Pain in the rear.
Megan, I’m not sure I’m understanding why the impact for your husband. They’re only dropping one run per day on the 422 and the 120 still runs although with one small piece missing.
I’m guessing that Megan’s husband has to be at school by 7 which means that he’ll miss the connection from the 422 to the 120 with their new schedules. The 120 will only be hourly at that time so he’s SOL.
Megan, I’m guessing he should be able to hack it with the new 422 schedule if he takes up the bike again. BTW, I’m a former tenant if this sounds a little creepy.
I used to ride the 120 (probably not early enough in the morning to see your husband, though)… so I assume he’s an Alderwood Middle School teacher? Not only does the route lose a bunch of trips, but the kink that served the middle school (and Boys and Girls club, and some commercial stuff on 196th) has been straightened out.
In some ways I wonder if the 120 would be better off being straightened onto 196th instead of 204th. Not that it matters much to the school. It’s probably better off running straighter overall… it’s just so hard to connect all the places you want to connect running direct routes with the spacing dictated by the area’s density and land use.
Can anyone explain why CT rents a yard south of the Link base to park its buses during the mid-day instead of renting stalls from Metro at one of the bases?
All those buses are first transit operated, so not sure if ct is renting the space or first transit, but maybe it was cheaper than metro, or metro didn’t have needed space.
Oh joy, the route 190 I ride everyday that gets me to and from school quickly is disappearing, and my commute becomes somewhere between 20 (if I make my connection) to 45 (because the 113 only runs every half-hour now) minutes longer. Thanks, CT!
transfer to swift when 113 crosses 99, take it to 196th and walk a block or 2.