Author snap of Community Transit Bus at Mukilteo Ferry Terminal Bus Stop
Normally on Sunday on the main page there’s an Open Thread. So I’m going to start having a focused question thread every Sunday.
Please help give me a list of questions – and don’t guess the answers in the comments please, I consider on-topic only questions with why ask ’em – to ask Community Transit at their 10 December public hearing at Everett Station (10 AM-2 PM). Here’s my list and I will update the post as we think of good questions:
- Are you guys at Community Transit willing to commit to make genuine changes based on public input given during your public comment process?
- Why is Community Transit so resistant (not just to me but others…) to providing the Future of Flight & Boeing Tour Center – Snohomish County’s #1 tourist facility with 270,000 annual visitors – with a bus stop?
- What can be done about Flying Heritage Collection/FHC – a major tourist attraction at Paine Field – being in something approximating a transit desert?
- What will Community Transit do to improve service around Paine Field beyond this service package?
- What will it take for Swift II to come about?
- Are there plans for a Swift III?
- When will Double Talls start serving routes directly between Everett Station and Downtown Seattle? Being I’m a 90X user it sure would be nice when I get off of the 7:30 or 8:30 AM 90X to have a Double-Tall available.
- Any update on the Bernie Webber Park & Ride next to Historic Flight Foundation & the Paine Field Windsock?
- Any chance you guys will put WiFi on your buses?
- How is the below going to play out exactly – I didn’t see sample schedules on your Service Proposal webpage? Also could some of route 113 be repurposed to serve the Future of Flight & Historic Flight Foundation at Paine Field?
Weekday Service Improvements
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Select local routes within Snohomish County would get additional trips to improve frequency and span of service (Routes 105, 112, 113, 115, 116, 119, 120 and 196).
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Select commuter routes would get additional trips in the morning and afternoon peak (Routes 412, 413 and 860).
Saturday Service Improvements
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Select local routes would get additional trips to improve span of service (Routes 105, 113, 115, 116, 130, 201, 202, 222, 271 and 280).
There you go. Again commentators I consider on-topic only question requests with why you want me to consider asking them. The first 10 questions are mine. The second and final 10 should be drawn from you.
1st comment for notification.
CT is probably going to put Swift III on one of their Transit Emphasis Corridors, like the first two lines, which include routes with existing core service. My best guess would be Edmonds-Lynnwood TC on 196th Street SW, giving Swift a one-transfer connection to the I-5 corridor. Another good Swift III candidate (or should I say Swift II.V) would be to extend the existing Swift line up Broadway to Everett Community College or even to Downtown Marysville.
Next year, Sound Transit is getting their ADS Enviro500s delivered and they’ve stated that they’ll be replacing all runs in Snohomish County with double-decker buses by 2020 (page 99).
Community Transit had a wi-fi pilot project on Route 422 from 2005 to 2010, which was canceled because of costs and the increased availability of 3G and LTE networks on the corridor. It’s really not worth having wi-fi on the bus itself, but it would be handy to have it at transit center kiosks with real-time information signs.
Bruce, I’m sorry I’m late getting back to you. I forgot to confirm comment notifications. Currently reading the delicious report you sent me.
Thanks Bruce, I was able to pare back some questions thanks to you.
The 201/202’s section between Everett Station and Lynnwood TC is largely duplicating the 512 off-peak. Is the additional traffic from Ash Way and Mariner P&R worth every-fifteen-minute service? If not, are there any plans to reposition at least some of its service hours elsewhere?
Also, given the significant number of Microsoft contractors/vendors who can’t ride the Microsoft Connector, are there any plans to reintroduce commuter service to Microsoft?
Looking into all of this William….
When I used to live up in that region before being located to Southwestern Washington, I often would drive half way and catch Community Transit’s 201/202 as part of my way to get to work. Other times, I would use Island Transit’s 412C before it got eliminated. Because that route was very convenient during peak periods between Everett and Stanwood, I was wondering if there was any future plans to create an Express Route from Everett to Stanwood by traveling the same ways as the 412 did before it was canned? This would make it easier for residents to commute from Camano to Everett easier, even thought they would have to transfer in Stanwood now. This would really help especially since there really isn’t any signs that Island Transit will be able to bring back the 412 in the near future.
Brandon, I will ask just that very question :-).
Thanks! By the way, are they still looking for drivers? I’ve applied a few times before but got turned down every time, even though I have transit experience.
I think they still are Brandon. Saw ads up there just last week.
Prior to the recession, CT was looking into a new commuter route from Stanwood and Smokey Point to Ash Way and Lynnwood in their Transit Development Plan (page 130). It would be great to have an alternate to the slow 201/202 through Marysville.
I’ll look into that too!
That would have been a good route too. If that run existed when I was still up there, I would have definitely used it. I honestly think they should look into putting commuter runs to Arlington and Stanwood from Everett during peak periods. Maybe from Lynnwood TC/Ash Way as well.
The 421 and 821 both stop in lynnwood on there way to seattle and the uw, in the mornings.
you can get the 422 from stanwood to seattle at I5 and 116th st and 4th ave& I5 in marysville, it also stops at ltc on the way to seattle. The 113 does stop close to future of flight, just a quick walk up 84th st.
I would not want them to add routes until they get more frequency on other routes first. Also the next swift line is the canyon park p&r to airport rd(boeing) routing. if they travel across I5 on 128th st, it will be very unreliable though, maybe it should travel up 527 to 112th st then over to hwy 99.
What is Community Transit doing about bus connections from the ferries? The last two times I’ve taken the 113 to Mukilteo on Saturdays, westbound it arrived a reasonable ten minutes early, but eastbound I had to wait at least 45 minutes for the bus. You (Joe) reported similar, although you said your last trip had less waiting. Would it be possible to have a route that matches the ferry schedule, either to Everett Station or Lynnwood TC, or could something be done to the 113 to line it up better, to improve regional transit connections. I realize the intervening communities wouldn’t want an irregular schedule, and it may be impossible to meet both arriving and departing ferries due to travel time constraints and driver breaks, but we should have something better than an hourly bus that ignores the ferry.
Or how about putting the ferry schedule in the bus schedule so it would be easier to see which bus to take for which ferry and how long the wait time will be? Metro does that in the 158/159 schedule with Sounder.
Also the Edmonds ferry. I haven’t gone that way so I don’t have personal experience, but it’s significant from a regional perspective.
Mike;
Great questions and I’ll put them on my list. I really want to make sure the ferry connections remain through a decade of growth & change around Mukilteo’s ferry terminal and the chaos of Island Transit.