North by Northwest View 05 – Last Call for Questions to Community Transit…

My snap of Everett Station

10 hours to go… then I print out a final list to pack, which I will put into the comment section.  But here’s the current list:

1. Are you guys at Community Transit willing to commit to make genuine changes based on public input given during your public comment process?
2. 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?
3. What can be done about Flying Heritage Collection/FHC – a major tourist attraction at Paine Field – being in something approximating a transit desert?
4. What will Community Transit do to improve service around Paine Field beyond this service package?
5. How do Swift supporters help Swift II come about?
6. Are there plans for a Swift III?
7. Any update on a permanent Bernie Webber Park & Ride next to Historic Flight Foundation & the Paine Field Windsock?
8. How are the service improvements you mention going to play out as 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?
9. Given the severe crisis of Island Transit with no end in sight and genuine concern for Camano Island, any future plans to create an Express Route from Everett Station to/from Stanwood and possibly Camano Island itself?
10. 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?
11. Since the 201/202’s section between Everett Station and Lynnwood TC is largely duplicating the 512 off-peak would it be possible to trim that back and send the service hours to underserved areas (e.g. Paine Field, Stanwood/Camano)?
12. Can we keep the good Community Transit connections with the ferries out of Mukilteo?  Excited for the new terminal!
13. Okay, serious question: From the word GO until a new Double-Tall is on the road – how long does that take?

Don’t know if we’ll get all of these answered but will do my best.  Expect a report by Friday evening.

One question I would ask is about extending Sounder North service, however when I do my feature on Sounder North (tentatively last week of December) I will repeat this information from a Sound Transit Community Outreach Corridor Lead Roger Iwata:

…Saw your inquiry and question about how hard would it be to extend Sounder to Mount Vernon.  At this time I would say near, if not impossible due to the fact that the Sound Transit taxing district does not extend north beyond Everett so there is no mechanism to approve or raise funding through Sound Transit in Skagit County.   So that unfortunately puts the brakes on this before we get to questions about approval/authorization/payments to the railway for the use of the existing tracks, cost for stations and upgrades to the tracks, then ridership and political support for an extension of Sounder North that currently has challenges building ridership in contrast to robust ridership on Sounder South.

 That being said, I can appreciate the need for more transit options given the worsening commute in the north corridor including the segment between Seattle and Marysville.  Also, there is growing support for an ST3 ballot measure (2016?) and a plan that will likely include a light rail extension to Everett as we currently plan for the light rail extension from Northgate to Lynnwood.

Thought you’d like to know…