A few blocks north of the State Fairgrounds
The State Spring Fair is upon is this Wednesday Thursday through Saturday Sunday, April 16-19, at the Puyallup State Fairgrounds.
Sounder may by a good way to get there or head home in the late afternoon today through Friday. At other hours, not so much. For Pierce County residents, Sounder will be available on an even better schedule Saturday Sunday, thanks to the special service to the Mariners’ game.
ST Express route 578 fills in the gaps with half-hourly service all day, and hourly service on Saturday, at least to get to Puyallup Station. From there, the Fairgrounds is a walk of a few blocks south on S Meridian St or a ride on the eclectic Puyallup Connector (Pierce Transit route 425)
The Saturday Sunday Sounder baseball run is the only special service for the Spring Fair.
There’s also the 402 bus that runs between Federal Way and South Hill along Meridian S past the fair grounds. The Fair ground are literally less than 10mins walk from Puyallup station, much quicker to walk than wait around for a bus :)
1 Sounder run coming into Seattle and 1 Sounder run going out. At least keep the number of runs balanced.
Please no more situations like the Puyallup fair last fall, where there were 3 full Sounder runs going to Puyallup and only 1 coming back.
How does one get from Tacoma to Puyallup when Sounder isn’t running? I can hope there is a better option than to go north all the way to Federal Way, only to take the 578 back south again.
Pierce Transit 400 (hourly, weekdays only) from downtown Tacoma; or 409 (hourly) from 72nd and Portland where you can connect with the not-so-well-timed 41 from downtown.
More than anything else, Pierce needs more frequency on local routes.
Sigh. This makes me pine for the PT that had comprehensive and frequent network. Perhaps after/if ST3 passes, PT can float a ballot measure that would increase service beyond the paltry service increases we’re getting now.
Last week, I looked up the frequent network for Pierce County just out of curiosity. It now contains:
* PT route 1
* Tacoma Link
And nothing else.
I think it’s kinda crazy that there is no one seat ride to downtown Tacoma from Puyallup on weekends.
Although this didn’t help on weekends, I do remember that 578 used to go to Tacoma. Until June 2012, early morning trips southbound were extended from Puyallup to Tacoma, and a big block of afternoon trips northbound initiated in Tacoma before heading to Puyallup (weekdays only). It served Pacific Ave and TDS. It was probably the case that the onslaught of 590 trips to/from Seattle were deadheaded to the 578 anyway, so they decided to create revenue service out of them.
They killed the Tacoma tail in June, and I’m not exactly sure why. At the same time, though, they dramatically increased Sunday service to every half-hour to Federal Way and every hour to Puyallup. (previously it was every hour to FW and no Puyallup on Sunday)
They eliminated the 578 Puyallup to Tacoma run when new PT route 400 was created.
It’s awful. Back in 2009/2010, frequency for most routes during peak hours was 15 minutes and above. Now, as you said, only the 1 and Tacoma Link are routes with frequent local service.
Tacoma’s a fantastic town, but living anywhere outside of the 1’s walkshed makes using transit here incredibly painful.
I’m lost here.
The only Mariners Sounder service days listed are all Sundays (I’m going to the Rangers game this Sunday, and will use Sounder. There’s a special event rate because it’s Military Appreciation Day so the cheapest ticket is only $12!)
Where is the Saturday service listed?
Doh! Days of the week have been corrected in the post. I’m not writing any more posts at 2 in the morning.
I wish they publicized their weekday services during the fall event as well, and that Pierce Transit would expand the span of their service to go to the close of the fair. As it is now, if one attends the concert at the Fair, or if they stay later than that, the only option they have is a persona automobile.