Snohomish County residents looking to ditch their car for Sundays and holidays can breathe a sigh of relief for the first time in five years. June 7 marks the restoration of Sunday service for Community Transit after its massive service cuts in June 2010, thanks to sales tax revenue returning to 2008 levels as well as a 25-cent fare increase to take place in July. Sunday and holiday service will be limited to hourly headways on most local routes, with the exception of Swift bus rapid transit (20 minute headways) and rural lifeline routes to outlying communities (2 hour headways). The June changes page on their website has specific, route-by-route details, which includes minor improvements to existing local service and additional trips on commuter routes 413 and 860.
In addition to the service restoration, Community Transit has modified its local service to eastern Snohomish County with the replacement of Route 275 with Route 271 on the Highway 2 corridor and extensions of certain Route 280 trips to serve the Boeing Everett plant.
Full list of changes below the jump.
Sunday service
- 20 minute headways: Swift
- 1 hour headways: 101, 105, 112, 113, 116, 119, 120, 130, 196, 202, 220
- 2 hour headways: 222, 240, 271, 280
Weekday and Saturday Trip Adjustments
- Additional weekday trips added to 105, 112, 113, 115, 116, 119, 120, 196 to improve frequency and hours of service
- 2 trips added to Routes 413 and 860 during morning and afternoon peak
- 30 grant-funded commuter trips added in 2013 will be retained after grant funding runs out later this year
East County Adjustments
- Route 275 deleted and replaced by Route 271, with more areas in Monroe served by the new route; routes 270 and 271 will combine for 30-minute frequencies on weekdays between Everett and Monroe
- 2 roundtrips on Route 280 will also serve the Boeing Everett factory
Just for notifications.
Any thoughts on where CT should go from here? They’ve accomplished one of their big goals (restoring pre-recession service), so they have room to start expanding again.
Personally, I’d love to see small extensions of Swift, beginning with an EVCC or Marysville line. That corridor already has somewhat-frequent “express” service (Routes 201/202), so it can support the service bump that Swift brings.
It’s wonderful that SnoCo has 7-day a week service again.
I’d love to see some lines straightened out (maybe consolidated) with higher frequencies and better integration with Metro in south county. Some specific things:
I think Swift II needs to happen (extended to downtown Bothell and maybe with a dogleg over to UW Bothell);
I would like to see an east-west line connecting Aurora Village, Mountlake Terrace, Briar, Canyon Park, and then maybe Woodinville (or Bothell) via SR 104 > I-5 > 236th > Cedar > 228th > Hwy 9 (or follow the 106’s route south of 228th to Bothell).
[ I just realized SR 104 > I-5 > 236th doesn’t work going eastbound; I forgot there wasn’t a standard collector-distributor arrangement on I-5 there.]
They are still only about a third of the way back to pre recession levels. Still have a way to go. But service even when restored fully will look different than it did before. Eastern snohomish county gets its local routing back but there were several efficiencies in the s snohomish county which were well needed and won’t be tossed.
Three words:
FUTURE
OF
FLIGHT.
Thank you.
In other news, I’m leading the good fight to get ‘er done.
Then CEO Emmett Heath wrote up:
Good stuff
More on the new buses being ordered from a New Flyer press release. 19 XD40s and 10 XD60s.
Also +1 for more trips on Routes 201/202 and 115/116, the only two all-day frequent service pairs in the county outside of Swift and ST 512.
That’s great to hear SounderBruce but the Double Talls are going to really be game-changing. All they now need is some WiFi :-).
I hate to be too much of a persistent pundit but trade Sounder North for Double Talls w/ WiFi and YEAAHH!!!
Since Double Talls have been on order to replace the aging artics for a while now, it’s not really news. And Wi-Fi on buses isn’t something I’d like to see all that much, especially since CT had a pilot project on their commuter routes a while ago that deemed it unfeasible.
I’m more excited to see where those new artics go. Maybe we’ll finally see a few sneak onto local routes during rush hour (some are fairly full and up to standing-room only at times).
SounderBruce;
Well I kinda share your hope the artics stay around.
I also think if WiFi could return to the express Everett-Seattle corridor, that’d really help eliminate the WiFi moneybags on rails…
What’s wrong with WiFi? If people are checking email or playing games it’s quieter than if they’re talking on the phone. Are people riding buses just for WiFi connectivity? (And they’d have to have passes to make this cost-effective.)
+2 Mike Orr, well put
*cheers*
Sunday service was sorely missed when my fiance and I lived up in Lynnwood/Mill Creek. Glad it’s back!
As a former Snohomish County resident, Community Transit’s stark service fluctuations due to the passage of I-695 and the Great Recession are all too familiar. It’s nice to see some good news coming from Snohomish County for a change.
Community Transit appears to be proceeding full speed in implementing a new Swift line from Boeing to Canyon Park and this would be a more sensible option for providing service to the Boeing factory as opposed to light rail. Rather than serving Boeing with a direct rail connection, Swift could be used to provide feeder service to a light rail station located in the HWY 99 (Airport Rd) or I-5 (128th) corridor.
I’d also like to see an additional Swift line from Everett Station to the Smokey Point TC with a stop at Everett Community College. This would require additional partnership with Everett Transit (which has been tense in the past but seems to be working well for the current Swift line).
I do find it somewhat disappointing that Swift II crosses I-5 without connecting with the 512. This effectively means a 3-seat ride, minimum, to get from anywhere in the Swift II corridor to anywhere in Seattle (or a 4-seat ride for anywhere in Seattle that’s not downtown).
Perhaps this is a case of one agency not bothering to think about the other agencies. Or, perhaps, this is a political maneuver to bolster the case for a Link extension to Everett, which, presumably, would connect to Swift II at 128th. Either way, I don’t like it.
It might actually have something to do with the CT-ET split — existing CT routes like the 105 serve 128th and Mariner P&R, while ET routes cover 112th and South Everett P&R.
At one point, Mariner P&R had been pegged for a parking structure and freeway station; however, the South Everett Freeway Station site ultimately won due to cost and design challenges at the Mariner site. It’s unfortunate in a way, as an investment at Mariner would have provided a bit of a boost in ridership for Swift II along 128th.
As Swift II moves forward, and with the relative lack of facilities at 128th, Community Transit and Everett Transit will need to refine their services in order to emphasize connections between South Everett, Mariner and Ash Way P&R’s.
“Rather than serving Boeing with a direct rail connection, Swift could be used to provide feeder service to a light rail station located in the HWY 99 (Airport Rd) or I-5 (128th) corridor.”
I agree. Even IF the two-gate terminal happens at Paine Field and that’s a big IF right now plus with – considering the sheer density of international visitors – say 77 of 777.8 daily visitors to the Future of Flight, there just isn’t the justification in my mind for this. Even if the Future of Flight and all the other aviation museums could bring say 200 out of say 1000 daily mean visitors, you can’t justify to me light rail to Paine Field anymore. The cost is too high. I’d rather see light rail go up Hwy 99.
There was a time when I believed differently but the data showed that the Paine Field tenants – plural – would take too much of a share of transit dollars, not a fair share. Respectfully.
Oh and SounderBruce… good write-up.