De-confusing Holiday Schedules

26 Replies to “De-confusing Holiday Schedules”

1. So, December 26 is a weekday in some areas, Saturday in others, and Sunday in others. Do all of the “no service” agencies already have no service on Sunday, or are there some that actually do have service on a regular Sunday, but no service on December 25?

   1. Check the Thanksgiving service post to see which agencies regularly shut down on Saturday and/or Sunday.

2. To me one of the really sad things about this list of agencies is how few of them take ORCA.

   It makes intercity travel pretty difficult (well the schedules and poor transfer timing do too)

   1. We haven’t even been able to get the city-owned monorail to accept ORCA or PugetPass/transfers, or to get Washington State Ferries (which accepts ORCA) to accept PugetPass/transfers. There will be some odd impacts of the new Kitsap cross-Sound water taxis accepting ORCA, PugetPass, transfers, and ORCA LIFT, while WSF does not. But the panel that sets WSF fares is in a perpetual split between recognizing that there is room for a lot more walk-on passengers and no more room for cars on many runs, and making wild unsubstantiated claims that car drivers are subsidizing walk-on passengers as deftly as if they were denying climate change, the housing crisis, or the need for some transit after the robo-cars take over. Indeed, WSF is the only agency in the ORCA pod that doesn’t accept PugetPass/transfers. I believe they are about to conduct a biennial fare study, and we can disrupt their ideological talking points with some data-based reality.

      Intercity Transit dabbled with accepting ORCA on some inter-county runs to Pierce County a few years ago, but it became too costly for them, and they withdrew. But they got Sound Transit to spend a wad on underutilized reverse-peak service from Olympia to Seattle for a couple years while no peak-direction service from Seattle to the Capitol exists without seriously uncoordinated transfers or Capitol employment badges. The utility of the reverse-peak runs was ruined in large part by the worst loop-de-loop pull-off bus stop in the region, at Hawks Prarie. Eliminate that, and the service might have been useful for Olympia/Lacey/Tumwater residents working in downtown Seattle.

      1. “they got Sound Transit to spend a wad on underutilized reverse-peak service from Olympia to Seattle for a couple years”

         How is ST spending a wad? The extension is funded via a state grant. The Seattle-Lakewood part ST was already running and the buses had enough space for Olympia riders,

   2. Trying to visit random parts of rural Washington by bus, paying $1 in cash when you leave the Orca zone is the least of the problems. A much bigger problem is schedules. With time between trips on the order of several hours, no matter how the schedules are aligned, it turns out badly – either the gap between buses adds 30+ minutes at every connection point, or the connection is tight enough that you can’t trust it without risking getting stranded in the middle of nowhere if a bus is late.

      It would be pretty embarrassing to plan a trip to Port Angeles by bus, only to have a family member drive all the way out from Seattle to rescue you when a connection is missed, and it’s Friday afternoon, with 2 days until the next bus. At least Jefferson Transit is running weekday schedules December 23 and 26th, so it’s only a two day gap with no service, rather than a five day gap.

3. You know, it’s a real shame when minor transit agencies (like Twin Transit, Grays Harbor Transit, etc.) get it right, and major transit agencies (King County Metro, Pierce Transit, Sound Transit) that serve major job centers like Seattle, Tacoma, and Bellevue, which have hundreds (if not thousands) of people still working on the Monday after Christmas and New Years, running a freaking Sunday schedule. I get that there’s reduced demand, but that’s what we have a reduced weekday schedule for, isn’t it? You realize that on a Sunday schedule, not only is every single working person experiencing crush-loaded buses, but people who have early shifts more than likely cannot get to work, and most people in the suburbs who take the bus from their house literally can’t do it because Sunday (even more than Saturday) is a major drop-off point for span of service (In Federal Way for example, on Sunday, the 181 starts running at 8:05, and the 187 starts running at 9, because these schedules are not meant to be used by people who start work at 8 and Metro should have some basic common sense and not use these schedules when HUNDREDS of people start work at 8!!!).

   July 3rd, 2015 was really bad when they ran a Sunday schedule on a Friday, and it’s going to be worse when they run Sunday schedules on two Mondays.

   1. “You know, it’s a real shame when minor transit agencies (like Twin Transit, Grays Harbor Transit, etc.) get it right, and major transit agencies (King County Metro, Pierce Transit, Sound Transit) that serve major job centers like Seattle, Tacoma, and Bellevue, which have hundreds (if not thousands) of people still working on the Monday after Christmas and New Years, running a freaking Sunday schedule.”

      So, you’ll trade shutting down on Sunday in order to get regular service on Monday?

   2. Yeah AlexKven, I remember that. It was BAD. The 512 ran so late due to the crowds and of course, was forced to leave people behind. CT might have learned from that as they’re adding commuter trips on Jan 2nd.

      1. Ah, yes. That came out after my email exchange with their media department, and is not yet linked from the holiday page.

         They will be having some commuter service on January 2, on routes 402, 413, and 421. Thanks for catching that! My apologies for any confusion.

   3. It’s probably a function of the contract with the bus drivers’ union, making bus drivers significantly more expensive on Monday, January 2 than on a normal Monday. When buses are driven by robots, rather than humans, at that time, we can have something close to full weekday service on Monday, January 2.

      1. Agree. The issue is bus drivers get holidays off, too, just like most full-time workers.

      2. They can have the holiday off on the holiday.

   4. We need to pressure county government to end this practice.

   5. For what it’s worth, TriMet has six and a half holidays. No reduced weekday schedule, no No Univeristy schedule, none of that. The buses may be mostly empty on the 26th, but people will know what timetable is in force.

      The one day that is confusing is Martin Luther King day. Some of the most frequent stuff shifts to a Saturday schedule on that day due to lack of ridership.

      One confusing day is more than enough, especially if you are attempting to get around Seattle as a visitor.

      1. And to re-confuse everything, they’ve announced Sunday schedules for the 26th now.

4. Since you’ve listed the monorail, it is noteworthy that the monorail will stay open until 1:00am on New Years Eve. Are any of the other agencies running extended NYE hours in order to get revelers home?

   1. …and I now see that I missed that paragraph in the post, as my eyes jumped down to the table. oops.

5. Brent, in the future, when listing Whatcom service, it would also be helpful to specify whether WWU-only service is running. I presume other agencies have things like this as well.

   1. Here is some info on WWU service. The “subject to change” could be a catch-all caveat.

      Their late night student shuttle doesn’t run during the break, and requires a WWU student ID to board. AFIACT, that means faculty/employees are not welcome. I’m trying to stick to transit available to the public in these posts.

6. CT actually just added commuter trips on Jan 2nd by operating a regular schedule for the 402, 413 & 421. But local service still on a Sunday schedule : /

   http://www.communitytransit.org/alert/community-transit-holiday-service

   1. Thanks! Fixed.

7. You really need to separate out the Sound Transit into separate categories. Tacoma LINK, Central LINK, Sounder, ST Express and not lump them together..

8. This is so stupid. The holidays are on a Sunday. The Monday after is not a holiday. Transit should operate on the regular schedule. It is a normal work day for me but I have t leave half an hour early so I can make it on time.

   1. It’s common practice for large organizations (private & public) to honor the Monday after major holidays as a Holiday.

      1. I have been working for since I was 15. I am not in my forties. I have never worked for any employer who did that. The holiday should be honored on the holiday. Holiday schedules make my commute longer. I have to go home on holiday schedule that Monday morning which means I get off just in time to miss my first bus and have to wait until later to catch the next one. Which means I catch a much later train then an even later third bus. So I will get home late. (My trip home takes about two hours on a good day.) Then I have to leave earlier to make the trip on that night to get to my job. Then, on top of that, many drivers have an attitude that because it is Holiday they can be lacking when it comes to being on time. You do not know how many times I have been trying to get to work on a holiday only to have my bus be late and the driver telling me that it is no big deal, it is not like anyone is going to work, or something like that. The holiday is on a Sunday this year. I am sorry you do not get your extra day off but many of us get neither day off.

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