All posts by Brent White

Once again, the Seahawks have won home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs, and will begin their playoff drive this Saturday, at 5:15 p.m., against the Carolina Panthers.

In addition to the myriad of regular transit service, including frequent Link Light Rail service to and from the airport, the game will be served by special Sounder train service, and shuttles from Northgate Transit Center, Eastgate Park & Ride, and South Kirkland Park & Ride. Shuttle fares are $4 cash each way. You can also take Metro route 41 from Northgate, ST Express 554 from Eastgate, and Metro route 255 from South Kirkland.

Two Sounder trains will take off from Lakewood Station at 1:50 and 2:30, arriving at Century Link Field at 2:57 and 3:43. A third train will take off from Sumner Station at 2:37, arriving at the CLink at 3:19. North Sounder Service, weather permitting, will take off from Everett Station at 2:15 and 2:30, arriving at 3:14 and 3:29. The full schedule is available here.

New since last year is frequent service on King County Metro’s brand new Rapid Ride F Line, connecting to both Tukwila Sounder Station and Tukwila International Boulevard (light rail) Station, running past midnight.

As per tradition, trash talk against the home team is off-topic and will be deleted.

Update: samuel will be coming to the game on the ferry.

In the category of small victories this past year, one that went barely noticed was the elimination of the card fee, for first-time recipients, for the soon-to-be-rolled-out King County low-income ORCA.

Currently, applicants for a Regional Reduced Fare Permit (RRFP), which comes in the form of a special ORCA card, have to pay a $3 application fee, so that was originally envisioned for the low-income ORCA application fee, until multiple people in the right places realized what an administrative nightmare it would be for all the human services agencies to track all this fee collection.

Meanwhile, applying to become a paratransit rider is free. So, the incentive is to apply to become a paratransit rider or to apply for the low-income ORCA, rather than apply for an RRFP.

Chalk these up as more perverse incentives, up there with the $5 fee to get a regular or youth ORCA card. Speaking of that $5 fee, one of the justifications I’ve been given that it can’t be reduced to $2 or less is the $3 application fee for RRFPs.

Another justification for having a fee has been the need to keep people from treating the card as disposable. Given the effort it takes to get an RRFP, I don’t think the argument applies at all for RRFPs.

The agencies might be concerned about frivolous applications. If that really is a problem, then charge a token buck, and download that dollar into e-purse for the newly-registered RRFP.

The $3 RRFP fee is a ludicrous defense for charging $5 to get a regular ORCA when the fees for getting the other public bus smart cards in the United States are $3, $2, $2, $2, $2, $2, $2, $1, $1, free, free, free, free, free, free, free, free, and free, after applicable e-purse rebates. Let’s at least remove the silly hurdle of that $3 RRFP fee, so that the only silly hurdle left is the agecies’ concern about having cardholders not treat the cards as disposable, when the agencies pay the vendor, Vix Technology, a pass-through cost of $2 and change per card.

Riders on Utah Transit Authority can avoid the $3 fee for getting a FarePay card by tapping their private contactless debit/credit card when boarding, or getting pass-only cards. Chicago Transit Authority allows passes to be loaded directly onto private contactless cards, and still makes the Ventra card free.

Other agencies have solved the please-don’t-throw-away-the-card problem in a variety of ways:

The Clipper Card is free if you order online and sign up for auto-reload. Metro’s Go-To Card is free with registration. A few are advertised as “free, at this time”, hinting that the card may someday cost, even if it never acually happens. Several require purchasing some fare product loaded onto the card. There exist multiple field-proven ways to get cardholders not to throw them away, without resorting to a card fee that incentivizes not getting the card in the first place, costing untold millions in long dwell times at bus stops.

As is becoming a tradition, there will be extended hours for New Year’s Eve on Central Link Light Rail, the Seattle Center Monorail, and Tacoma Link.

From the monorail’s holiday service page:

On December 31. 2014, the Monorail will be open until 1:00 AM for the New Year’s Eve fireworks at the Space Needle. Due to regulations, the Monorail will carry its last passengers from Westlake Center to Seattle Center at approximately 11:15 PM. We will resume service from Seattle Center to Westlake Center once we receive the ‘ALL CLEAR’ from the Fire Marshall (estimated to be 12:20 AM) – from this point we will carry passengers until 1:00 AM.

The last southbound Link train will depart Westlake Station at 1:13 am.

The last Tacoma Link streetcars depart Tacoma Dome Station at 12:36 northbound and Theater District Station at 12:48 southbound.

A full list of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day service reductions can be found here.

In addition to the low-income fare program that has been in place in Kitsap Transit since 1985, the new low-income fare program for King County Metro Transit that will take effect March 1, 2015, and the low-income fare that will take effect on Central Link Light Rail on March 1, Seattle Streetcar and King County Ferries are jumping on the low-income fare bandwagon. Per Rochelle Ogershok, King County Department of Transportation spokeswoman:

As of March 1, a low income fare of $1.50 will take effect on both the South Lake Union Street Car and Link Light Rail. These low-income fares will be the same as Metro’s, as will be the reduced fares for Youth and Senior/Disabled riders. The King County Water Taxi will also implement a low income fare as of 3/1/15. The low-income fare will be $3.00 for W. Seattle and $3.75 for Vashon.

Continue reading “Low-Income Fares Coming to Streetcars and Foot Ferries”

The Seattle City Council voted Monday to take the first steps toward integrating the monorail into the ORCA pod, and annexing the unincorporated North Highline area, including parts of White Center and Boulevard Park.

The City of Seattle had previously deferred to the City of Burien on annexing the North Highline area, but residents voted down Burien annexation in 2012. The Seattle City Council was enticed to action by a state sales tax incentive program worth $5 million for 10 years, that would expire if the City didn’t take an initial action of intent by the end of the year. Councilmember Tom Rasmussen described the resolution as a “placeholder”, in case the City decided to move forward with annexation. The council passed the resolution 8-0. Annexation doesn’t quite solve the Route 120 problem but it gets us closer. The earliest White Center could vote on being annexed by Seattle would be 2016. White Center Now has more in-depth coverage.

The council also passed the bill containing the substitute version of the monorail concession contract, which was made available Friday, between the City and Seattle Monorail Services, 8-0. Thom Ditty, General Manager of Seattle Monorail Services, proclaimed that the new contract “puts the City in the driver’s seat on the ORCA pass.” Councilmember O’Brien asked the resolution sponsor, Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, whether it was his intent to include transfers and passes in the ORCA integration. Rasmussen repeated his previous refrain that he wanted the fare system to be “as convenient as possible, in all possible ways”.

Rasmussen explained why the study called for in the resolution wouldn’t be due until the end of the second quarter in 2015: The monorail needs a sponsor among the seven member agencies of the ORCA Joint Board, and the support of the rest, in order to participate as an affiliate.

The section added Friday in the contract contains a fallback plan in case the study shows fare integration to be a money loser for Seattle Monorail Services: The City and SMS can negotiate mitigation, and if negotiations fail that terminates the contract.

In a final charm offensive, the SMS team had in tow Kelly Pearson, Chief Development Officer of Wellspring Family Services, who lauded SMS for being Wellspring’s charitable partner for the past two years, increasing Give Big Campaign donations by 45%.

Regarding the last-minute effort to get ORCA into the contract, Ditty said, “I’m glad it happened. I expect both ridership and revenue will increase.”

With University of Washington classes out next week, be prepared for service reductions on several King County Metro routes, including routes 31, 32, 48, 65, 67, 68, 75, 167, 197, 271, 277, 372, and 373. Metro will be running the “No UW” schedule (or as I will call it in the chart, “Less UW”) on weekdays from December 15, 2014 to January 2, 2015. Service levels will drop further, affecting many more routes, December 24 – January 2.

The full list of holiday service levels is below the fold. Continue reading “Winter Service Reductions Start Next Week”

As planned, the full Seattle City Council will be voting Monday on the 10-year contract for Seattle Monorail Services to operate the Seattle Center Monorail.

The council meeting starts at 2 pm. The contract is item 53 on the agenda.

Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, who chairs the council’s Transportation Committee, planned to present amendments to bring about the monorail’s integration into the ORCA system, after three months of feasibility study. At this time, the amendments are not yet publicly available, but we will post them here when they do become available.

The Blog has covered this issue here, here, and here.

We have received a number of questions regarding how ORCA revenue is distributed among the transit agencies. Oran’s primer on that process is here.

Update:

A substitute proposal is now available to the public.

The substitute bill contains a new Section 4:

Section 4. The Director shall deliver to the Mayor’s Office and the Seattle City Council an analysis of and possible proposal for utilizing the One Regional Card for All (“ORCA”) card as a method of fare payment on the Seattle Monorail before the end of the second quarter of 2015.

On page 27 of the substitute proposal, new verbage is added to the proposed contract language under XI.F.3. (Fare Collection):

The City may require the Concessionaire to utilize the One Regional Card for All (“ORCA”) smart card as a fare payment method. If the ORCA card is utilized and use of the card is found to have a material and adverse operating and/or financial impact, the Concessionaire and the City will enter into good faith negotiations to reasonably address the impact by amendment of the Agreement. In the event the City and the Concessionaire do not reach agreement, the Concessionaire may terminate this Agreement by providing written notice thereof to the City with the effective date of the termination being no less than one (1) year after the written notice. The Minimum Fee for the period from January 1 of the calendar year in which the notice of termination is given to the date of the written notice of termination shall be prorated based on the prior calendar year’s ridership for the same time period. The Minimum Fee shall not be in effect as of the date of written notice of termination.

With the City getting ready to study the costs and benefits of integrating the Seattle Center Monorail into the ORCA fare and pass system used by eight local transit agencies, a look at some ORCA use and revenue data is in order.

The 3rd Quarter ORCA Joint Board Program Management Report breaks down revenue and boardings by pass type, for the months of July through September. For purposes of math, I simply took the summations for the three months.

Product Type	Revenue	Boardings	Revenue Per Boarding
Business Passport	$23,434,997	11,211,971	$2.09
Regional Pass	$11,649,456	7,606,026	$1.53
Agency Product	$1,791,258	962,798	$1.86
E-Purse	$13,740,147	7,571,423	$1.81
Total	$50,615,858	27,352,218	$1.85

The monorail has annual ridership a little over 2,000,000 and revenue a little over $4,000,000, coming out to $2 revenue per ride.

What would happen if the monorail started accepting ORCA, inter-agency transfers, and passes?

If every monorail rider were to start using ORCA (just for the sake of worst-case argument), the monorail got the typical distribution of $1.85 per ORCA tap, and zero new monorail riders came forth, the monorail would lose $300,000 of its annual profit. If just 163,000 new annual boardings end up being added, the monorail would break even on ORCAzation. If ridership doubled, the monorail’s profit would increase by $3,400,000.

Let’s assume something even worse: Every monorail rider becomes an ORCA regional pass user, and the monorail only gets $1.53 distributed to it for each ORCA tap. If zero new riders came forth, the monorail’s profit would go down by $940,000 annually. The break-even point would be 615,000 new riders. If ridership doubled, the monorail would pull in $2,120,000 of new annual revenue.

It is hard to envision a scenario coming to pass in which the monorail doesn’t make a windfall off of ORCAzation.

Just a week ago, commenter Ricky alerted STB readers to the fact that the 10-year contract for operating the Seattle Center Monorail was coming up for renewal, and being discussed in the City Council’s Parks, Seattle Center, Libraries, and Gender Pay Equity Committee this past Tuesday. Chad recognized the opportunity, and called upon the city council to integrate the monorail into the ORCA fare system, as part of the contract renewal.

City councilmembers found a barrage of emails waiting for them Monday morning, and swung into action. Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, one of the committee members, had a lot of questions regarding the future of the monorail for Seattle Center staff at the meeting, including plans for a potential expansion of access to the south terminal across 5th Ave to street level.

On the topic of ORCA integration, Rasmussen said he wanted a plan by the end of the first quarter of 2015 on how such integration can occur, and will introduce amendments to the operating contract to make that happen. He added, “We need to have certainty that [the monorail] will be integrated into the ORCA system.”

Councilmember Mike O’Brien, who is not on the committee, made an appearance to ask some pointed questions relating to ORCA integration. He explained the transfer surcharge problem, in which someone who just spent $2.50 on a bus downtown is probably going to choose a free bus transfer to get to the Seattle Center over a ride on the monorail that costs another $2.25.

Committee Chairwoman Jean Godden issued a statement later in the day:

At today’s Committee meeting we took a vote on the legislation authorizing a concession agreement with Seattle Monorail Services. As congestion increases, I support further exploration of how we can better integrate our transit system. I’m intrigued by the amendments Rasmussen is working on related to fare box integration.

Councilmember Rasmussen, who chairs the Council Transportation Committee, had more to say by email later when asked for more specifics:

I would like the ORCA card to be as convenient and universal as possible for the various public transportation modes which includes the Monorail. What I am asking the Seattle Center and the Monorail operator to come back with a plan for the use of the card on the Monorail by the end of the first quarter 2015. What I would expect is that they assess and provide the City Council Transportation Committee with information on what it would take financially and technically for the Monorail to be able to accept the ORCA card in the same manner that all other transit agencies do.

When asked if he would require the monorail to accept PugetPass, UPass, and inter-agency transfers, Rasmussen responded,

I would like the Orca card to be as useful and convenient as possible. The purpose of the three month study period is to understand the challenges and costs of the various options you stated before we give the go ahead. I am working for an integrated, seamless fare system for the region regardless of the public transit agency that is used.

Rasmussen’s proposed amendments to the contract are expected to be ready for the December 15 full council meeting.

Thomas Ditty, General Manager of Seattle Monorail Services, graciously agreed to an interview.

Ditty was not favorable to a contract extension, after an expensive 15-month bid process in which SMS beat out two competitors, due to the possibility that SMS might then not get the contract at the end of that process. But he said, “We will do whatever the City wants.” He called comparisons to other transit systems “apples to pears.” “The monorail is the only transit system in Seattle that makes a profit.” He listed Seattle Center funds that receive money generated from the monorail’s profit.

Ditty gave the number of monthly pass purchasers as roughly 150, annual ridership of over 2 million, annual revenue over $4m, and practical minimum headway of 5-6 minutes.

ALERT: North Sounder train service to the November 30 conference semifinal match has been cancelled due to a mudslide.

Sound Transit will provide South Sounder train service to the decisive second leg of the Western Conference Finals being played by Seattle Sounders FC and the LA Galaxy Sunday, Nov. 30th at 6 p.m. The train takes off Trains take off from Lakewood at 3:45 and Everett at 4:15, with South Sounder getting to Century Link Field a little before 5 p.m. and North Sounder 5:15. Riders from the southend will need to hustle to  Occidental Park if they want to participate in the March to the Match, but unfortunately northend riders will have to catch ST Express 512, meaning finding their own way to the bus stops, since Community Transit doesn’t run on Sundays cannot make it. The return train takes off Return trains take off 35 minutes after the final whistle.

From Lakewood to Seattle
Lakewood	S. Tacoma	Tacoma	Puyallup	Sumner	Auburn	Kent	Tukwila	Seattle
3:45PM	3:50	3:59	4:11	4:16	4:24	4:31	4:38	4:58PM

From Everett to Seattle
Everett	Mukilteo	Edmonds	Seattle
4:15PM	4:26	4:41	5:14PM

As of publication time, tickets remain available for the match.

For fans visiting from LA, take Link Light Rail from SeaTac/Airport Station (at the northeast corner of the airport’s parking lot) to International District / Chinatown Station. Be sure to buy a ticket at one of the ORCA vending machines in the station, as Link is a proof-of-payment ride with fare inspectors.

As is the tradition on STB, smack talk is off-topic, unless it is in favor of the home side.