All posts by Brent White

On Monday, December 8th, Pierce Transit’s new fareboxes will “go live” on all Pierce Transit buses, bringing an end to Pierce Transit’s intra-agency paper transfers and introducing a new Pierce Transit All-Day Pass.

Customers who currently pay their fare with cash or a ticket, and who need more than one Pierce Transit bus to reach their destination, will have three options as of December 8th:

(1) Pay a cash fare or use a ticket on each bus they board;
(2) Purchase a Pierce Transit All-Day Pass, good for unlimited rides on Pierce Transit buses for a single service day; or,
(3) Use an ORCA card, loaded with fare product, for an automatic two-hour transfer credit.

Ticket books are no longer sold to the general public.

Pierce Transit cash fares remain the same. Cash fares for a single trip on one Pierce Transit bus remain at $2.00 for adult riders, $.75 for youth (ages 6-18), and $.75 for seniors or individuals with disabilities who show a valid Regional Reduced Fare Permit.

The all-day pass costs $5.00 for adults, $2.50 for youth (ages 6-18), and $2.50 for seniors and persons with disabilities who show a valid Regional Reduced Fare Permit. The all-day pass replaces the Weekend All-Day Pass, and may be purchased seven days a week when boarding Pierce Transit local buses or loaded onto an ORCA card at any ORCA vending machine or retailer that sells ORCA in Pierce County. The all-day pass is not valid on paratransit or other agencies’ services.

The current weekend all-day pass that is going away costs twice the single-ride fare.

The all-day pass allows a rider to pay once and ride an unlimited number of rides on Pierce Transit local buses until the end of the service day. All-day passes on ORCA cards will be activated once tapped on a Pierce Transit bus, and will automatically expire at the end of the service day. All-day passes purchased on a bus will have an expiration date and time imprinted on the back of the pass by the farebox.

Customers may pick up a free ORCA card at the Pierce Transit Bus Shop at 505 East 25th Street, Tacoma, now through December 12th.

Customers can check out the new fareboxes, get information about all-day passes and ride free on all Pierce Transit local service from the beginning of the service day on December 6th until the end of the service day on December 7th. Regular fares resume at the beginning of the service day on December 8th.

The Sound Transit Board of Directors rolled through a series of momentous decisions Thursday afternoon. The agenda and links to back-up materials are available here. Video link is here.

Low-Income Fare and General Fare Increase for Link Light Rail Only

The Board followed the recommendation of Staff and the Board’s Operations and Administration Committee to create a low-income adult fare category, consisting of riders who qualify through King County Metro’s or Kitsap Transit’s low-income fare program (namely, individuals at or below 200% of the federal poverty level), but to offer a low-income fare only on Link Light Rail.

The new low-income fare on Link will be $1.50, matching Metro’s low-income fare. The low-income fare will be available only with an activated low-income ORCA card provided through King County Metro or Kitsap Transit.

All other riders will see their Link fares increase by 25 cents. Riders with a Reduced Regional Fare Permit (seniors 65+ and riders with disabilities) will see their Link fares increase from the current $0.75 to $1.00 per ride. Youth (6-18) will see their Link fares increase from $1.25 to $1.50. Full-fare riders will see their Link fare increase, from the current range of $2.00-$2.75 based on distance, to a range of $2.25-$3.00.

All fare changes will take effect in conjunction with Metro’s fare changes, on March 1, 2015.

Two other options reviewed by staff would have implemented low-income fares on ST Express just within counties, and on ST Express and Sounder throughout the ST service area. Other fare categories on the modes with a low-income fare would have been raised by 25 cents to offset the fiscal impact. Both options would have required making the low-income fare available to riders in Pierce and Snohomish County. They ran into opposition from suburban mayors on the ST Operations and Administration Committee, including Redmond Mayor John Marchione and Sumner Mayor Dave Enslow.

Othello Property Sale for Multi-Use Affordable Housing TOD

Continue reading “Sound Transit Raises Fares, Approves Low-Income Fare for Link”

If you aren’t registered to vote in the State of Washington, you can still register in person this Monday, October 27, at the King County Voter Registration Annex, Room 440 in the King County Administration Building (4th & James, downtown), 8:30 am – 1 pm, and 2 pm – 4:30 pm.

Want to do some campaigning to add more buses on our full bus routes? Check out the latest opportunities at the Yes for Seattle Transportation Propositon 1 website.

One of the route reorganization proposals that has been featured in several Sound Transit Service Improvement Plans has been replacement of ST Express route 586 (Tacoma to the University of Washington) with a new route dropping off these passengers at Westlake Station, to catch Link Light Rail to University of Washington Station. The 2015 Draft SIP gives this proposal a number, route 591.

I am not sure how popular this idea is among UW students living in Tacoma, who might want to simply reverse the direction of the campus loop, and have it serve the U-District on the way to UW Station in the morning, and then have it serve the U-District last before heading down to Tacoma in the evening.

But, really, former 586 riders will not be the primary riders of route 591. With the rise of Amazon’s South Lake Union campus, among other multi-story employers in South Lake Union, there is plenty of demand for a route that not only makes use of the popular Seneca St. exit and drops off at Westlake Station, but also then heads into the South Lake Union business district. That demand exists right now.

Meanwhile, ridership on route 590 has ballooned from 2,139 daily weekday trips in 2012 to 3,011 daily weekday trips in 2013. (See page 77 of the 2015 Draft SIP.)

Let’s take an inventory of how many public bus routes from south of downtown Seattle are doing the SODO crawl, and how many are using the Seneca St. exit from I-5.

Exit from I-5 via Spokane St. viaduct:
King County Metro 101, 102, 150, 177, 178, 190
ST Express 590, 594, 595

Exit from I-5 via Seneca St.:
Metro 143, 157, 158, 159, 179, 192
ST Express 577, 578, 592

For Tacoma-to-Seattle commuters, there is no need to argue over whether the current route 590 or proposed route 591 path is better. There is already plenty of frequency in the peak direction to allow the trips to be split into 590s and 591s, plus the possibility of picking up a lot more riders with direct service to South Lake Union.

I realize I have totally avoided the topic of how route 591 would get to I-5 from South Lake Union and/or Westlake Station. Feel free to get creative in the comments.

The Sound Transit Board of Directors is scheduled to take action on systemwide fare changes next month, raising all non-free fares $0.25, and creating a low-income fare, matching the youth fare.

However, the fare-revenue projections in the recently-released 2015 Draft Service Implementation Plan show a dip in fare revenue next year, even with the increase. (p.103)

The resulting ST Express fares, if the proposal goes through, would be $2.75 for 1-county trips and $3.75 for multi-county trips. It would be a simple matter to raise the cash fare to an even $3 for 1-county trips and $4 for multi-county trips. If it helps push riders to pay by tapping ORCA, then that would be wonderful for the rest of the riders already doing their part. If riders insist on paying with cash, at least most of them would be just shoving in dollar bills, instead of fishing for bills, then fishing for change.

If these fares seem high, consider that they are still less than or equal to what Community Transit is charging for its express routes, in all payer categories.

Charging more for cash fares than ORCA fares is not taboo. King County Ferries has been doing it for years. The low-income fare is ORCA-product-only, which means a de facto cash surcharge for low-income riders of $1.25 on 1-county ST Express trips and $1 on multi-county ST Express trips, if the Board approves staff’s fare proposal.

Given that most ST Express riders are already using ORCA, the reaction to tacking on an extra 25-cent cash surcharge for regular-fare payers would likely be something like this:

Continue reading “$3/$4 ST Express Cash Fares? Sound Transit Could Use the Extra Revenue”

Every year, Sound Transit goes through a process of producing an annual service implementation plan (SIP). Staff takes the previous year’s final SIP, and adds the current year’s performance measurements and any new proposals. The community gets time to offer input. Then, the Board of Directors makes the final decision on approval of the SIP.

Highlights of the 2015 Draft SIP include:

• A new ST Express route between Lakewood Station and Puyallup Station — dubbed route 580 — is proposed. Route 580 would provide 20 new trips each day, mostly timed connections with both peak-direction and counter-peak-direction Sounder. Route 580 would also serve SR 512 P&R, South Hill P&R, and the Puyallup Fairgrounds Red Lot. (p.86)
• Link peak frequency may improve to every 6 minutes during peak as early as September 2015. (p.92) The projections still show Link running out of standing room during the peak of peak by 2018. (p.93)
• South Sounder is still scheduled to add a peak-direction round trip and a reverse-direction round trip in September 2016, and then an off-peak round trip in September 2017. (p.94)
• A wish list (subtly styled “Immediate Needs”) of additional service on ST Express includes suggested, but unfunded, added runs on routes 510, 511, 512, 522, 532, 545, 550, 554, 556, 560, 566, 567, 574, 577, 578, 590, and 594. (pp.99-100)
• Elements of the Transit Integration Report have been rolled into the SIP, including a restructure of SR 520 service around the opening of U-Link. (p.94) However, staff is still working on these proposals, and they will be presented to the Board in the form of amendments to the 2015 SIP, in May or June of next year. (p.8)
• The previous proposals for 2016 to restructure route 574 to serve Angle Lake Station, and to replace route 586 with a new route between downtown Tacoma and north downtown Seattle (now proposed to be numbered 591) still stand. (p.94)
• Inter-agency teams are working out plans to deal with long-term construction re-routes. (p.95)

As per tradition, the SIP contains reams of data on ridership, and other performance measures. We’ll dig in deeper in later posts, especially into some of the route performance trends and the mysteriously conservative revenue forecasting.

Again, this is only a draft SIP. Ultimately, it is up to Sound Transit’s Board to act on the SIP’s wish list for additional ST Express runs, and to approve the “final” version of the 2015 SIP.

Check back here for a list of open houses on the SIP.

A public hearing on the SIP will be held Thursday, November 6, 12:00-12:30 pm, in the Ruth Fisher Boardroom at Union Station, 401 S. Jackson St.

Route 132 has long been one of King County Metro’s most circuitous neighborhood milk-run routes. Since Link opened, route 132 has undergone several changes, including moving up to half-hourly all-day frequency, and changing its southern terminus to Burien Transit Center.

Whenever it was suggested that route 132 be re-routed to serve Tukwila International Boulevard Station, a couple of major hurdles stood in the way. One was the continuing portion of the route south of Burien TC, which has since become part of route 166. The other hurdle was a major trip generator, the Navos Clinic at 1010 S 146th St., or, to be more accurate, the clinic formerly at that address. Now, the site is just a pasture with a stormwater detention pond.

Perhaps the stretch of Waller Creek along Des Moines Memorial Way from S 128th to S 144th, the series of stormwater ponds along S 144th St / S 144th Way / S 146th St, the pocket park at the top of the hill on S 146th, and that one block of single-family homes which are well within the walkshed of route 131 on 1st Ave S are not the best place to use scarce service hours.

Very few people would lose service if route 132 is re-routed to serve Des Moines Memorial Way from South Park down to S 128th St, then S 128th over to Military Rd S, and then Military Rd S, S 144th, and Tukwila International Boulevard down to the train station. Many would gain significant connectivity to South King County and beyond.

King County Metro and Sound Transit are still in discussions about which, and how many, buses to run in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel after U-Link opens in 2016. Sound Transit and Metro are looking at running 40-50 buses in each direction during the peak hour, assuming 6-minute headway on Link trains, according to Sound Transit spokesman Bruce Gray.

Gray noted that Metro and Sound Transit meet frequently to discuss ways to improve joint tunnel operations, and can decide to move a bus route out, among other measures, if on-time performance doesn’t meet expectations, although the expectations are currently being met. King County Department of Transportation spokesman Jeff Switzer noted that, in addition to other ways of decreasing dwell and waiting time, Metro is looking at having only one bus bay per platform, perhaps even before U-Link opens.

Also still under discussion is the date buses will leave the tunnel forever. Although Sound Transit has been planning for a 2019 date, the King County and Sound Transit spokesmen did not deny that joint operations might continue until Northgate Link opens in 2021, and perhaps as late as East Link opening in 2023.

What does not appear to be on the table is Link frequency 2016-2021, and the possibility of running longer trains outside of peak. While Sound Transit has enough Light-Rail Vehicles to run 3-car trains at 7.5-minute peak headway, and can fit up to 104 LRVs at the current base, Gray pointed out that running 3-car trains all day would increase LRV mileage and maintenance costs significantly, and that off-peak ridership is nowhere near enough to justify longer trains. Sound Transit will be able to deploy 3- or 4-car trains on short notice to clear crowds. Two Link operators are kept on standby in case extra trains are needed.

However, 3- and 4-car trains will not be able to operate in the tunnel until after U-Link opens, due to safety restrictions. Sound Transit (via Gray) dismissed Glenn’s suggestion of de-coupling and recoupling trains due to safety considerations and the operation taking longer than two train cycles to perform.

Continue reading “Post-2016 Tunnel Buses”