1,200 workers complete the switch from surface to underground tracks in 3.5 hours, joining a commuter rail line to the Tokyo subway. More details in this journal paper.

68 comments

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”

| 12 comments

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.

7 comments

The bad news: October saw the lowest percentage growth in Link ridership in the past year and half. The good news is that still translates to 6.8% growth with an additional 2,079 weekday boardings compared to October 2013.

Octobers’s Central Link Weekday/Saturday/Sunday average boardings were 32,502 / 22,138 / 19,761, growth of 6.8%, 5.1%, and -11.0% respectively compared to October 2013. Sounder’s weekday boardings were up 15.9% with ridership increasing on both lines. Tacoma Link’s weekday ridership decreased 0.6%. Weekday ST Express ridership was up 7.4%. System wide weekday boardings were up 7.9%, and all boardings were up 7.0%. The complete October Ridership Summary is here.

My charts below the fold. Continue reading “October 2014 Sound Transit Ridership Report – What’s the Ugly?”

| 16 comments

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.

20 comments

• The Viaduct has settled another 1.2″ ($), and the state discovered over the weekend that the settlement is occurring somewhat unevenly. WSDOT and STP  are now considering stopping dewatering the rescue pit ($), slowing or potentially halting repairs temporarily. Meanwhile, up to 30 Pioneer Square buildings ($) may be sinking too.
• So what is the traffic and transit plan in case of an emergency Viaduct closure? The city last tackled that in 2005, and the plan needs an update.
• Gas prices are sinking too, now below $3 in Washington and even below $2 in Oklahoma and Texas.
• And the seawall? Well, that project is actually going pretty well.
• Bolstered by a $2.3m Regional Mobility Grant, Pierce Transit plans to consolidate two routes (204 + 410) into a new Route 4 along the SR512 corridor. The grant funds are being used to rebuild the 112th/Pacific Ave intersection to optimize transfers.
• Metro drivers picketed outside County offices on Monday.
• Bellevue bike news: a road diet and bike lanes for 116th Ave NE, $1m toward the Eastside Rail Corridor trail, Newport Way improvements, and more.
• Undeterred by threats of $4,000 fines for each driver, Uber launched in Portland last week. The city promptly sued. (City press release here.)
• California also sues over background check requirements ($). Lyft settles, Uber going to court.
• Cascade Bicycle Club has moved into new offices across Magnuson Park. They moved by bike, of course.
• From tweet to installed in just 6 weeks: 15th/Dravus now has a queue jump.
• Road Usage Fees to replace or supplement the gas tax? The Washington State Transportation Commission recommended a one-year pilot on Tuesday, contingent on State authorization.
• Despite adding 3 hours to the schedule earlier this year, the Empire Builder was still late 93.5% of the time in October.
• Is Seattle gentrifying? By one calculation, the answer is not at all. ($)
• What was China up to this week? Oh, only opening 32 new high speed rail routes.
• The mostly status quo $1.1T spending bill going through the House contains $8B in local transit grants, $500m for TIGER, $1.4B for Amtrak, and lots of poison pills too. The Times parses the local impact ($), including $90m more for ULink.
• Washington Bikes and TCC preview the upcoming legislative session.

This is an open thread.

102 comments

Just under a year ago, I wrote a post suggesting that SDOT install a southbound bus lane or queue jump, on 9th Ave just north of Mercer, to help keep Metro Route 40 out of the press of car traffic headed to Mercer and I-5. I’m very happy to report that SDOT is now planning to do something very like what I proposed (minus the bike facility I had suggested), as shown on the map above:

The Seattle Department of Transportation is planning to install the following changes on 9th Avenue between Westlake Avenue and Roy Street:

• Install a new southbound bus lane on 9th Avenue between Westlake Avenue and Roy Street;
• Restrict on-street parking on the west side of 9th Avenue N between Westlake Avenue and Roy Street between 6 -9 am and 3-7 pm;
• Remove restriction to on-street parking on the east side of 9th Avenue N between Westlake Avenue and Roy Street.

This project is part of the City’s efforts to relieve South Lake Union traffic chokepoints. General purpose traffic currently stacks up during both peaks, creating several minutes of delays to Metro Route 40, the primary bus line between Fremont, Ballard, and South Lake Union.

Changes on 9th Avenue N are scheduled to be installed before the end of December, weather permitting.

Assuming this bus lane is adequately enforced, this change should save Route 40 riders at least one signal cycle crossing Mercer in the peak periods. Riding the 40 southbound in the PM peak, I find it mortifying to be stuck on a motionless bus, while half a dozen cars are parked just to the right, squandering precious street space. Props to SDOT for getting this done; let’s have more like this.

24 comments

On Dec. 3 the King County Council was discussing its 2015 legislative agenda when District 1 representative Rod Dembowski brought up a harrowing prospect (a scrollable video is here) . Citing the “historic and continuing lack of representation on the Sound Transit Board of Directors” for the North King cities he represents, Mr. Dembowski stated “I know that there will be probably action with respect to Governance Reform in the legislature ties to proposals for Sound Transit 3.” He wanted to know the County’s official position on this issue.

County Director of Govt. Relations Rachel Smith, speaking on behalf of the Executive, answered that “The Executive supports the current construct of the Sound Transit Board and would not be in favor of any governance changes.”

Mr. Dembowski didn’t take that as an answer, continuing to implore the Council to consider its response.

In a later email to me, Dembowski clarified he “did not ‘support governance reform’ at Sound Transit,” saying he was merely “aimed at being ready to respond when those issues arise in Olympia,” and ” that elected leaders in the north will look at ‘governance reform’ if they continue to be left out.” He declined an opportunity to name specific city officials or legislators.

Rail advocates have usually looked at governance reform, rightly, as a way to fundamentally redirect a Sound Transit Board that most advocates believe is doing basically the right thing. The precise proposals vary — from incorporating roads into the mission, to a directly elected board — but at STB we’ve argued against it here, here, here, here, here, and perhaps most notably here. If finding a spot for the Mayor of Shoreline, for example, heads this off, that would be worthwhile.

As PubliCola points out, with four of Dembowski’s Council colleagues on the board, and Dow Constantine controlling 10 of the 18 appointments to the board, this idea will not find fertile ground at the County.

33 comments

The West Seattle Transportation Coalition will engage with SDOT Engineer Jonathan Dong over the plan to straighten RapidRide C’s path through the Alaska Junction and therefore speed it up.

Neighborhood House Highpoint Center

6400 Sylvan Way SW, Seattle, Washington 98126

6:30-8:30pm

Bruce reported on this proposal last month, and the comment thread revealed a fair amount of resistance to this simple idea. Anyhow, if you are a C rider who would like the trip to be faster, you must help win many of these micro-battles. I encourage you to interact with your neighbors and express your opinion.

86 comments

In the wake of Prop 1’s passage, the City of Seattle finds itself in a position to purchase more bus service. For some bus routes, however, that may be easier said than done.

Consider the 120. Serving White Center and West Seattle along Delridge Way, it claims 7,000 riders in a largely transit-dependent part of town and serves one of 15 designated bus priority corridors in Seattle’s Transit Master Plan. As one of the city’s 10 busiest routes, it would be a good candidate for RapidRide treatment someday.

Despite its popularity, the 120 drops to half-hourly service in the evenings and on Sundays, and would probably benefit from the supplemental funding enabled by the recently-passed Prop. 1. However, since more than 20% of the route’s stops are outside the city limits, the 120 is technically ineligible for Prop. 1 money. This has caused some legitimate concern from West Seattle residents:

After city/cnty guests leave @wstcoalition -co-chair Helmick says Route 120's ineligibility for Prop 1 $ is "obscene"; brainstorming ensues

— West Seattle Blog (@westseattleblog) November 12, 2014

If the City of Seattle would like to improve service on the 120, they have a few options:

1. Create a “short turn” version of the route that doesn’t stray too far from the city line. Some trips would end at the Burien Transit Center and others end closer to Seattle (possibly at the layover space at 15th Ave SW and SW Roxbury in White Center)
2. Find a way to use some of the $3M in Prop. 1 “regional partnership” funds to partner with Burien or the County, though it’s not clear that additional service on the 120 is the highest priority for those funds
3. Convince Burien to provide matching funds for the rest of the route
4. Annex White Center (!)

Of all of these, the first is probably the most straightforward. Burien City Manager Kamuron Gurol told me via email that his constituents had not expressed significant desire for more service on the 120, but were instead focused on the potential loss of service on the commuter express routes 121 and 122, both of which were spared the axe in the recently-improved budget.

A shortened 120 is not optimal. Even setting aside potential rider confusion, a 120 that terminated at, say, Westwood Village would be roughly 1/3 shorter than the normal 120. Nonetheless, it may be the path of least resistance for providing more frequent service between the Delridge area and Downtown.

And thus we get our first lesson in the interesting budget and planning games that will start to happen in the wake of Prop. 1. The chess board just got a little more complicated.

60 comments