Developing a "Pierce Transit 2.0"

Email has been around for about 30 years - and so has Pierce Transit. Thankfully, Lynne Griffith, the CEO of Pierce Transit is planning on holding a community process to redevelop the operating model of transit in Pierce County.

Today I sat down and tried to come up with some criteria for a "Pierce Transit 2.0." I got the idea for this from Google's creation of Wave, a new experimental communications platform, which was an effort to "create e-mail if it had been invented today."

I've got some design criteria, a couple of concrete actions the organization can take, and some community standards that I don't think have been met by PT, but would be great if they did meet soon.

Pierce Transit 2.0 - System Design Criteria

• Build on top of the majority of the existing system, modify technology and vehicle headways, not so much alignments
  
• Electrified Bus Rapid Transit on central, high speed corridors (trunk routes + route 28, plus planned route 4 and 5) between Transit Centers
• Light Rail Extension to TCC from Downtown Tacoma via 6th Ave (it's already in PSRC plans, Sound Transit's long range plan, etc.)
  
• Partner with City of Tacoma to build a streetcar system to unite mixed-use centers, neighborhoods, and Downtown Tacoma - allowing us to build up and not out
  
• 20 minute headways on most fixed route service, reducing wait times, reduce service on other less heavily-used routes
• Enhanced Downtown Tacoma East-West Circulators & an MLK Transit Station
  
• Express Regional Connections to Bremerton and Olympia from Tacoma
• Sustained commitment to current levels of Access & Bus Plus service, and vanpools.
  

Pierce Transit 2.0 - Concrete Actions to get there

• Development of a twenty-year long range plan and a ten year Transit Investment Plan in order to reach the goal of 20% mode share. Require investments to be matched by local funds in order to leverage all funding mechanisms available for the projects. Send the plan to the voters.
  
• Unlimited Access Mass Transit Funding - Develop a widespread partnership with all businesses, institutions, and non-profit entities to enter into an agreement for rides made by employees and students at a fraction of current cash cost.
  
• Study into long term viability of natural gas fueled fleet, development of transition plans based upon risk assessment scenarios
• Traffic Signal Priority Across the Entire System
• Develop Better customer information tools for cell phone & web-based route planning

Pierce Transit 2.0 - Community Standards

• An elected Citizen Accountability Committee (with a voting representative on the Board), which provides ideas, feedback, and accountability
• On-time-performance of 95% or better
• A seat for every passenger who needs one
• A Bus Shelter for stops with more than 20 boardings per day
• Fare policy that directs additional fares to only to new capital expenses

Tacoma and Portland, High Speed Rail and Streetcars

There's been a flurry of news surrounding High Speed Rail since President Obama unveiled his plan (pdf) for high speed corridors throughout the United States, backed up by $8 billion in federal stimulus funds. In his speech, the first one he mentioned was, you guessed it, "The Pacific Northwest" line. This line is known around here as Amtrak Cascades - it provides service between Eugene, Oregon and Vancouver, BC, and cities in between and is funded by the DOT's of Oregon, Washington, plus Amtrak. This year it celebrated its 10^th anniversary. WADOT is requesting ~$800 million from the feds, to bring speeds up to 110 miles per hour, while constructing several time-saving bypasses.

So why does High Speed Rail matter to Tacoma?

The impacts are part economic, part cultural, and part influence on our government policy, but simply, high speed rail will strengthen connections between the peoples of Tacoma and Portland. Concretely, this means more tourism between the two places, more Tacomans going down to see what is possible with coordinated investments in rail transit, which will probably lead to more people in Tacoma to say “Let's do that here.” Additionally, better connections with Portland mean greater economic exchange and economic development. For example, Portland Ironworks is currently building a streetcar (the first one to be built in the states in 60 years!), but they have a number of orders to fill, and the market is poised to grow exponentially as people in the US start to understand that perpetual life in auto-sprawl isn't what its cracked up to be. In Tacoma we have rail engineers, we have foundries, we have the blue collar manufacturing, we have space and infrastructure to create new industries. We could conceivably partner with them and expand manufacturing capacity for streetcars for use here in the States, and more importantly, to restore Tacoma's once-great streetcar system.

Imagine Tacoma manufacturing top of the line streetcars. Think of the benefits we would reap locally. Think of how such a venture could help the entire country transition to more sustainable communities (another initiative of the Obama Administration).

Imagine catching a modern light rail train from the thriving 6^th Avenue business district through the Stadium District, Downtown Tacoma, to Freighthouse Square and then getting on a high speed train to Portland in 90 minutes. That's what we're talking about, here. There's so much potential. Also, imagine more Portlanders here in Tacoma, helping us brew beer, get light rail transit right, developing bicycle and pedestrian boulevards. Imagine us finally stemming the brain drain to Seattle and Portland if we finally got our act together. By building high speed rail through Tacoma, we can learn from our neighbors and reconstruct the manufacturing sector, ushering in an entirely new era of prosperity for the whole city.

Tacoma needs only commit to such a vision, fill out the necessary federal paperwork, join in the conversation with WADOT and Amtrak, and get Pierce Transit in gear to operate a new streetcar system and take over operations of Tacoma Link ...or we can drag our feet and put it on the shoulders of the next generation of Tacomans, who are getting really impatient with the city's lack of action and are planning on moving to either to Portland or Seattle.



Costs from the City for 6th Ave. buildout 2007


Full system build out at 100 track miles 2007


First two expansions 2007

Sound Transit 2, Streetcars, & Jake Fey

In November 2008 the voters of Puget Sound voted in favor of a mass transit expansion package that promised expanded light rail, express bus service and commuter rail.

We all know what Seattle got out of the measure - more than 35 miles of light rail to such destinations as Lynnwood, Redmond and Federal Way. But what did Tacoma get out of the measure? And who supported it?

This is what Tacoma/Pierce County got:

• A 10% increase in ST Express bus service,
• Four new Sounder Commuter Rail trips, plus longer trains,
• Parking expansion at a number of commuter rail stations, and
• $80 million in capital matching funds to expand Tacoma Link light rail out of downtown.

It's paltry, but it's what a majority of Sound Transit voters in the south end of the Puget Sound wanted. Most, if not all of the projects were geared towards expanding ridership of transit from Tacoma/Pierce County to Seattle, except for the money for Tacoma's light rail line.

Who voted for this? Well, I did some checking, the greatest concentration of support in the entire county (voting 3:2 in favor or better) was in the precincts on the western side of Tacoma Council District #2: Downtown Tacoma, St. Helens, Stadium, the North Slope, UPS, and Old Town. This begs the question of what Tacoma Councilmember Jake Fey, who is up for re-election this year, has to say about light rail and the push to reconstruct a city-wide streetcar system.

Check back with me later next week as I sit down and have a chat with Jake about light rail, streetcars, and the future of Tacoma.