The Pierce Transit Doomsday Scenario

As covered in a previous post, Pierce Transit is undergoing a system redesign process. Unfortunately, Pierce Transit has been hit really hard by the economic crisis and has already been slightly reducing service hours. However, these service hour reductions are the tip of the iceberg in terms of what could happen if no new revenue source is found.

In the PT Tomorrow concept designs it is really disturbing to see what the "Current Funding Concept" entails. A few highlights:

Item	Today	PT Tomorrow	Details
Annual Service Hours	622,000	265,000	A reduction of 57%
Number of Bus Routes	51	23	More than half of PT's routes eliminated
Weekday Service	5am - Midnight	5am - 9pm	Service frequency reductions included as well
Weekend Service	8am - 10pm	8am - 9pm (Sat) 8am - 8pm (Sun)	60 minute frequencies on weekends in PT Tomorrow

Because of this drastic service reduction the following areas would be left without service:

• NE Tacoma
• Connecting Local Service to Federal Way
• No service north of Puyallup (in the Milton and Edgewood area)
• No service east of Bonney Lake P&R (Prairie Ridge, Buckley)
• No PT Buses to Olympia (a reduction of 33% when factoring in weekday IT buses)
  

The following graphic taken from a presentation at PT's latest board meeting sums it up pretty well:



What we would be left with would be a skeletal bus system with poor headways on nearly all routes. Such a massive service reduction as this would take a long time to recover from.

Pierce Transit really needs to find new funding to avert this disaster. Pierce Transit does have some reserves, but only enough to cover it until the year 2012. There are a number of options the Pierce Transit does have to increase funding that we will cover in a later blog post.

Update from Evan: The below listed bill failed to live through this legislative session. (H/T to Seattle Transit Blog)

There is another option that is pending on current state legislative action. House Bill 2855 would authorize transit agencies to enact a temporary vehicle license fee up to $20 per year during times of economic distress. This fee would expire in the year 2014. Back in 2002 when Pierce County had a $15 Vehicle License Fee, it collected nearly $7 million that year from this revenue source. Such money would go a long way in helping Pierce Transit. If re-enacting this fee during these harsh economic times is of interest to you, please support it. Transportation Choices Coalition has set up a website where you can urge your legislator to vote for it here.