Looking good! North End bus service Revamped

Pierce Transit's - System Preservation Plan
Check it out! - http://www.pttomorrow.org

I haven't had a lot of time to look at Pierce Transit’s new proposed system map, but the route design in the North End of Tacoma has improved TREMENDOUSLY.  North 26th and Proctor has become a bus transfer hub - bringing together several routes operating at 20 minute frequency or better (during weekday peak period) and on top of that many important connections have been restored.  Heck, there are even new connections produced that we have never had before!

I made a single recommendation to Mayor Strickland last month that PT's planners should emphasize the Proctor Mixed Use Center as a transfer point for the North End.  It looks like that recommendation has actually come through here.

Here are some exciting changes I see, (with NEW connections in bold):

• Route 11 will now serve Stadium, Tacoma General via Division, 6th Avenue, UPS, Proctor and Point Defiance (SAMI)!  15 minute service during peak periods.
• Route 16 is streamlined so there's less double-backing and is FASTER, and will operate on "I" St., then hit the Proctor District, Stevens St., N 11th, to Wilson HS and TCC.  15 minute service during peak periods.
• Route 13 now looks like it does a loop from Old Town to Proctor to the North Slope, Tacoma General and Downtown. 
• Route 220 (Orchard St.) and Route 51 (Union Ave.) have been consolidated. They are now the new Route 220, which is a link from Proctor to Lakewood. I don’t know how I feel about that quite yet.
• 15 Minute Peak Service during commute hours on Routes: 1, 2, 4 (112th St.), 11, 16, and 402 
• 20 Minute Peak Service during commute hours on Routes: 3, 10, 13, 28, 41, 42, 52, 54, 55, 56, and 202

Commentary

Today Pierce Transit offers essentially three primary service types: Trunk Routes, 30 minute local service, and Bus plus / Shuttle service.  What we're looking at here now is a Pierce Transit with a significantly more varied service structure than before.  In previous plans PT had suggested more 15 minute service on fewer parallel routes.  In this service plan, there's more 20 minute service on more routes connected to each other.  This is a whole new ballgame.

There are two connections that are lost for the North End: between Westgate shopping center and Old Town and the connection between Center Street to the Tacoma Mall.  The portion of Route 13 has never really been very productive, so I'm not all that sad to see it go.  Does the connection to the Lakewood Mall make more sense than the Tacoma Mall?  I don't know.  All I know is that there is something to get excited about having a connection between 6th Avenue and Proctor.

The Downtown Map is still in development.  It'll be complicated.  But regardless, this design looks like better news for Tacoma.