Pierce County at work on Canyon Road and 176th

Picture of Canyon Road from Pierce County Public Works and Utilities

While WSDOT is upgrading the highways in Tacoma's urban core, Pierce County is hard at work on upgrading roads through Central Pierce County. The most notable of these projects is Canyon Road and 176th Street. The Tacoma News Tribune has a brief story on funding proposed to be secured for the latest projects.

Canyon Road has a whole number of projects throughout its length. Some of Canyon Road is already 5 or more lanes wide. A widening was recently completed between 116th and 144th this January. In this round of phasing, Pierce County would widen Canyon road between 160th and 172nd. Ultimately all of Canyon road is set to be 5 lanes wide or wider all the way from 260th to the Puyallup river including a new bridge over Pioneer Way.

Similarly, 176th already is 5 lanes in some places, with work underway on widening the road between Canyon Road and Gem Heights Drive. The phase proposed would widen 176th from Waller Road to 51st and replace a bridge over the railroad tracks between 51st and Canyon Road. Ultimately, 176th would be 5 or more lanes wide all the way from Meridian to Pacific. And on top of that, 176th would also connect to the Cross-Base Highway.

Would Pierce Transit Really Cut Route 3?

Bus Stop of the #3 from flickr user DJStroky

Here at Tacoma Tomorrow, we have been covering the PT Tomorrow redesign process in numerous previous posts. In the last post about Pierce Transit ridership a chart was presented that showed ridership on each Pierce Transit route, including the Sound Transit routes operated by Pierce Transit. As for the highest ridership routes, Pierce Transit doesn't have any drastic changes proposed for either the 1 or the 2. Sound Transit does have plans ^(pdf) to increase service on the 590 routes as well as the 574. The big surprise though is that in the current funding concept of PT Tomorrow, Pierce Transit is proposing to completely cut route 3, Pierce Transit's 3rd highest ridership route.

Cutting the 3 would leave a large gap in the system. There would no longer be a route from Downtown to Tacoma Mall (yes the 53 and 57 would be cut too). There would still be connections from Downtown to Lakewood via the 590s or the 2. Between the Tacoma Mall and Lakewood, one could still take the 300 to get to some, but not the same parts of Lakewood.

In the new funding scenario, the 3 is restored, but it skips the Downtown core and heads straight down 25th to Tacoma Dome Station. The 53 is restored, but only in the part from Tacoma Mall to University Place. The 57 is also restored, but it also heads straight down 25th to Tacoma Dome Station. However, there would be a new express route between downtown and Tacoma Mall in the new funding scenario.

Full disclosure: I live in a condo building right across the street from a bus stop for the 3.

Pierce Transit Ridership - January 2010

Earlier this week I was sent Pierce Transit's Monthly Operating Summary Report. The report has a variety of information and also a route-by-route listing of ridership. Since I had this information, I thought it might be fun to make a chart of average weekday ridership similar to the chart of King County Metro Ridership that Adam Parast over at Seattle Transit Blog made. So without further ado, here is Pierce Transit's Ridership chart organized from most popular route to least and also including ridership on Intercity Transit's 603.

PT Tomorrow and Downtown Tacoma

Photo Provided with Permission from Karly Siroky

As with nearly everywhere with the concepts for PT Tomorrow the changes are drastic. Downtown Tacoma is no exception. There are changes in bus routing in the downtown core, at Tacoma Dome Station and there are more considerations to think about with the new strategy. PT Tomorrow has maps of what downtown service would look in each scenario.

Today in the downtown core, sixteen bus routes travel along Pacific and Commerce, and one bus route each excluding route 26 travels along Market, Tacoma, Yakima and MLK. In the current funding concept, this is cut to seven bus routes with only three of those being Pierce Transit buses. Market, Tacoma and Yakima would all have at least two bus routes depending on the scenario. MLK south of 12th would only have bus route 26.

Yet with the spreading out of routes through downtown, there is an increasing convergence of bus routes at Tacoma Dome Station. Today, just six PT routes go to TDS. In the current funding scenario six routes still use it, however that is because of the 16 and 26 going there and the 500 and 501 being cut. In the new funding scenario, fifteen routes would now converge upon Tacoma Dome Station. Also quite interesting is that of these fifteen, most of them wouldn't go downtown. The new 11/13 and the 16 would go near downtown, but the 3 and 57 would skip straight down 25th to TDS and all PT buses coming from the east would just end at TDS.

Also interesting is the creation of S 25th Street as a major new transit corridor. Four routes would now climb up the hill fanning out northward onto Market, Tacoma, Yakima and MLK under current funding with the 3 and 57 continuing west in the new funding scenario.

This new strategy is moving away from using Commerce Street as the focal point of downtown bus transfers. However, there are sure a lot of hills that riders may have to climb in order to make a transfer. There is also the issue of security. Commerce Street has a lot of security in place, but now with transfer points dispersed about downtown it may be a little harder to manage.

Extending Tacoma Link East

This is now the fourth post in a series of posts that has gone over studies have been performed thus far on extending the Tacoma Streetcar. Tacoma Tomorrow began with an outline of a few long-range planning papers that Sound Transit published in 2005 and recently highlighted a few additional studies done through the City of Tacoma. The prospect of extending the streetcar west and also the predicament of choosing whether to use streetcar or light rail technology were discussed in detail.

Building upon this knowledge, Tacoma Tomorrow now examines what analysis has been done on extending the streetcar east. The Sound Transit long-range issue paper ^(pdf) on extending the streetcar east focuses nearly exclusively on extensions only as far as the Emerald Queen Casino site or what was then referred to as the Cascades Casino site. This was a tribal casino expansion project which apparently has yet to seriously materialize (correct me if I'm wrong). The issue paper also references yet another feasibility study from 2004 with regards to a number of items. Personally I'm not going to try to dig up studies older than 5 years, but if someone wants to comment a link to it if they find it, feel free to do so.

Of course, the larger issue of the debate of how to integrate with Central Link once it is finally extended from Federal Way to Tacoma is the 800 pound gorilla in this extension. Will the east extension use the same tracks as the Central Link tracks? Same vehicles? And would an extension down Portland Ave split to the east and west?

Another major hurdle is I-5. In order to go under it on Portland Ave, the issue paper states that Portland Ave would have to be widened and private property would have to be purchased. Also, WSDOT is planning on doing significant work on I-5 in this area as a part of their I-5 / SR 16 Tacoma/Pierce County HOV Program.

Additional Studies on the Tacoma Streetcar

A few posts ago, we highlighted the long-range draft papers that Sound Transit produced back in 2005. Since then, we have come across a number of other documents, studies, etc that have been done in regards to possible extensions to the Tacoma Streetcar or of new lines altogether. The City of Tacoma sent along the last 3 items while Chris found the Sound Transit item. They are as follows starting with the oldest document first:

Sound Transit Long-Range Draft Paper Summary Brochure
Chris sent me this item. It appears that Sound Transit made an informational brochure of the draft papers in 2005. Pretty useful as a basic fact sheet still today.

Streetcar Advisory Committee 'Feasibility' Presentation
Back in 2007, there was a streetcar advisory committee that took a look at a variety of different expansion options for the Streetcar. While the study didn't include engineering or ridership forecasting, it did come up with a number of alternatives for expansion. Also, a supplemental document breaks down each line's estimated costs.

TIGER Grant Application for the Stadium Way Streetcar Project
Had no idea about this one. Apparently the City of Tacoma applied for a TIGER grant made available through 2009's ARRA stimulus for extending the Streetcar up Stadium Way. The TIGER selection process has already been completed for the TIGER grant applications for stimulus dollars, however there is still $600 million available in TIGER grants in this year's federal transportation budget.

MLK Streetcar Study
This is a fairly detailed study of how to implement what appears to be a stand-alone streetcar system along MLK or perhaps coupled along J Street. This study was prepared as recently as December 2009.

WSDOT announces funding for D-M St. & Pt. Defiance Bypass

Photo: Downtown Tacoma taken from the 507 train to Portland

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kightp/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

We've just gotten word that WSDOT has submitted a list of proposed projects to fund with the $598 million it is receiving from the Obama Administration to invest in high speed rail.  The Federal Railroad Administration apparently could confirm the list of projects within the week, enabling construction to begin this year and be completed in 2012.

Included in the list of fast-tracked projects are the, until now underfunded Point Defiance Bypass and D-M St. Sounder connection.  This announcement all but confirms that the Lakewood to Tacoma Sounder Commuter Rail connection will be ready for service in 2012, as well including six daily round trips to Portland available from Tacoma Dome Station / Freighthouse Square.  These upgrades will apparently improve reliability to at least 88%.  Awesome.

Here's the immediate project list:

• Tacoma – D to M Street Connection - $34.3 million 
• Tacoma – Point Defiance Bypass - $91.6 million 
• Advanced Signal System‐ Positive Train Control (PTC) - $62.3 million 
• Vancouver – Yard Bypass Track - $29.1 million 
• Corridor Reliability Upgrades South - $94.1 million

I wonder if in the future we'll be able to leverage these long haul trains for additional express commuter service.  We should set a goal of getting Tacoma Link to the Stadium District by 2012, the McMenamins at the Elks lodge is opening that year too.  A train to the train could actually be possible.  Good development.


Press release here:  http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/News/2010/03/3222010_ARRArailproposedlist.htm

Pierce Transit's Emergency Funding alive again! Call Olympia!

Ben Schiendelman at the Seattle Transit Blog is reporting that emergency transit funding for Pierce, King, and Snohomish counties is back on the table again thanks to Representative Marko Liias.

Marko Liias’ HB 2855 is back in the special session! It’s been modified, though, so it would offer King, Pierce or Snohomish the opportunity for up to a $50 vehicle license fee with a public vote. Martin’s noted in the past that $40 would be enough to patch up Metro’s budget hole, and it’s certainly a good start for Pierce or Community Transit.

This bill will likely be on the floor today, and this is probably your last chance to take action during the session. 

This bill could give Pierce Transit more time to create a better redesign plan than is currently in the works.  For Tacoma, our legislators are primarily in the 27th and 29th Districts.  The 28th District covers some parts of the West End.  Find your legislator, here.

Please call your representatives & House Speaker Frank Chopp (360) 786-7920.  Tell them that you care about public transportation in Washington State and that you want a YES vote on HB 2855.

27TH DISTRICT (North Tacoma, NE Tacoma & East Side)
Rep. Dennis Flannigan (D)
Olympia: 360-786-7930
flannigan.dennis@leg.wa.gov

Rep. Jeannie Darneille (D)
Olympia: 360-786-7974
darneille.jeannie@leg.wa.gov

28TH DISTRICT (West Tacoma)
Rep. Troy Kelley (D)
Olympia: 360-786-7890
kelley.troy@leg.wa.gov


Rep. Tami Green (D)Olympia: 360-786-7958
green.tami@leg.wa.gov

29TH DISTRICT (South Tacoma)
Rep. Steve Conway (D)    
Olympia: 360-786-7906
conway.steve@leg.wa.gov

Rep. Steve Kirby (D)      
Olympia: 360-786-7996
kirby.steve@leg.wa.gov

Pierce Transit Now Online on One Bus Away

Real-Time Bus Information for Pierce Transit is here! Just a day or so ago, One Bus Away started providing Pierce Transit's real-time arrival information through it's development server.

The information should also be available on OneBusAway's suite of services including SMS Messaging, an iPhone App, an Android App, via a mobile website, or even via an automated telephone service.

One Bus Away is looking for testers to see how accurate the arrival information is. If you see some issues, be sure to report them to contact@onebusaway.org. During my lunch break I watched the buses on Pacific from my office. It seemed pretty accurate and predicted exactly when 2 Pierce Transit #1's that were bunched together would arrive.

Tacoma Tomorrow would like to send out big thanks to the IT Staff at Pierce Transit and Brian Ferris over at One Bus Away for getting all of this work done! Also a thank you to Sound Transit is also deserved for funding a large part of the technology upgrade that made this possible. Can't wait to see and hear the reactions.

Narrows Bridge Tolling in The News

Tolling the Narrows Bridge picture from WSDOT's Flickr

The TNT has really been on top of the goings on with recent happenings with tolling-related issues on the Narrows Bridge. Here is a summary of what's been happening recently:

January:

Toll Increases are Proposed - The Washington State Transportation Commission (WSTC) proposes to raise to tolls $1 for vehicles without transponders and $0.50 for vehicles with transponders.

February:

A crowd of 200 or so fills the Gig Harbor Civic Center to complain about the proposed increases.

A new recommendation from the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Citizen Advisory Committee is made to keep the transponder toll at $2.75 while raising the non-transponder toll to $5. Also, accusations fly that the proposed toll increases are actually aimed at improving bond ratings for future transportation projects such as Seattle's 520 bridge and the viaduct.

A new bill in the state senate (SB 6499) has been passed. The bill would change responsibility for the collection of monies from people traveling over the bridge without a transponder and without paying. Currently district courts are tasked with this role, whereas the bill would move that into the change that responsibility to be WSDOT's. There wouldn't be a $52 ticket either, instead there would be an 80 day grace period wherein evaders would be able to actually pay the toll plus an administrative fee.

The State Transportation Budget is modified slightly in regards to paying off loans for the bridge. There had been a transfer from the state vehicle account to the bridge account to help pay for 2 years of toll operations. This loan is now set to be payed by the possible revenues from the toll violators and slightly deferred.

March

SB 6499 passes the house.

The tolls will not increase says the Transportation Commission. The deferment of one of the loans was the key factor for the reversal of this decision. However, the commission notes that eventually the tolls will have to go up to pay off the debt.

Murray Morgan Bridge to Re-Open to Pedestrians and Bicyclists on March 31

Photo of Murray Morgan Bridge from Flickr user itsbooyer

The City of Tacoma has just announced this news. The event on March 31st will also be held to acknowledge the turnback agreement wherein the City of Tacoma would take over ownership of the bridge from WSDOT.

Sound Transit to Discuss Possible Fare Increase

Sound Transit has the topic of Fare Increases on it's agenda for Thursday's Board Meeting. More info about this meeting can be found here. In the documents in the bottom of that page there are a few discussions about fare policy and such. The most important points that are made are as follows:

• Sound Transit has raised fares only once since 1999, while Pierce Transit has raised fares 4 times in the same timeframe
• Sound Transit typically provides 'premium' bus service and therefore it reasons that fares should be comparable or higher than the fares of local transit agencies

No changes to the fares of the Tacoma streetcar or the Sounder are proposed. However, there will be a big change in the fare structure for Sound Transit bus routes. The fare structure will be slightly simplified in that fares will still be zone-based, but the zones will be counties instead of Sound Transit sub-areas. And with that, the fares will be increased. The chart below illustrates what will happen.

As applied to Pierce County, this means that fares will be increased from $1.50 to $2.50 per trip that stays inside Pierce County. Trips that go outside Pierce County will increase to $3.50 from either $2.50 if it was within the current 2-zone structure or from $3 if it was a trip that went through 3 zones today.

Streetcar or Light Rail?

This is the second post in a series of posts that will go over what studies have been performed thus far on extending the Tacoma Streetcar. Tacoma Tomorrow began with an outline of what work has been done and recently discussed extending the streetcar west. This post examines the difficulty of choosing whether to use the existing streetcar vehicles or to integrate them with the vehicles being used on Seattle's Central Link light rail system.

This whole discussion stems from the first sentence in the introduction of the issue paper: Tacoma Link Integration with Central Link. It states:

Sound Transit’s existing Regional Transit Long-Range Plan calls for light rail transit (LRT) service to operate between downtown Tacoma and downtown Seattle.

What this means is that ultimately Sound Transit's plan calls for a continuous light rail system between downtown Seattle and downtown Tacoma. And that means that the clear option for vehicle technology will be Central Link vehicles. The only real decision after that is how does this more heavy-duty rail infrastructure connect with the existing Tacoma Streetcar.

The two obvious choices are to either convert the Tacoma Streetcar to Central Link technology or to keep the Tacoma Streetcar the way it is, but require a transfer between the systems. And once that major choice is made, the long-range consideration of how many Central Link vehicles to operate with also comes into play. The following table breaks it down fairly well:

The shortcoming of keeping the Tacoma Streetcar technology is that passengers coming from Federal Way and other points north via Light Rail would have to transfer at Tacoma Dome station to finally reach downtown Tacoma. However, if the Tacoma Streetcar is converted to Central Link technology, the turn at 25th and Pacific would have to rebuilt and the stations would have to be modified to allow for larger trains.

If four-car trains Central Link trains were to be used in downtown Tacoma, then major reconfigurations of the downtown area would have to be undertaken.

Another consideration is whether the Tacoma Streetcar will be extended to points west or other places. If the existing system is converted to the Central Link technology that is what would have to be used in other extensions. As noted in a previous post, the ridership demand on the possible extension down 6th ave would require either coupled Tacoma Streetcars running every 6 minutes or just one Central Link vehicle running every 7.5 minutes.

Evaluating PT Tomorrow's Route 4

Transit Food for Thought:

Below are two areas that are slated for 15 minute bus service in the current version of the PT redesign.  First is Route 1 along 6th Avenue, with a fine-grained mixed use nature.  Next is the proposed Route 4 along 112th St, combining Route 214 (Lakewood-Parkland) and Route 410 (Parkland-South Hill).

6th Avenue in Tacoma (~4 blocks in either direction)

112th St. in Unincorporated Pierce County (~7 blocks in either direction)

Notice the large areas of what looks like farmland, parking lots and untamed wilds.  Do both of these routes really support 15 minute service?  Why does Pierce Transit think they do?

Discussion:
The proposed new trunk route is supposed to connect three different transit centers: South Hill Mall, Lakewood Town Center, a distance of 11 miles, that is 7 miles from the City Center.

Few connections, little density
But a route devoid of density in the surrounding area (where your ridership pool comes from) makes it difficult to justify increasing vehicle headways by 100% if the routes that connect to the proposed trunk route are either going to decrease in frequency or go away entirely.  In Parkland, Route 55 is poised to be reduced in service 50%, Route 45 is to be elminated, leaving only Bus Plus service, which serves very few riders, and then Route 1.

Double-counting riders
I wonder if PT has ever really considered if the high ridership on Routes 410 and 204 may be just an artifact of people making really long trips using a transit-center based bus system.  Wouldn't it be ironic if PT created the trunk route and increased service by 100% and then ridership remained more or less the same?  If that were the case then the way ridership is counted, ridership would actually decrease by 50%, reducing cost effectiveness by 50%.  That's would be a huge waste of 32,000 operating hours, equivalent to Routes 51, 220, and 13... before service was cut in 2008.  In that year, Route 1 used 72,000 operating hours.

Planning Methodology
The fact that this is being proposed raises a red flag in Pierce Transit's routing methodology.  Instead of trunk service, an express service (perhaps funded by ST) to the two distant transit centers using highway 512 may be warranted (balancing against other system needs of course).  The two routes probably should be interlined just so it becomes apparent that their costliness is masked by the fact that ridership is being double-counted.

Design Alternative
Convert proposed Route 4 to a simple interlined half hour service with some additional traffic signal priority to speed travel and improve service reliability.  Consider including a Lakewood-South Hill express route operating once every 40 minutes (or at peak times only) funded by Sound Transit.  Potential savings: ~30,000 service hours.

Draft transit network ignores Old Town

PT Tomorrow (Unofficial Version 1.0)

 
It's difficult to tell what kind of a response Pierce Transit is getting back from the public about its initial attempt at a "redesign," since the website hasn't enabled Web 2.0 functionality, which would improve citizen-government dialog on the web.

From the reactions that I saw from within the Citizen Review Committee last week, people are unclear about the principles that are being expressed in this new system and what tangibly improves from the existing one that will benefit riders and encourage voters to approve a sales tax increase.

This is tall order and it's impossible to get it right the first time.  Some people will inevitably be winners and losers since routing will have to be restructured and cut in some places to benefit more efficient parts of the system.  The Committee will be doing its best to advise staff about the system redesign in a balanced manner.  No one was calling for a "no-build" option, where Pierce Transit remains at current funding levels and cuts service by 60% in 2012.

Generally, there was support for:

• Moving off of Commerce St. in Downtown
• Distributing service off of Pacific Avenue, a traffic bottleneck already served by Tacoma Link
• Bus Rapid Transit or Limited Stop service on parts of Route 1
• Providing some form of service to Dupont
• Improving service to Northeast Tacoma
• Meeting federal obligations for Shuttle service and using Bus Plus in some cases
• Seeking full funding at a 0.9% sales tax rate

However, there were concerns about:

1. Greater emphasis on Transit Centers
1. Trunk routes still "branch" mainly at transit centers
2. Proposed new trunk route "lives off of" the transit centers
2. Service expansion occurring in marginal transit markets
3. The City of Tacoma's route network still needs work
1. Downtown Tacoma's network not very intuitive
2. South Tacoma service goes from 30 minute to 45 minutes
3. North Tacoma loses part of historic Route 11 and all connection to the Ruston Way Waterfront, Old Town Tacoma, and Point Defiance (which isolates the transit system from the Freedom Fair, Tall Ships, and Taste of Tacoma)
4. North Tacoma to South Tacoma service is still limited and still requires going through the CBD
5. Network connectivity on Route 1 reduced by discontinuing North-South routing (Routes 220 and 51)
6. Diverting most routes to Tacoma Dome Station along 25th St. without connections to the south side of Tacoma
7. New Route 16 leaves us all still scratching our heads
8. Reliable links amongst mixed use center/neighborhood/business district service remain mostly elusive
9. Hilltop totally gets the shaft (service used to be routes with 15+30 minutes), now it appears to be every ~60 minutes along MLK

Exceptionally good ideas

• Route 26 makes an effort to link the Stadium District, Hilltop, and Regional Connections at Tacoma Dome Station (though it's also partially duplicative)
• Proctor gets a connection to Westgate
• Route plan appears to rely on a Link extension to Stadium District and Tacoma General at 6th Avenue
• Potentially the drop in local service by PT may be a prelude (or organized transition) to transition to 10 minute streetcar service along MLK

Extending Tacoma Link West

This is the first post in a series of posts that will go over what studies have been performed thus far on extending the Tacoma Streetcar. Tacoma Tomorrow began with an outline of what work has been done so far in a previous post. This post is about extending the streetcar west.

As mentioned before, there was a long range issue paper written in the year 2005 for Sound Transit that looked into extending the streetcar west. That paper can be found online here ^(pdf). Sound Transit has also had this project in their long range pipeline for some time. Sound Transit made what is called a project template for the project and I was able to find a link to that document here ^(pdf) via an old Exit133 post.

The Options

The long range issue paper did some brainstorming on what routes to cover and also identified some of the major concerns with a few of the lines. This study identified 3 sample routes for extending the streetcar west:

• Option 1 – 6th Avenue Corridor (blue on the map)
  
• Option 2 – South 19th Street Corridor (red on the map)
  
• Option 3 – North 21st Street and South 12th Street Corridors (orange on the map)
  

All of these possible alignments began by ascending Stadium Way from the existing end of the line and ended at TCC. The following map shows where exactly these alignments went:


Ridership

Since Sound Transit includes the extension via 6th ave in their forecasts, they do have some detailed ridership about this option only. According to the forecasts, this option would attract about 15,500 daily riders. Another very useful detail is that the peak segment of this ridership would occur between Stadium District and the Theater District and would be 980 riders per direction per hour. The implications of this ridership demand impacts the possible choice of vehicles required to serve the demand. Tacoma Tomorrow will cover the choice of using Tacoma Link technology or Central Link technology in a later post. However, for now here is a table showing the possible vehicle fleet and headways needed to serve the demand:



Stadium Way vs St. Helens

This is an interesting discussion here. The issue paper notes that it may be possible to use Saint Helens instead of or in combination with Stadium Way to extend the streetcar up to the Stadium district. Each alignment has its share of issues. Stadium Way has a steep bluff that could present some engineering challenges. However, in order to get up to Saint Helens, the streetcar would have to either make a 90 degree turn and travel up either 9th or 11th, or Pierce Transit's transit facility would have to be demolished to make way for the streetcar to get up to Broadway. A Saint Helens routing would of course serve more businesses and residents and wouldn't require a walk up from Stadium Way or further.

Cross-Sections

The appendix in the issue paper also includes some illustrative cross-sections at certain places along the alignment. The main point to bring out of these cross-sections is that once the streetcar gets along some tight areas along 6th Ave, it will require the removal of parking on one side of the street and at stations it will require removal on both sides. Shown below is an example cross-section without a station:



Costs

It's always tricky to estimate the costs of these lines without having done a thorough environmental review. But hey, this is all conceptual anyways. The issue paper gives a range of $400-$500 million¹ for a full build-out of each line to TCC. However, the project template reports a higher estimate of $580-666 million¹ for option one.

^{1: 2005 dollars}

More Details on PT Tomorrow

Pierce Transit has recently updated their PT Tomorrow website. Included in that update are a bunch of pretty maps and a route-by-route description of changes proposed. Listed in the table below is a route-by-route overview of the proposed changes. The Today column shows today's headways and the other scenarios provide the proposed headways plus a brief summary of other route changes. I also abbreviated a few things: CBD refers to Downtown Tacoma, TDS is Tacoma Dome Station, FW is Federal Way.

	Table of Proposed Headways and Major Changes
Route	Today	Current Funding	New Funding
1	15-30	30	15-30 + express service
2	15-30	30	15-30
3	15-30	CUT	15-30
10	30-60	60	30
11	30-60	CUT	Merged w/ 13, Skip Stadium and CBD, to TDS via Yakima/25th
13	30-60	CUT	Merged w/ 11, Skip Stadium and CBD, to TDS via Yakima/25th
16	30-60	60 + route change	30, Skip Stadium and CBD, to TDS via Yakima/25th
26	60	?? + new loop via: TDS > 25th > MLK > Stadium > CBD > TDS
28	15-30	60	20-30
41	30-60	60	30-45 (skip Salishan)
42	30-60	60	30-45 (via Market/Tacoma in CBD)
45	30-60	CUT	CUT
48	30	CUT	30 (No CBD service)
51	60	CUT	CUT
52	30	60	30
53	30-60	CUT	30 (No CBD service)
54	30-60	60	45
55	30-60	60	45
56	30	CUT	45
57	30-60	CUT	30 (end at TDS, skip cbd)
59	30	CUT	2 peak trips only
60	60	CUT	CUT
61	60	CUT	Peak only ending at TDS
100	60	CUT	60
102	30	60	30
113	120	CUT	Replace w/ Bus Plus
202	30-60	60	15-30
204	15-30	60	15 + Combine w/ 410
206	30-60	60	30-45
207	30	CUT	CUT
212	30-60	60 + No Steilacoom	60 + No Steilacoom
214	30-60	60	60 + Lakewood Station
220	60	CUT	CUT
300	30-60	60	30
402	30-60	60 + to TDS instead of FW, cut service along 224th	30 + to TDS instead of FW, cut service along 224th
406	120	CUT	CUT
407	120	CUT	60 + Merge w/ 408
408	30-60	CUT	60 + Merge w/ 407
409	30-60	CUT	30-60
410	30	60	15 + Combine w/ 204
413	60	CUT	Replace w/ Bus Plus
444	120	CUT	Replace w/ Bus Plus
446	120	CUT	Replace w/ Bus Plus
490	30	Replaced w/ new 402	Replaced w/ new 402
495	30	30	30
496	30	30	30
497	30	30	30
500	30-60	CUT	30-60 (End at TDS)
501	30-60	30 CUT	30 (End at TDS)
601	30	CUT	CUT
603	30-60	CUT	90 + Peak only, from Lakewood Station

Also included in the New Funding scenario would be a new Bus Plus service in the DuPont-JBLM-Lakewood area as well as a peak only bus from the Tacoma Mall to Downtown Tacoma.

PT is holding a bunch of public meetings in the near future. Here is a list of them:

March 23, 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Lakewood/University Place
Pierce Transit Training Center

March 25, 6:00 - 10:00 a.m.
Tacoma Community College

March 29, 6:00 - 10:00 a.m.
Commerce Street Transit Center

March 29, 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Gig Harbor/Key Peninsula
Gig Harbor Civic Center

March 31, 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Parkland/Spanaway
Paradise Village Bowl

April 1, 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. and 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Tacoma
Evergreen State College

April 5, 6:00 - 7:30pm
Puyallup/South Hill/Sumner/Bonney Lake
Puyallup Library

I-5 / SR 16 Project Moving Forward

Back at the end of January, the Westbound Nalley Valley project reached the one-year mark of construction. It is quite impressive to see the work that has been done so far. Below is a picture of the latest picture WSDOT has posted on their flickr page from this project:

Photo from WSDOT's Flickr Page

A recent news release from WSDOT summarize's the work completed thus far. A few of the highlights of the project are quoted below:

* Sprague Avenue ramps demolished
* New temporary eastbound roadway built
* 69 of 84 deep-bore foundation shafts drilled
* 51 of 77 towering bridge columns complete
* 28 bridge girders set
* Seven stormwater ponds dug
* 12,000 cubic yards of concrete placed
* 70,000 cubic yards of earth excavated
* 140,000 tons of gravel brought to the site

WSDOT is planning on progressing to the next major phase of the construction project which includes closing the Sprague Ave Exit for a year while WSDOT configures the new interchange. The TNT has a great story on this new phase here. The closure was initially scheduled for this weekend, but weather changed those plans ^(pdf). The closure of Sprague will now begin the following weekend (March 20-21).

Huge News for Bicyclists: Google Maps Adds Bicycling Routing

It's online, go try it!

Here's a blog post from BikePortland with some more detail.

"Political solution" sought for Tacoma Streetcar Initiative

Deep in the comment thread at Exit133 about the streetcar Derek mentions some interesting information. He notes that on March 2, 2010 at the Committee of the Whole Meeting, the City Council did discuss the streetcar initiative and received a general update about progress on the streetcar. TV Tacoma has archived audio of this meeting here. The two main points came up were that studies are coming up and that the city will likely move to authorize a pre-election challenge of the initiative.

In this meeting, City Manager Eric Anderson and the Council discussed various background and such on the streetcar (12:50 - 52:00 in the audio). The big point that came out of that discussion is that the City is going to be working on a "mini-alternatives analysis" anticipated to be finished by the end of this year while Sound Transit will be doing a full-on federally-acceptable alternatives analysis that will take 18-24 months. The reason Eric mentioned the need for these duplicate reports is that Stadium way needs to be replaced ASAP and the City can't wait for three-four years.

After this, City Attorney Liz Pauli and the Council discussed (from 59:12 - 1:14:28) the legal issues of the Streetcar initiative. She says that the initiative is "beyond the scope of the initiative power of the people" since the city hasn't created a TBD yet and the initiative relies on the existence of said TBD to raise the revenue. The City Council deliberates this a bit and it seems there is a general sentiment that the Council will bring a motion to authorize a pre-election challenge of the initiative. This City Manager clarifies the timing of this challenge (at 1:22:39 - 1:22:55) and states that it'll happen "next week" or March 9th, 2010.

So, today (guess it is yesterday as I write this) the council met and discussed in detail the issues with Cheney Stadium and the Elks Project. However, the issue of the Streetcar Initiative wasn't brought up at all. I went up and talked with Liz Pauli after the meeting and she confirmed that the council didn't bring it up just yet as they will be trying to seek a "political solution" first.

The next council meeting is in 2 weeks so we'll see what happens between now and then.

Tacoma Link: What is Already Known?

This Tacoma Streetcar Initiative is attracting quite a bit of attention and contention. Exit 133's post on the initiative has yielded the largest comment thread I've ever seen on that blog. The Tacoma Weekly picked up on the story and wrote an article that reported that the City of Tacoma's legal department will try to derail the initiative by declaring it invalid before it goes to a vote (If only the state could do that for Tim Eyman's initiatives!).

Let's step back for a minute and review what work has been done in examining the future of Tacoma Link.

First, the obvious background. Tacoma Link opened for service in the year 2003. There may have been some talk and aspirations from various individuals, groups, politicians and rail fans, but as it is the tracks are still in the same position and there haven't been any new stations constructed since the line was built.

In 2007, the RTID Blueprint for Progress went to a vote. It included both road and transit projects. The transit projects included extending Light Rail from Sea-tac to Federal Way to Tacoma and (correct me if I'm wrong because I'm not sure about this) would have converted the Tacoma Link line to Central Link standards. That ballot measure failed.

Next year, Sound Transit came back with a transit-only package. This ballot measure did pass overall, although Pierce County did vote against it. This package includes $265 million for Link Light Rail projects in Pierce County. Here is a pdf document listing all Pierce County Projects in ST2 (page 16). Out of those Light Rail projects, this includes environmental review, preliminary engineering and right of way acquisition for the extending Central Link from Federal Way to Tacoma Dome Station. Also included is a contribution to Tacoma Link operations and a contribution for expanding Tacoma Link.

The City of Tacoma has recently started to look into making a new stop on Commerce St between 11th and 13th and is considering making the Stadium Way replacement track-friendly.

That brings us to today where Build the Streetcar filed their initiative. Time will tell what the fate of this initiative may be.

In terms of past studies done, there may not have been a full blown alternatives analysis done yet on Tacoma Link. Sound Transit's Contributions and Partnerships web page does state that a project alternatives study is to be carried out in collaboration with the City of Tacoma this year. Until then, the closest thing there is to an alternatives analysis study are a number of short papers prepared for Sound Transit as part of a number of Long-Range Plan Issue Papers.

Long-Range Plan issue papers were drafted at the request of the Sound Transit Board of Directors to provide them with information they need to make long range decisions about the future of our regional mass transit system. These papers explore questions that have been raised by the Board or the public about potentially amending the Long-Range Plan. These papers address issues such as extending light rail in Tacoma or developing a Bus Rapid Transit corridor on Highway 99 between Seattle and Everett. The issue papers were released in March and considered by the Board of Directors prior to its adoption of the Draft Long-Range Plan on April 28, 2005.

There are a variety of papers related to various subareas of Sound Transit. Specifically there were 5 papers related to South Sound projects as follows:

• Issue Paper S.1: Tacoma Link Integration with Central Link
• Issue Paper S.2: Potential Rail Extensions to Frederickson and Orting
• Issue Paper S.3: HCT System Development Issues in the South Corridor
• Issue Paper S.4: Potential Tacoma Link Extension – West
• Issue Paper S.6: Potential Tacoma Link Extension – East

In the next few posts, Tacoma Tomorrow will go over each of these papers in detail. Until then, happy reading!

Dawn Morrell and Tami Green vote for bus cuts

Dawn Morell (D-25) and Tami Green (D-28) both voted against emergency funding for Pierce Transit

Thanks to heroic efforts on the part of Representative Marko Liias, Pierce Transit bus riders may be able to breathe a little easier.  A few days ago Rep. Liias was able to coax an emergency funding provision into a bill on transportation benefit district governance.

If a companion bill is supported by the Washington State Senate, the Pierce Transit Board will be capable of raising a $20 motor vehicle license fee without voter approval until 2015.  That should allow for Pierce Transit to get through the recession, or at least wait until the time is right to put forth a ballot measure with a more comprehensive redesign, rather than making drastic 60% cuts in 2012.

A total of seven Democratic representatives voted against the bill, with two from Pierce Transit's service territory - Tami Green (28th District, University Place) and Dawn Morrell (25th District, Puyallup).  Their actions run completely against established Democratic Party platform.

The bill (SB 6774) will now move back to the Senate to be reconciled.  Hopefully the extra transit funding makes it through.  Tacoma voters should contact Senators Debbie Regala (27th LD) and Rosa Franklin (29th LD) to make sure that it does.  We will be in contact with them to muster up as many votes as possible.

Transportation in 2040

Have you ever thought about what the future may hold for transportation in the Puget Sound? That is basically what the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) has been doing for the past year or so. They have produced the Draft Transportation 2040 Plan. The whole document is hunderds of pages, but I'll summarize a few of the main issues here:

• The gas tax is drying up, so the PSRC is looking into tolling eventually all of the major highways in the region
• More total money for transit. It is projected that Sound Transit will collect more revenue and outspend the total amounts for highways. See the figure below:

• Link Light Rail is extended from Seatac to Federal Way and finally to Tacoma!
  
• But other transit is pretty weak. Only 2 BRT Lines are assumed for 2040 in Pierce County, and the Tacoma Streetcar only gets extended as far as the Stadium district. That's a rate of extending the Tacoma Streetcar by maybe a mile every 15 years or so - just imagine the possibilities!
• Almost all Pierce County Highways will get a complete makeover. And not only that, but the plan also includes the Cross-Base highway and the I-5/SR-167/SR-509 interchange.
• Lots of Bike Trails! A few exciting projects include the "Walk the Waterfront Trail" along Schuster Parkway, the Cross County Commuter Connector Trail (Tacoma Dome - Foothills Trail). There is also a big trail project on the wishlist which is the Train To The Mountain Trail (Downtown Tacoma to Elbe).
  

The below map is taken from Appendix B which lists out each project that is included in the plan.

Key:
Purple = Light Rail
Dashed Blue = Sounder
Blue = BRT
Dark Brown = Highway
Light Brown = Arterial
Dark Green = Planned Trails
Light Green = Wishlist Trails

If you have any comments, they are due by March 9th. PSRC has an online comment form here.

More Reasons the Tacoma Streetcar Should Go Down 6th Ave First

The Build the Streetcar! Page has a good post about the demographic and economic reasoning for building a streetcar line down 6th ave. Certainly with a Downtown to Stadium to 6th Ave alignment, the line will pass through 2 more of Tacoma's Mixed Use Centers and would be along the center of a lot of population density.

In addition to these reasons, there are a few other items to add in terms of the geography of the current line and a few logistical concerns. Below are a few reasons:

• A new line somewhere else would require more overhead. If a new line is to be built anywhere else that doesn't connect to the existing line (for example along 56th), a new maintenance base and new vehicles, etc will all be needed. Basically more overhead will be needed whereas extending the existing system will be able to use and build upon the facilities that already exist.
  
• Extending the existing line south would be hard. This is because of WSDOT's I-5 M St to Portland Ave HOV Project. In this project, I-5 will eventually undergo a major upgrade which includes the demolition and reconstruction of the Pacific, McKinley and L St bridges, not to mention most of I-5 itself.
  
• Could Tacoma Link climb steep hills? While I don't know for sure if the streetcars can climb such a grade, it would seem difficult to extend the streetcar up a road like 13th or 11th or even 9th due to steep hills.
• Going northbound is easy. Stadium way is truly the most logical street to extend the existing system since the tracks end just before it. Stadium Way needs replacing anyways and according to the City of Tacoma's Six-Year Comprehensive Transportation Program ^(pdf) it is already funded to be replaced, only without the streetcar tracks (but apparently with a track-friendly design).