Pierce Transit June 2010 Service Change

Pierce Transit's regular service change is coming up this June with the new changes going into effect on June 13th. Here is a link to information on all of the changes.

The changes are mostly shifting some departure times here and bus stop locations at transit centers. Below is a full list of all the routes with changes:

1, 48, 51, 57, 113, 207, 212, 214, 220, 300, 406, 407, 408, 446, 490, 601 and 603

Also pretty interesting is that the service change website puts in a good plug for OneBusAway.

Changes in the Draft Alternatives

Pierce Transit is now at a new phase in their System Redesign process where there are new alternative plans out for comment. We covered the first release of the draft alternatives in a bunch of posts. In summary, Pierce Transit is facing an alarming shortfall in revenues while costs are still increasing.

There were three concepts when the process began - one assuming current revenues, another assuming an increase of 0.3% in sales tax and another assuming even more revenue in addition to that. This time around, there are just two alternative: "Reductions" and "Growth".


The biggest difference between the two drafts in the "Reductions" alternative is that the total service hours increased 33%. The previous "Current Funding Concept" had 265,000 service hours per year, whereas the current "Reductions" alternative has 353,000. Pierce Transit spokesman Lars Erickson describes the reason for this change:

By far, the majority of the increase comes from identifying the impact of SHUTTLE paratransit reductions- in terms of geographic coverage and scheduling. We’re estimating that 15% of current SHUTTLE trips will no longer be in the ADA defined ¾ mile from a local fixed route and some SHUTTLE trips will be lost due to the reduced span of service. As you may be aware, the average one-way cost of a SHUTTLE trip is over $38.00 ...

The other major factor is staffing. Because we developed schedules, we also now have a better idea of the number of operators and other staff that would be needed in a reduction scenario.

Likely because of this increase, the number of routes in the "Reductions" alternative has increased from 23 to 40. However, all but the three trunk routes (Routes 1, 2 and 3) will have hourly service with a few routes having half-hourly service during the peaks and a few other routes having no weekend service.

In the "Growth" scenario, things look rosier. There is a focus on increasing the frequency of the existing routes (both trunk and local). Also in the new scenario a few additional changes are put in place for the communities toward the edge of the Pierce Transit service area. A number of routes that are cut in the South Hill, Bonney Lake and Buckley areas would be revived. Also, new bus plus service would be created for DuPont and a peak hour bus between Sumner and Orting would be created as well.

PT Tomorrow: Round 2

PT Tomorrow "Reduction Plan"

Pierce Transit has just updated its PT Tomorrow webpage with the latest draft alternatives. More public meetings are going to be held in June at the following times:

BONNEY LAKE
June 2nd 5:00-7:00pm
Bonney Lake Senior Center
19304 Bonney Lake Blvd, Bonney Lake 98390
Served by Route 407

PARKLAND/SPANAWAY
June 3rd 4:30-6:30pm
Pacific Lutheran University, East Campus (Gym),
Corner of 121st S & Pacific Ave, Tacoma 98447
Served by Routes 1, 45, 55, 204, 410, 444

PUYALLUP/SOUTH HILL/SUMNER
June 7th 4:30-6:30pm
Kalles Junior High School (Commons)
501 Seventh Ave SE, Puyallup 98372
Served by Route 402

LAKEWOOD/UNIVERSITY PLACE
June 8th 4:30-6:30pm
Pierce Transit Training Center
3720 96th St SW, Lakewood 98499
Served by Routes 48, 300

TACOMA
June 9th 4:30-6:30pm
The Evergreen State College (Commons)
1210 6th Ave, Tacoma 98405
Served by Routes 1, 16, 28, 57

GIG HARBOR/KEY PENINSULA
June 10th 4:30-6:30pm
Civic Center (Council Chambers)
3510 Grandview St, Gig Harbor 98335
Served by Route 100

Meeting will also be held in Korean and Spanish:

Junta Pública en Español
May 24th 4:30-6:30pm
Portland Avenue Community Center
3513 E. Portland Ave., Tacoma 98404
Served by Route 54
(Meeting is held in Spanish)

Presentation in English with Korean translation
May 26th, 11:00am
Korean Women’s Association
123 East 96th Street, Tacoma 98445
Served by Route 1
(Presentation with questions after)

Tacoma Tomorrow will have much more in depth analysis of the alternatives coming shortly.

Tacoma to Olympia: Coming Rail Infrastructure

This is the third post in a series about the Tacoma to Olympia Corridor. In the first post we discussed I-5 improvements and in the second post we took a look at bus service between Tacoma and Olympia. This post takes a look at planned upgrades to rail infrastructure through the corridor. Although we have recently covered a lot of related news regarding the Point Defiance Bypass, I figured I'd still write an overall summary of what's happening for this series of posts.

As most people know already, Sound Transit and WSDOT are working right now on upgrading the tracks between Tacoma and the Thurston County Line. Sound Transit has been at work for quite some time now on extending the Sounder to Lakewood. The extension to Lakewood was part of the initial Sound Move plan from 1996. In 2003, a deal with BNSF was secured wherein among other things, Sound Transit would take ownership of the tracks between Tacoma and the Thurston County line.

The construction of the Sounder extension has recently begun. The two new stations at South Tacoma and Lakewood have already been completed. The track upgrades are split into two projects. The section of track from M Street to Lakewood is already under construction and is anticipated to finish by the end of the year. In this section, four at-grade intersections in Lakewood either were upgraded or are about to be. Three intersections have already been upgraded with one more schedule for work in June. The other section is from D Street to M Street which will create a new corridor for railway tracks that connects to Tacoma Dome Station. That project is supposed to begin construction this summer.

The WSDOT portion of the project is also underway, albeit with slightly more controversy. Officially called the Point Defiance Bypass project, this project is aimed at upgrading the tracks between Tacoma and Thurston County via the same tracks to Lakewood in order to switch Amtrak to this corridor instead of along the current route. This will save about 5 minutes off the total journey time, but much more importantly, will increase the reliability of Amtrak and allow for future expansion of service between Seattle and Portland.

Ever since 2007 when WSDOT won a categorical exclusion for the Point Defiance Project which dismissed the need for a full environmental assessment, the City of Lakewood and recently Dupont have been raising concerns related to safety. The project was then kicked into high gear after Washington State received nearly $600 million in stimulus funds for high speed rail. Ultimately though, the FRA told WSDOT that they did indeed have to do a full environmental assessment for the project. The current projected finish for the project will be in the year 2014. Seattle Transit Blog also has a good post on the Point Defiance Bypass project.

Pierce Transit Examining Wage Expenses

A week ago, I wrote a small article giving an overall assessment of Pierce Transit's finances. In the analysis, wages of employees were the major focus and greatest share of overall expenses throughout the organization. However, the numbers from the Transit Development Plan showed that expenses in wages were rising much faster than the project rise in sales tax.

This week, The News Tribune has an excellent article all about the issue of wages at Pierce Transit. In the article they discuss all the aspects of Pierce Transit wages and about potential staff reductions in management versus potential reductions in bus operators. The article is a great read, and I don't have anything to add, so I'll stop typing now.

Point Defiance Bypass Project to be Delayed by 2 Years

WSDOT has announced that it will after all perform a full environmental assessment of the Point Defiance Bypass project. WSDOT has opted for the study primarily because the FRA is requiring the study as a prerequisite for the distribution of the HSR stimulus funds. Previously, WSDOT had obtained a 'categorical exclusion' from the FHA deeming an environmental assessment unnecessary. The News Tribune has a detailed writeup of the story here where they do in fact confirm the delay:

The study will push back the projected 2013 opening of the controversial route at least two years, officials say.

...

State officials knew they would have to go through an environmental process after winning federal funds earlier this year, but nothing this big.

“We didn’t know we’d have to do another environmental assessment,” Jeffers said Tuesday.

This also means that the currently scheduled WUTC meeting in June will be canceled. Lakewood Councilman Walter Neary confirms this in a blog post hailing the study as "A Victory for Democracy".

WSDOT is holding an open house about the project on May 17th.

The open house will be held from 4 pm - 7 pm in the Rotunda Building at Clover Park Technical College - 4500 Steilacoom Blvd. SW, Lakewood

Puyallup Red Lot Breaking Ground on May 17th

Sound Transit has announced that Puyallup's Red Lot will break ground on May 17th. The Red Lot is currently an unpaved surface lot near the Puyallup fair. With this project, Sound Transit will pave it over and use it as an additional lot for Sounder riders. The lot is about 8-10 blocks from the Sounder Station, but there is a bus stop nearby for the 495 bus route that makes connections with the Sounder. The below graphic shows the project area:



All told, the Red Lot will have spaces for 219 vehicles. The News Tribune has also been following this story. In this article a number of Downtown Puyallup parking issues are discussed. And in this article it mentions that the Red Lot will likely be too full for commuters during the Puyallup Fair.

A Financial Analysis of Pierce Transit

A few weeks ago, we went over Pierce Transit's Transit Development Plan (TDP), a publication required to be submitted annually to WSDOT. We highlighted an upcoming project in the TDP that will upgrade the signals in most of Downtown Tacoma. This post now takes a look at the financial projections published in the TDP.

2009 Summary
During the year 2009, the sales tax made up 53% of Pierce Transit's total revenue. However, because of the funding also received from Sound Transit, the total amount collected from Sales Tax is likely higher. Similarly, the farebox recovery may be slightly higher percentage wise. A breakdown of today's revenues is shown below.


Expenses are spent heavily on jobs. Wages and benefits taken together account for 73% of Pierce Transit's expenses. Fuel and parts are only about 8% of the total. The below graphic summarizes Pierce Transit's expenses.

As for wages, Pierce Transit spokesman Lars Erickson shed some light on a few items. The first was that non-unionized staff were not going to receive a cost of living adjustment in 2010. As for unionized staff, they are in a contract that expires in June 2011. Pierce Transit did make a request to the union to re-open that contract, but the union declined.

A week or two ago, the news tribune published an article and a database detailing the number of Pierce County employees making more than $100,000 in total earnings per year which was about 12% of its workforce. It's hidden, but the News Tribune also has a database of employee pay for Pierce Transit. Pierce Transit spokesman Lars Erickson noted that about 2.5% of Pierce Transit employees earned over $100,000 in total earnings in 2009 while the average transit operator made $58,321.34 and the average relief transit operator made $41,844.02 over the year.

Forecasted Financials
A forecast of finances can be found in Appendix A. The first section is about revenues. The sales tax which is the largest source of funding is forecasted to have an increasing growth rate over the next few years ending with a growth rate of 5% at 2015. As for expenses, the largest expense will continue to be wages and benefits. And these wages and benefits are projected to grow at faster rate than the sales tax. Specifically, wages are expected to grow 4.71% annually through 2015 with benefits growing 10.47% annually through 2015.

Olympia Installing Paid Parking Too

I just picked up on this story via a tweet from @TranspoGroup. According to KOMO News, 48 pay stations are being installed. After some more investigating, I found that the News Tribune did a writeup of the story here. The City of Olympia has a good website with a lot of information on how parking will work. Below is a graphic of where parking will be charged:


Paid Parking is set to begin on June 1st and will be $1 per hour from 8am - 5pm on weekdays excluding holidays. It will be interested to see how this develops since paid parking is also coming to Tacoma in the downtown core this fall.

Would Pierce County Approve a Pierce Transit Sales Tax Increase?

Certainly by now it should be of no surprise that Pierce Transit is in pretty bad shape and without an increase in the revenues it collects, system-wide cuts will have to be made. In one of the concepts of Pierce Transit's system redesign proposal (PT Tomorrow for those unfamiliar) includes a 0.3% increase in the sales tax. This increase would be able to maintain about the total amount of system-wide transit service hours in place today.

Yet, to increase the sales tax, Pierce Transit must ask the voters to approve such a measure. Recent election results don't look so favorable for transit measures in Pierce County. Chris has been expressing concerns about how Tacoma might vote, but the rest of Pierce County certainly holds a fair sway since Tacoma has only about 25% of Pierce County's residents. Back in 2008, the region as a whole approved Sound Transit's Prop 1, however Pierce County had more votes for rejecting the measure. Seattle Transit Blog has a very educational map showing the breakdown of the vote by precinct:


I was curious on the exact boundaries of the precincts, so I made a detailed version of the map that could be loaded into Google Maps. You can take a look at that here. As can be seen on the map, being close to a Sounder Station generally meant a higher approval rate. Most of East Pierce County voted no by significant margins.

Recently there have been two other transit agencies in Washington State that have asked voters to raise the sales tax to help pay for public transit. Valley Transit over in Walla Walla recently approved a 0.3% tax increase. However, up north, voters narrowly rejected a similar measure to increase the sales tax 0.2% in Whatcom County despite favorably margins in Bellingham.

For Pierce Transit there are a number of timing issues that could have a big impact. There is the potential impact of a few cities that have discussed seceding from Pierce Transit. If it turns out these cities can secede, would they do so before or after a vote? As for Pierce Transit, there is enough money until about 2012 when cuts will have to occur if no new funding is found.

PT launches "Adopt-a-Stop" program

This just in:

LAKEWOOD, WA- Pierce Transit is seeking volunteers to participate in a new Adopt-a-Stop program.  The Pierce Transit Adopt-a-Stop program is being established after the agency received requests from civic-minded residents who want to help keep bus stops clean and accessible.  Pierce Transit maintains more than 3,000 bus stops and shelters throughout Pierce County. 

People of all ages are welcome to join in the effort.  Volunteers will be expected to pick up trash at least once a week, report vandalism or hazardous materials and complete an activity log/report once a month.  Pierce Transit Staff will help coordinate the efforts.  After a bus stop is adopted, the volunteer’s name will appear on a sign posted at that stop.

For more information, or to get started, please contact Pierce Transit by calling 253-983-3455 or email adoptastop@piercetransit.org.

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This has been in place in a number of locations throughout the United States.  Good to see that PT is implementing it here.

Here's an example of a program in Houston, Texas.

Pierce Transit: Ur [still] doin it wrong

Although the situation changes from day to day, Pierce Transit's planning staff have been mostly unreceptive to changes to their plans to radically restructure service in Tacoma.  In the North End, service is oriented towards making the fastest connections to Downtown on North 30th St. and North 21st St, avoiding Proctor - without regard for people wanting to use the service outside of commute hours for daily errands.  Only one meandering circulator route operating once an hour would connect to Proctor and service to the Tacoma Mall from Proctor would only operate during peak hours.  The Stadium District and the North Slope also lose access to Proctor.

 

North End Service under New Funding

I have shown the proposed maps to many people I know who ride transit in the North End and this is a sample of what they've told me:

• "Route 11 doesn't go to Point Defiance? Why not?  It's the second most-visited "'
• "What happened to service to Proctor? - it's a mixed use center."
• "Why is it so hard to get to 6th Avenue?"
• "I use the 51 to get to work; why are they cutting that off at Allenmore?"
• "Route 11 needs more service during the night that matches with the 594."
• "I would rather wait at Proctor than at TCC [to make my connections]."
• "This isn't very innovative.  Why not encourage people to bike to Proctor and take a bus from there?"

What this tells me is that PT is off course with what people want to see happen, which is a more "realistic" Proctor-centric system with strong connections to Downtown and connections to East-West routes, Tacoma Central shopping area and the Tacoma Mall.

Why this matters
Whatcom County Transit (WTA) went out for a 0.2% sales tax measure just last week and it failed (Moving Ahead: Bellingham Said Yes, Whatcom County Said No).  It passed in Bellingham, but failed everywhere else in the county.  Any sales tax measure would likely be passed on the backs of Tacoma's generally transit and tax-supportive voters.  If something similar happens here, and Tacoma's voters does not vote to pass a 0.3% sales tax measure, then what does that do to Pierce Transit's chances?

Recent Transit / Voting History
The MetroParks levy in Tacoma passed last week with 68% to 31%, a healthy margin of +10,000 votes [Source: Pierce County Auditor].   In 2008 Sound Transit went out for a sales tax measure across the county and it failed 124,856 (yes) to 129,536 (no), a negative margin of 5,000 votes against during a presidential election [Pierce County Auditor].  Back in 2002, the last time Pierce Transit went out for a ballot measure the vote was 65,783 (yes) to 55,799 (no), a margin of +10,000 votes [Pierce County Auditor].  If Tacoma's voters either stay home or around 5,000 voters vote no instead of yes as a result of the poor redesign, then Pierce Transit might be looking at defeat in November.

A viable alternative to implementing this redesign would be to keep the existing system only within Tacoma until there's time to redesign it properly with the planners at the City of Tacoma - that way voters in Tacoma can be really familiar with what they're voting to support.

Bike Month 2010 is here

It's May again and that means it's bike month. A bunch of organizations are holding various events throughout the month in Tacoma. Pierce Trips has a website with a full rundown of what's happening.

Here are a few of the major highlights:

Tacoma Bike Swap
Saturday, May 8: 10am-3pm
Location: University of Puget Sound

Whether you are looking for a new bike, want to sell the old one, or are just interested in learning more about biking in Tacoma, the Bike Swap promises to be a great time! Vendors will be selling bikes and parts for all types and ages of riders. Individuals looking to sell a bike or two can take advantage of the popular Bike Corral, just don’t forget a lock.

This year there will be affordable helmets for sale and free helmet fittings by the Wheelemen. REI will be holding Bike Basics classes at 11:30 and 1:00. Test your riding skills in an obstacle course and get tips from Pierce Transit Security Bike Officers. You can also register your bike in a national theft-prevention database for free! Stop by the grill to buy lunch or snacks.

Bike to Work Week Commuter Challenge
Monday-Friday, May 17-21
Location: All Pierce County employers

Description: Sign up as a team or individual to participate in the 2010 Bike to Work Week Commuter Challenge. Visit PierceTripsCalendar.com to track your biking mileage for the week and be entered to win great prizes, including $250 and $100 gift certificates to your favorite local bike shops, bike tune-ups and light sets and team pizza party. Prizes sponsored by MultiCare.

Free Bike Movie Series

1. Wednesday, May 19 8:30pm. "American Flyers" at the Red Hot.

American Flyers on an outdoor screen and a raffle with great gear from New Belgium Brewing. This event is ages 21+ only.

2. Thursday, May 20 6:00pm. "Necessary Folly" at the Tacoma Art Museum

Come see innovative kinetic bicycle sculptures by local artists at the venerable Tacoma Art Museum. Also, watch the Olympia documentary, “Necessary Folly”, chronicling one man’s kinetic bike adventures. Admission is free as part of Third Thursday.

3. Saturday, May 22 10:30am. "Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure" at the Grand Cinema.

Come enjoy Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, a fun family film about bikes! Free admission!

Seattle Approves First Hill Streetcar

Seattle Transit Blog has just broke the news that the Seattle City Council has just unanimously approved the First Hill Streetcar Project. This of course has come after plenty of time and work making sure all of the pieces in the puzzle were coming together to build streetcars in Seattle. This work includes approving a city-wide plan for streetcar lines, entering into a funding agreement with Sound Transit, defining possible alternative routes and making a selection on the final route. Now, the implementation phase is set to begin with service beginning in 2013 ^(pdf).

How is Tacoma doing on extending its Streetcar? Two weeks ago, the city (along with Pierce Transit and Sound Transit) just decided to start with Tacoma updating its comprehensive plan to include streetcars and with Sound Transit performing an alternatives analysis on possible extensions. The alternatives analysis is set to be completed by the end of the year.

Tacoma is a little later in the game than Seattle. It certainly isn't a drawback for Seattle that Sound Transit is paying for the First Hill Streetcar whereas Tacoma must find matching funds to complement those promised by Sound Transit for its extensions. At least the ball is now rolling for extending Tacoma Link, but how long will it still be before new tracks start being constructed?