Pierce Transit Proposing Fare Increases

This just in via Pierce Transit's homepage: There's a link to page discussing the possibility of raising Pierce Transit Fares again. It's been only about a year since Pierce Transit last raised their fares, but in these hard times Pierce Transit is doing all that can be done. The next little bit has been copied from Pierce Transit's website:

In order to raise revenue, increase farebox recovery, and offset increased costs, Pierce Transit is proposing to change fares. The new fares, if adopted, would be implemented November 1, 2010. The proposed fare structure is as follows:

	PROPOSED	CURRENT
Local Cash Fare	$2.00	$1.75
Local Monthly Pass	$72.00	$63.00
Local Adult Tickets*	20 tickets for $40.00	20 tickets for $35.00
Adult Weekend All Day Pass	$4.00	$3.50
Senior & Disabled Local Cash Fare	$1.00	$0.75
Senior & Disabled Tickets*	20 tickets for $20.00	20 tickets for $15.00
Senior & Disabled Local Monthly Pass	$36.00	$27.00
Senior & Disabled Weekend All Day Pass	$2.00	$1.50
SHUTTLE Cash Fare	$1.00	$0.75
SHUTTLE Monthly Pass	$36.00	$27.00
Youth Local Cash Fare	$1.00	$.075
Youth Local Monthly Pass	$36.00	$27.00
Olympia Express Adult Cash Fare	$3.00	$2.50
Olympia Express Adult Monthly Pass	$108.00	$90.00
Olympia Express Senior/Disabled Cash Fare	$1.50	$1.25
Olympia Express Senior/Disabled Monthly Pass	$54.00	$45.00
Summer Youth Pass (June, July, & August)	$48.00	$36.00
Thanksgiving Day	Regular Fares	Free
Christmas Day	Regular Fares	Free
Class Pass	$48.00	$36.00

Compared to other transit agencies in the region, Pierce Transit is about on par with the level of fare increases. There is a really good diagram that Sound Transit recently published ^(pdf) that shows when the major transit agencies in the Puget Sound area have increased their fares in the last decade:


As can be seen in the diagram, the last time Pierce Transit raised their fares was in 2009 when it went up a quarter for the regular fare. King County Metro has really been raising their fares quite quickly in the last few years whereas Sound Transit recently proceeded with implementing a fare structure revision and fare increase. Still though, with all of these fare increases, one has to wonder at what point transit agencies would start to lose money because of losing more riders than the additional income that the fare increase would generate.

And while Pierce Transit is discussing raising fares, perhaps it may also be a good time to discuss the idea of implementing fare zones or charging for longer journeys. We all know that Pierce Transit's suburban and rural routes cost a lot more than the more urban routes, so this could turn out to be a good way at improving the farebox recovery of those specific routes.

If you have an opinion that you'd really like to share, Pierce Transit will be having a public hearing at the following time and location:

August 30, 2010, at 4:30 p.m.
Pierce Transit’s Training Center, Rainier Room
3720 96th Street SW, Lakewood, Washington

South-Sound Transportation News Explosion

There has been a whole lot of transportation news lately. I'll give a run-down of the action this week.


Sounder:

Earlier this week, there was word on the street that Sound Transit would be updating the City of Tacoma on the D to M Street project. There were some good details that were revealed and covered here and here by the News Tribune, here on Exit 133 and in raw liveblogging style here.

In short here is what's going on: The lowest bidder wasn't selected, but the bid that was selected was still under the original estimate; August 26th is the date the ST Board will finalize everything with construction starting Mid-September. The savings from the project will go back into ST's subarea pot of money to help save for later projects due to the recession. Oh and there will be road closures and the LeMay has made parking at the Tacoma Dome less convenient.


Highways:

Following up on WSDOT's nearly million dollar mistake, the Chairwoman of the State Senate Transportation Committee, State Senator Mary Margaret Haugen (D-Camano Island), is calling for a thorough investigation of the whole ordeal.

And speaking of WSDOT mistakes, the News Tribune covered the story of another $500,000 mess up due to a concrete sound wall not being built well enough.

Our story on WSDOT's continued activity in pursuing the extension of SR 167 was picked up by the Streetsblog Network, a national network of transportation blogs.

And to round up the highway news, there was even a little bit of Tacoma Narrows Bridge action with a recent report showing lower than expected revenues. However, no toll increases are proposed... yet.


Streetcars:

There was a lot of hype, anticipation and excitement for a... wait for it... Streetcar meeting!

At the meeting, about 80 concerned and interesting citizens showed up to hear that basically this project hasn't moved forward at all. Seriously, the first 50 minutes were power points on streetcar technology and a sales pitch on streetcars from Transportation Choices Coalition. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Tacoma knows what streetcars are and wants more of them built before we all die.

There were actually a few items worth reporting though and they include:

• A Streetcar Stakeholder Group consisting of people, businesses and other organizations is being formed and will supposedly be revealed to the world next week via a streetcar email list and perhaps even on a City of Tacoma webpage dedicated to streetcars.
• ST is under budget pressure due to the recession and states that the original $80 for this is now $75.6 million.
  

But hey, there is some actual real streetcar expansion news this week! The Tacoma BIA Blog had a blog post saying that the City of Tacoma is still working on an 11th street station.

Well, there's not much news in that article, but I was able to get some more information on what's actually going on from Sound Transit and City of Tacoma. Firstly, the City of Tacoma and ST are on a timeline for a September decision on the project which will supposedly be funded entirely by the City of Tacoma. The engineering of the whole thing is quite challenging, but the stop might have offset platforms in the vicinity between 11th and 12th so as to not impact bus operations. Unfortunately, streetcar operations are going to be impacted and headways will almost certainly increase to every 12 minutes, possibly 15 minutes worst-case.


Other:

Yeah, I need an other section, there is so much news. September 20th is the date! The date when there will be no more free parking in downtown, so says the BIA and the TNT.

And last and probably least, Kitsap Transit is buying solar powered garbage cans.

Enjoy the weekend!

Sound Transit secures four new Sounder trips

Sounders at King Street Station by Brian Bundridge

Four new Sounder runs between Tacoma and Seattle are on the way thanks to an agreement between Sound Transit and the Burlington Northern railroad.  The trains will start being phased in in 2012.  This will bring the total number of trains to 13 round trips or 26 trains per day.  The cost for this agreement with BNSF was $185 million.  Not exactly cheap, but the contract gives Sound Transit the right to run on the tracks in perpetuity.  More information available via Sound Transit.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The expanded service will add four peak direction, peak hour trains to the Seattle-to-Tacoma Sounder schedule, with flexibility to run reverse commute and midday service based on ridership demand.

Mid-day service plus peak hour trains, not bad.  By the time these trains come online Lakewood's portion of the Sounder should be operational.  Looking forward, I do recall that Sound Transit did something really smart by purchasing the use of track all the way to Thurston County (previously covered Tacoma to Olympia: Coming Rail Infrastructure).  You have to wonder if 13 potential round trip trains to Seattle from Olympia just might be enough to entice Thurston County to join Sound Transit (discussed before briefly on Exit133).

Highway Projects Never Die

A story in the News Tribune has got me and probably a few others going today. The headline reads: Tolls considered for SR167. But wait, isn't SR 167 already tolled in those HOT lanes? Yes, but these other tolls are for something other than the existing SR 167 freeway and I knew exactly what these new tolls were for right away. It's for this:

Photo from WSDOT

Holy smokes, that looks more confusing than the I-5 / SR-16 Interchange! Yes it is. This is Pierce County's WSDOT megaproject called SR 167 - Tacoma to Edgewood New Freeway Construction. It would extend SR 167 from where it ends in Puyallup today all the way to SR 509 at Port of Tacoma including this monstrosity of an interchange at I-5.

Sure, this project is underfunded by only $2.1 Billion, but hey according to today's article, that tolling could fund half of the first phase of the project! This project is already underway according to the most recent update on the project page that states: "To date, a total of 96 properties have been purchased representing about 46 percent of the corridor needed for the highway."

Projects like these and the Cross-Base Highway are in the pipeline for sure. I was quite confused back in April when Chris said that the Cross-Base highway was "back from the dead". That project never died! It's still on WSDOT's wishlist as is this extension of SR 167. There is a full $19.5 Billion in highways in the pipeline in just the next 10 years for the Puget Sound Region.

But to show a soft side, our very own Port of Tacoma is probably one of the biggest boosters for this highway project. They see the project as a way to increase freight accessibility to and from the Port with all the industrial development along SR 167. Sure it would help with decrease travel times maybe 5 minutes, but still, this project would be almost exclusively for personal vehicle travel.

Overall, it's just saddening to me that our state continues on with these new highway projects. Do we as a state really want our state to keep building these highway monstrosities while leaving transit systems out to die? Maybe most of the people in our state do want more highways. WSDOT is after all governed by state law requiring all gas taxes to be spent on only highways and the public has voted numerous times to increase our state gas tax. Want more highways? Do nothing!

Personally, I think we have enough highways and should be spending our money on sexier projects like extending Tacoma Link, making Pierce Transit better and also improving Amtrak Cascades if even spending any transportation money for expansion projects at all. These highway projects will only continue to promote what today are unsustainable automobiles and promote development of land in suburbia. My quality of life will decrease for sure as I much prefer the European model of centered cities and stricter rural land preservation. Extending SR 167 is something that I hope never happens. Ultimately I think I have to draw a line somewhere. I will move out of this country if this project ever goes to bid.

Now Hertz wants in on Tacoma Car Sharing

The News Tribune broke the story initially, but what they didn't cover is that apparently Hertz is also interested in competing in the Tacoma car sharing market in addition to Zipcar.  John Martin, from Hertz's Western Region Sales office, told TacomaTomorrow in an email that they are also interested in competing for the City's $350,000 federal grant for car sharing seed money.

A Request for Proposals or RFP will, as a matter of public process, be sent out from the City to solicit from the private sector, proposals for how to provide this service and how to best spend the money.  This is an open process, so "Connect by Hertz" would also be able to compete for such funds.

Intercity Transit Going to the Ballot Too

Photo from WSDOT

Again, a little on the late side of things with news, but better late than never. Down in Thurston County, Intercity Transit is headed to the ballot with a 0.2% sales tax increase on top of the 0.6% they already are employing. Their ballot date is August 17th which is much earlier relative to Pierce Transit's ballot date coming in February.

If their ballot fails, then Intercity Transit will eventually cut service by 23%. In 2011 they would cut 9% of service and then in 2012 they would cut the remaining 14%. This includes eliminating the DASH shuttle, routes 42 and 67 and also all Sunday service.

However, if their ballot measure passes, transit service will increase by 4% in 2011, and that increase includes additional service on the 603.

There's a "Yes on Transit" campaign that has a blog and also a facebook page. We'll see how Thurston County feels about their transit service and certainly hope they feel positive about saving their transit service. A while ago I wrote a blog post wondering which way Pierce County would vote for transit and it will be interesting to see what happens to our next-door neighbor.

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.

The Olympia Express and the ORCA Card

I'm really late to this news, but I just noticed it, so I thought I'd write about it. Apparently, it is possible to use the ORCA card on Intercity Transit Olympia Express routes 603 and 620. Here are the details as explained on one of the pages on Pierce Transit's website:

Although Intercity Transit is not yet an ORCA partner, Pierce Transit and Intercity Transit are working together to allow its use on Intercity Transit’s Olympia Express service.

An ORCA card with a Monthly Pass loaded on it is now accepted as fare payment on Olympia Express Routes 603 and 620. Pierce Transit’s Express routes 601 and 603A accept ORCA now and many riders have switched to it.

...

During this transitional stage you should always carry your ORCA monthly pass receipt as proof of purchase.

After some email exchanges with Pierce Transit and Intercity Transit, it appears that the issue at hand is making sure that the ORCA agreement use fits into the context of the original partner agencies using the technology. Nonetheless, according to Intercity Transit Planning Manager Dennis Bloom Intercity Transit is planning on "having the equipment in place and operating by the end of 2010."

Transportation Choices, Tacoma Chamber host transportation forums

Could it be true?  Car sharing in Tacoma?

Two more forums are on the way this month, giving updates on streetcar expansion, bus system redesign plans, bike trails, and yes even car sharing.  Up until now Zipcar has perceived Tacoma as a city that wasn't ready for car sharing.  Perhaps something has changed?  Or is there a new public program in the works?

Regardless of my tendency towards conjecture, the larger and more comprehensive of the two events is this Friday, and the second event will focus more deeply on the Tacoma Link extension.  Both are midday and located in Downtown Tacoma.  TacomaTomorrow will try to attend both events for those who cannot attend.

Event 1: Tacoma Transportation Luncheon
Hosted by the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce


Program includes:  

• Tacoma Link expansion
• Downtown Tacoma Pierce Transit Redesign
• Prairie Line Trail Plans
• Car Sharing - Opportunities @ UWT, PLU, UPS
• Paid Parking Update

When: Friday, July 16th, 2010 
Time: 11:30 (registration) 12:00-1:30 (program)
Location: Pacific Grill Event Center, 1530 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, WA 98402. 
Please consider walking, biking or carpooling to this event.
If you must drive, validated parking is available in the Convention Center Garage.

Cost: $225 Corporate Tables of 8
$20 Ambassadors pre-paid
$25 Members pre-paid
$30 Members at the door
$35 Non-members/Walk-Ins


Important! Spaces are limited. Register today by contacting Cathy Thompson, (253) 627.2175, cathyt@tacomachamber.orgor online 

***********************************************

Event 2: What lies Ahead for the Tacoma Streetcar
Hosted by: The Transportation Choices Coalition


WHAT: What Lies Ahead for the Tacoma Streetcar - with with Greg Walker, Planning and Development Director,Sound Transit; Alisa O'Hanlon, Government Relations Coordinator at the City of Tacoma; and Bill LaBorde, Policy director at Transportation Choices Coalition.


WHEN: Friday, July 23, 12 - 1:30 pm


WHERE: University of Washington Tacoma Campus,Garretson Woodruff Pratt Building, Tacoma Room (Room 320)


Cost:  Free

PT Board Selects Preservation Plan

Well, I didn't personally make it to the meeting, but thankfully a few sources have filled me in on what happened in a big picture sense. To be clear, with the constantly morphing title of these PT Tomorrow alternatives, this "Preservation Plan" is the one which relies on an increase in sales tax. It will likely be similar to the Growth Alternative currently posted on PT Tomorrow, but likely has a few details changed here and there.

Transportation Choices Coalition's Twitter account was providing some updates and even covered some last minute drama of Timothy Farrell trying to include a sunset provision to end the increased sales tax after 5 years. In the end that motion failed and the board unanimously approved the resolution to get the sales tax increase of 0.3% to the ballot.

Lars Erickson, Pierce Transit's media spokesman sent out a press release which in short confirmed that Pierce Transit is indeed going to prepare for a ballot measure on February 8, 2011. Also mentioned in the press release is that the PT Tomorrow website will have updated maps and info on this Friday the 16th.

Important Pierce Transit Board Meeting Tomorrow

After months of going through the system redesign process that was PT Tomorrow, a decision is about to be made. Our blog has been following PT Tomorrow quite extensively. Pierce Transit is holding a board meeting this Monday and some big ticket items are on the agenda ^(pdf).

The first big issue is selecting a preferred PT Tomorrow alternative. There is either the Reductions Alternative which maintains the 0.6% sales tax or the Growth Alternative which would require raising the sales tax for Pierce Transit up to 0.9%. The board packet states the following:

RECOMMENDATION: Recommend adopting Alternative 2 – System Preservation Plan as the preferred alternative for future transit plan development.

Since the Growth Alternative is recommended to be selected, the agenda then moves straight into an action item for submitting a ballot to increase Pierce Transit's sales tax to 0.9% in an election on February 8, 2011. The agenda also states that approving this resolution is recommended.

So, it should certainly make for an interesting board meeting. The meeting will be held at the following time and place:

Training Center, St. Helens Room
July 12 2010
4:00 P.M.

D to M Street News Roundup

Sound Transit's D to M Street project has been receiving quite a bit of attention in the media. Here is a brief roundup of what's been in the news.

Most recently, Andrew at the Transportation Choices Blog is reporting that the lowest bid received thus far for the D to M Street project is $25 million lower than Sound Transit's engineering estimate of $66.4 million.

And in the past two weeks, there has been news buzzing about Sound Transit taking legal action to acquire property at the Tacoma Rescue Mission for the project. The News Tribune has a story here, the Tacoma Weekly wrote their take on it and then the News Tribune also came out with an editorial about the matter.

Also, with regards to the M Street to Lakewood section of the Sounder to Lakewood project, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation wrote up a story about a rather unpleasant eminent domain battle for the plot of land which now appears to be the parking lot for South Tacoma Station.