ST Adds All Sorts of Stuff for 2016
Newly delivered New Flyer XDE60 coach. Photo by SounderBruce.
Faithful readers already know Sound Transit is headed for a banner 2016. University Link alone would be enough to ensure that; it will connect the three most important transit destinations in Washington state with frequent, fast, high-capacity transit for the first time, replacing bus routes that are one of Seattle's most notorious time sinks. Also no surprise are the opening of Angle Lake Station and a new midday round trip on South Sounder. But that is not all the agency has up its sleeve to drive an expected increase of 18 percent in total system ridership. Last week, ST released an early draft of its 2016 Service Implementation Plan, which includes a most welcome surprise: a substantial increase in ST Express bus service.
The increase is a surprise because ST Express stubbornly has remained a zero-sum program for several years, despite the expanding economy. ballooning ridership, and rapidly recovering tax revenue streams. Expansion of oversubscribed routes such as the 550 and 545 has been paid for by chopping the span of service of less popular routes, while increasing I-405 congestion has resulted in cut trips on South King County-Eastside routes. This time, there are no cuts and no surprises, just a very peak-heavy expansion driven primarily by overcrowding relief and better connections to U-Link and Sounder. Details below the jump.
These are the service expansions, in decreasing order of size.
Route 541 - Overlake-UW Station
48 new weekday peak trips (approximately 12 in each direction, for 20-minute frequency during extended AM and PM peak hours)
This is a new route intended to provide a fast connection between UW Station and Overlake, partly to relieve reverse-commute pressure on Route 545 and partly to offer new connectivity to Link destinations, including an alternative to the slog between downtown and SR-520 on Stewart, Olive, and the I-5 regular lanes.
Route 545 - Redmond-Overlake-Seattle CBD
15 new weekday peak trips (will increase peak frequency to 6-8 minutes), to meet growing demand
Route 554 - Issaquah-Eastgate-Mercer Is-Seattle CBD
12 new weekday peak trips (will increase peak frequency to 15 minutes), to meet growing demand
Routes 555/556 - Northgate-U District-Bellevue-Eastgate-Issaquah
4 new weekday peak trips (will increase peak-of-peak frequency to 20 minutes), to meet growing demand
Route 578 - Puyallup-Auburn-Federal Way-Seattle CBD
4 new weekday midday trips (will increase frequency at some times to 20 minutes), to meet growing demand
Route 577 - Federal Way-Seattle CBD
3 new weekday peak trips, to meet growing demand
Route 567 - Auburn-Bellevue-Overlake
2 new weekday midday trips, to meet new South Sounder trips
Route 580 - Lakewood-South Hill-Puyallup
2 new weekday midday trips, to meet new South Sounder trips
Route 596 - Bonney Lake-Sumner
2 new weekday midday trips, to meet new South Sounder trips
The SIP also has some interesting background on route performance, although not as fine-grained as it has been in past ST Express performance reports. The nickel version is that increased ridership systemwide has masked a lot of warts, with even the worst performers (Routes 540, Kirkland-U District, and 560, West Seattle-Airport-Renton-Bellevue) now within the realm of semi-respectability, and more routes performing at a very high standard. Looking at the performance data, it's easy to see why expansion is warranted.