Community Transit Commuter Restructure in 2023
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[Editor's Note: the author is not employed by Community Transit, and the restructure ideas presented here are entirely his own.]
Community Transit currently has 19 routes that serve Downtown Seattle and the University District during peak commuter hours. In 2023, Westlake-Lynnwood travel times on Link will be 28 minutes with trains coming up to every 3-4 minutes. While one-stop service is nice, Snohomish County will be transformed with realigned service for Link to downtown Seattle.
The goals of restructure would be the following:
1) Continue to serve existing ridership with one transfer to Link.
2) Consolidate commuter routes to reduce overlap and create one corridor with increased service span and frequency where needed.
3) Create a frequent transit network (FTN) connecting to Link.
Details are after the jump.
The following routes would definitely be eliminated
402: Lynnwood-Seattle: Link duplicated
413: Swamp Creek Park & Ride-Seattle
-Duplicates: 112, 201/202, and 415.
-From Ash Way to Lynnwood Transit Center, 201/202 is scheduled for 12 minutes. 112 takes 14 minutes for the same travel distance and 12 minutes from Swamp Creek.
-Swift Orange would cover Swamp Creek to Lynnwood Transit Center via Alderwood Mall, with limited stops and high frequency, 413 can safely be eliminated.
415: North Lynnwood-Downtown Seattle.
-Route 113 is scheduled to take 16 minutes from the same terminus to Lynnwood Transit Center. Travel time is comparable to the express bus.
All 800 routes: Duplication of routes going to Lynnwood could make it confusing for riders. It is proposed 400 series buses will be express to Lynnwood Transit Center and vice versa per peak period.
The following changes are proposed to the remaining routes.
405: Edmonds Park & Ride
-Terminate at Mountlake Terrace station like Route 111 from Brier.
410: Mariner Park & Ride
-Truncate all services to Lynnwood and extend to McCollum Park & Ride (makeup for loss of Route 810 and 860)
412: Silver Firs
-Truncate all services to Lynnwood
416: Edmonds
-Truncate all services to 185th Station
-Option A: Maintain Peak Hour Only
-Option B: Introduce all day 30 minute service
417: Mukilteo
-Truncate all services to Lynnwood
-Option A: Use existing routing
-Option B: Use Route 880 routing and truncate to Lynnwood (pick-up Swamp Creek and Ash Way)
421: Marysville
-Truncate all services to Lynnwood
422: Stanwood
-Option A: Continue with service to downtown Seattle given the long distance to travel.
-Option B: Truncate to Lynnwood Transit Center with no increased frequency.
424: Snohomish
-Option A: Continue with service to downtown Seattle given the long distance to travel.
-Option B: Truncate to Lynnwood Transit Center with no increased frequency.
425: Lake Stevens
-Truncate all services to Lynnwood
435: Mill Creek
-Truncate all services to Lynnwood
All options would look at adding frequencies and longer spans of service depending on existing ridership.
The Most Difficult Part
Looking back and forth through again and again, 2) really should be higher than 1) to reduce overlap. The idea being instead of multiple routes in one corridor make it one line with higher frequency. However, some cases lead to higher travel times and when scheduled travel times to Lynnwood Transit Center could be longer along with the transfer penalty, it begs the question of whether to divert resources to local routes and frequent transit corridors or maintain express service given the specific route for the time-frame and allow other routes connections off peak. According to the current 511 schedule, the am run between Ash Way and Lynnwood Transit Center takes anywhere from 7 to 10 minutes. Routes 201 and 202 cover this section all day along with 512. During peak hours, Routes, 410, 810, and 860 cover this along with 201 and 202. Route 112 from Ash Way however as scheduled takes 14-15 minutes. Add in a transfer penalty and each trip is 10 minutes longer than the existing. While travel times will be lower between Lynnwood and Downtown Seattle given the guaranteed 26-30 minutes every time, the inconvenience of not having a one-stop should also have travel time reductions. Local routes timetables are not as variable as those along I-5, but I would be concerned losing riders from having to switch to a local bus that is slower.
I have debated back and forth on the implications of deleting Routes 413 and 415. I would prefer to delete Route 413 given 415 duplicates the routing and has more coverage. The preferred option would be to feed Swift Orange line with a guaranteed 15 minute frequency and likely would have reduced travel time to Lynnwood Transit Center making up the few minutes difference on the current local Route 112 between Ash Way Park & Ride and Lynnwood Transit Center.
112: Mountlake Terrace to Ash Way Park & Ride
-Given the similar travel times between the express bus routes, this could take the place of the commuter express routes in order to establish a frequent transit corridor in the area and connect Link all day versus the current all day 30 minute service.
113: Mukilteo-Lynnwood Transit Center
-I would not add frequency to the entire route, just for the portion that duplicates 415 from SR 99 and 148th Ave to Lynnwood Transit Center. That would add a 2nd frequent transit corridor between Lynnwood Transit Center and elsewhere.
116: Edmonds to Silver Furs
-This option could be considered but it concerns me with over serving Edmonds without the ridership to justify it. Edmonds has 116, 130, and 196 in addition to 416. I would recommend covering the area using Swift Orange Line to connect at Lynnwood with peak hour Route 416 service for quicker trips to Lynnwood.
Swift Blue Line
An extension to S 185th Street would open up new options along Aurora for direct connections to Link. If an agreement could be reached, a stop at 192nd in Shoreline would add a new connecting to Link up north.
For the options
Route 416 serves 185th Street station, delivering time savings but as stated above, over service becomes an issue. If Edmonds were to consider upzoning, the option would become feasible but I do not see that happening in the distance future.
Route 417 could be used to cover the absence of Route 415 like the current Route 880, but there would be a higher travel time given the route runs express on the freeway portion to Lynnwood Transit Center if truncated. Given the HOV queue jumper and exiting right at Lynnwood, it would pass on increased travel times to those coming from Mukilteo and points off SR 525. Therefore, Option A is preferred.
Route 422/424 are special cases given their long distance travel patterns where truncation may lead to people simply giving up and driving rather than taking the bus. Route 424 could be split potentially to service Monroe for one bus and Snohomish for another but I have not looked at that yet.
What about Sound Transit Express Services?
There would be changes to Sound Transit Express services.
Route 510: Seattle-Everett Express
Option A: Truncate services to Lynnwood Transit Center
Option B: Eliminate and combine with Route 512
Route 511: Seattle-Ash Way Express
Eliminated given Route 201/202 service every 15 minutes during peak and usually have capacity between Lynnwood and Ash Way along with Route 410 that runs between Mariner Park & Ride and truncate to Lynnwood during peak hour.
Route 512: Seattle-Everett Local
Option A: Truncate services to Lynnwood Transit Center
Option B: Eliminate and combine with Route 510
Route 513: Seattle-Eastmont Park & Ride
Option A: Truncate to Lynnwood Transit Center
Option B: Eliminate and sell Eastmont Park & Ride
The main difference between Route 510 and 512 on the map is the stop at Ash Way Park & Ride. Given the lack of northbound HOV access, this makes eliminate of one route or another more difficult but I am more inclined to leave Routes 510 and 512 as is with truncation to Lynnwood. During the am peak, Ash Way-Lynnwood has plenty of service so having Route 510 stay in the HOV would be beneficial. Route 512 would still run all day at the same frequencies but Route 510 would still be the peak express route.
Route 513 might be best for elimination given low ridership and serving only one park and ride and a few random stops on Highway 99, whether this would be practical or not is difficult to say but it is something to look for in the future.
Going Forward
All of these are draft options at this point. I feel having a solid idea of what a restructure should look like sooner will be the key as to the success of Lynnwood Link and creating new transit opportunities. I would hope to look at more options for all day service. As a note I messaged Community Transit and they stated about 60,000 service hours are currently for commuter runs. Truncation would allow reallocation of 60% of the current service hours.
After some refinement of proposals and some ideas generated, I will look at what routes should be considered and continue working on unified timetables.
This I consider a first draft in what could be revisions.
What would you potentially see added? A few more routes that can sustain FTN frequency? Swift routes connecting to Link? Maybe new peak hour expresses? Let me know below.