ST Ops Committee Punts ORCA LIFT Debate to Full Board
King County Councilmember
Dave Upthegrove,
armed with studies
to back ORCA LIFT
Sunnie Sterling, ST's Revenue Analysis Manager, gave staff's reason for bringing forward a fare proposal on ST Express as the need to consolidate its fares with partner agencies. Currently, the Regional Reduced Fare Permit fare - for seniors and riders with disabilities - on intra-county ST Express is 75 cents, while the RRFP fare on Link, Metro, Seattle Streetcars, Community Transit local buses, and Kitsap Transit local buses is $1. Pierce Transit is considering raising its RRFP fare to $1. The youth fare on intra-county ST Express is $1.25, while the youth fare on Link, Metro, Seattle Streetcars, and Community Transit local buses is $1.50. Multi-county ST Express fares are lower than Community Transit commuter fares, and would still be even after the proposed fare increases.
Sterling gave the need to maintain minimum fare recovery goals, and a projection that Sounder will be falling short starting in 2018, as the reason to bring forward the fare proposals for Sounder. Sterling cited the costs of implementing ORCA LIFT as the reason for accelerating proposals on both services.
CORRECTION: In an email from Bruce Gray at Sound Transit, Sterling clarified that "LIFT and the other fare changes are part of updating Sound Transit fare structures on ST Express and Sounder to be consistent with partner agencies' fares and to implement Board policies regarding farebox recovery goals."
The additional fare revenue from the proposed fare increases on Sounder is projected to be $566,000 per year. The decreased fare revenue from honoring ORCA LIFT on Sounder is projected to be $56,000.
The additional fare revenue from the proposed fare increase on ST Express, less the decreased fare revenue from honoring ORCA LIFT just on the routes wholly operated in King County, is projected to be $661,000. However, the projection for honoring ORCA LIFT on all ST Express routes is for a $294,000 annual deficit. In other words, the annual cost of honoring LIFT on the routes not wholly operated in King County is projected to be $955,000.
Nine public speakers, all but one of them in favor of full ORCA LIFT adoption on all Sound Transit services, spoke. The ninth speaker complained about highway tolls and the state of the national government, with no mention of any Sound Transit policies. Seven of the speakers were from various groups that had signed on to a coalition letter in support of agency-wide ORCA LIFT adoption, including One America, the Transit Riders Union, Transportation Choices, and the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness. All eight speakers opposed Option 2 for ST Express, which would implement a LIFT fare only on routes operated wholly within King County (522, 540-567, and 577), pointing out the confusion such a system would create for LIFT riders.
Operations and Administration Committee Meeting
The Operations and Administration Committee met shortly after the hearing, and unanimously agreed with every proposal before it except for the fare proposals. The first three motions were final authorizations for the CEO to execute three two-year contracts, with two-year extensions possible, totaling $2,400,000, for on-call professional asset management services. The assets they are looking to manage better than their peer agencies, over the coming decades, is primarily the light rail line and all its parts, but all of Sound Transit's physical infrastructure in general. Sound Transit hopes to do most of its maintenance in-house, but values outside expertise enough to spend a little money on it, and get multiple opinions.
Five of the six remaining motions were positive recommendations to the full board for:
a contract to extend Metro's maintenance of a portion of the ST Express fleet for two years. Metro, Pierce Transit, and Community Transit (or rather, First Transit, which holds the contract for CT operations and maintenance) each maintain the buses they operate for ST Express. Metro charges the most, while PT just became slightly cheaper than CT. Sound Transit has made noise about the possibility of opening its own maintenance base, for the Metro portion of its ST Express fleet, but has not acted on it. Staff went through a list of audit recommendations that were rolled into the new agreement.a new Operations and Maintenance Agreement with the Port of Seattle, updating the original agreement from 2009, clarifying maintenance responsibilities for the SeaTac/Airport Station, and removing guideway responsibilities that are already covered under the guideway easements with the Port. A separate agreement for maintenance responsibilities with the Port regarding the 200th St Link extension was made in 2012. One of the terms of the agreement is the hours of operation of SeaTac/Airport Station.the exercising of the five-year option on the original Commuter Rail Service agreement with BNSF for operation of North Sounder, for which the original agreement covered 2004-2015, and the contract extension will cover 2016-2020. The total agreement is limited to $52,945,898, with a limit of $17,836,712 for the period covered by the extension.an amendment to the Commuter Rail Service Agreement with the BNSF Railway Company to incorporate changes related to the south line service agreement including the extension of service to Lakewood on Sound Transit right-of-way and the implementation of positive train control. BNSF has been operating Sounder all the way to Lakewood, and piling up some costs for which the ST board still needs to approve reimbursements. The amendment also paves the way for Amtrak to begin operating on the Tacoma-Lakewood right-of-way starting in 2017.the 2016 Service Improvement Plan, which David detailed on this blog..
While the recommendation to the board to adopt the 2016 SIP was unanimous, board member John Marchione (Mayor of Redmond), who was chairing the meeting due to the absence of committee chair Paul Roberts (Everett City Councilmember), took the opportunity to publicly editorialize in favor of having all-day service on routes 541 and 542.
Part of the SIP discussion covered fleet acquisition, including the new double-talls for some of the ST Express routes Community Transit operates. Board member Dave Enslow (Mayor of Sumner) pined for having double-talls on Pierce County routes. He said the last time he rode on route 590 from Tacoma to Seattle, some riders had to stand. [ST recently reduced 590 runs to match ridership. Riders who don't want to stand can wait at the front of the line for the next bus, which usually comes in 5 minutes during peak.] Staff explained that having double-talls in Pierce County would require major renovations to some bus stops, in particular Tacoma Dome Station, and to Pierce Transit's maintenance yard.
ORCA LIFT Debate
The discussion on the fare proposals was a rare display of disagreement among Board members.
Two committee members who represent Sounder stations, Dave Earling (Mayor of Edmonds) and Dave Enslow (Mayor of Sumner), who had not attended the hearing on the topic, avoided talking about ORCA LIFT, and defended the current fares on Sounder. Sounder fares have only been raised once in the agency's history, back in 2007, when the distance-based fares replaced zone-based fares.
Committee member Dave Upthegrove (King County Councilmember) was armed with studies showing that transportation is the second-largest expense, behind housing, for families living in poverty. He acknowledged that the committee would not come to agreement behind any fare proposals at that meeting. The committee followed staff's advice, and forwarded all fare proposals to the full board, without recommendation.
Similar proposals for all ST services were considered by the board last year, with a low-income fare and fare increases being adopted on Link Light Rail only, which took effect this past March.
ST staff has provided STB with some additional data regarding ridership and cost projections, which will be presented in an analysis piece later this week.