Comments

1
It's about time.
2
Seemless transitions eh? Like the 567 bus departing at 5:32am from the Kent station, where if the Light Rail is late in arriving, the bus just sits there waiting for it? Instead of making some people late for work, all of us end up being late for work. No thanks!
3
You mean after people complained back in 1999 about the issues of agency overlap and redundant administrations all getting top pay, the KC Executive finally thinks this inter-agency communication might be a good idea? Where was he when people were talking about this back in the 20th Century? I know he wasn't exec, but he's acting like this is something nobody has thought of before as opposed to what was one of the main points of contention against forming ST in the first place.
4
One wonders how Pierce and Snohomish county leadership will feel about ST's new BFF.
5

The only thing the voters have ever asked for over the last 20 years is that a "super regional transit agency" that would provide rapid, and frequent, access across the whole Puget Sound to the key destinations -- and serve those area with local circulators.

We thought we bought and paid for it in the 1990s.

We were surprised when not a single yard of track was laid by the 00s.

We were stupefied as all the money was spent on a tunnel through a hill in Seattle.

What we have is a host of nonsensical long distance lines, run by two agencies, a bunch of interminable milk runs of some of the busiest corridors, two train systems, one of which is great but runs only six times a day and the other which is cool and was called "light" because everywhere it costs $30 million a mile to build but in Seattle it costs $180 million.

We are still waiting for someone to listen.

6
The Boston metro area has one system, the MBTA, aka The T, that controls virtually all public transportation from Cape Cod to the New Hampshire border. It includes the busses, commuter rail and the Boston/Cambridge subway system. And it seems to work. When I lived there in the 1980s-90s it was reliable, relatively safe, and fares were among the cheapest in the country. County lines were ignored and there was no petty bickering over whose taxes were subsidizing whose commute. I'm not really clear on what would be so terrible about having one transportation system for the whole region. It can and has worked in other cities.
7
I don't believe Dow's well-intended initiative will get very far. All five transit agencies need to be combined into a single entity. It works in Boston and Portland and elsewhere. The State Legislature will have to authorize or direct this, but it's time to start that ball rolling.
8
I know they're out of his jurisdiction, but Community Transit (Snohomish county) and Pierce Transit shouldn't be off the hook. The Puget Sound region needs to be coordinated.
9
Like maybe bring back fucking transfers on Sound Transit.
10
@9- bingo. One fare, from Everett to Tacoma. The entire point of public transit is to encourage people to use it by making it easy, reliable, quick and cheap. This is the most "pro-business" thing regional government can do. Get people out of their cars and free the roads up for quicker delivery of goods and services.
It boggles the mind that it isn't sold to the public that way.
11
@9, ain't gonna happen. Heck, as a result of the recent bus cutbacks, Metro is planning on removing transfers in September.
12
The whole Washington model of separate transit systems for each county is the most cockamamie thing I've ever experienced. Adding a sort of "overlay" system only makes things more ridiculous.

Dump CT, MT, and PT, and have only ST cover them all. (And dump that retarded subarea equity crap.)
13
Also, make ORCA cards cheaper or free (or free for first) and make youth cards WAY more accessible.
14
act as one=merger. Both are unaccountable, and so is Dow. Makes sense.
15
@11: Metro is not removing transfers, though Pierce Transit is: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/06/11… Metro should remove them as well and go to all-electronic transfers.

@9: No. If you want to transfer seamlessly from Everett to Tacoma, buy a flipping ORCA card and use it. Paper transfers are prone to fraud, are inefficiently enforced, and mean that someone is fumbling through depositing 10-12 quarters into the fare box. Yes, ORCA cards should be free or a lot cheaper, but that's no reason to make an Express service (it's even right in the name of "Sound Transit Express" buses) run slower by reducing the incentive to use an ORCA.
16
@15, Metro is removing transfers. This is part of the decision on how to close the funding gap, and is information directly from Metro employees. The same day this was announced to drivers, an upcoming zero tolerance policy on fare evasions was also announced.
17
There's a problem with the extra 25¢ charged to Orca users for transfers that occur after peak period has begun. I realize they come with a 2 hour extension of the transfer period but that doesn't help people getting charged to complete trips which might have only taken 30 minutes altogether, which is well within the 2 hour transfer period that's supposedly allowed per fare. It just doesn't seem right.
18
Meanwhile Greater Vancouver BC is quadrupling transit.

Not doubling

Not tripling

Quadrupling
19
@13 has a good point
20
While a regional agency has many benefits, for people in King County it would probably mean a cut in service. Do you really expect the whole region to be built up to King County standards, instead of finding a lowest common denominator?

I suppose you could unify the management but still handle the funding separately, so that King County could still have a superior bus system compared to Pierce and Snohomish. Though any sort of cross-county coordination means shifting money around between counties, which would make it hard for King County to keep up its comparatively higher level of service.

I do think Sound Transit should plan and integrate every bus route that crosses county lines, and make sure those routes connect as seamlessly as possible with its other buses and its trains. What Dow Constantine is doing will help facilitate that, and as the one guy with executive input into both Metro and Sound Transit, he's the right person to do it.

21
@4 Don't know about Pierce County but Snohomish County's still trying to get Everett Transit and Community Transit to work together.

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