Recently, the wonderful people over at Sound transit and King County Metro decided to cut express routes from major transportation points. ST Route 565 and 564 and KCM Route 194, to be exact. Granted, the 565 and 564 were essentially the same route, but they could have combined them into a single run that goes from South Hill in Pierce county to the Overlake Transit Center.
What was the reasoning, you ask? Because Sound Transit has a contract with the other transit agencies not to overlap routes, which cuts out most of the express runs between cities and major transit hubs. Also, they want to steer passengers toward the Sounder Light Rail system.
What it actually does is forces thousands to take slower buses that will inevitably be more crowded while they wait for the light rail to be completed in those centrally-located transit centers, scheduled for sometime in the next century. Sounds like fun, eh?
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"Sound Transit has a contract with the other transit agencies not to overlap routes". False. There is no contract, and if there was then only Sound Transit's 554 OR Metro's 218 would exist. The reason duplicate routes are deleted is because it doesn't make sense for two agencies to throw money at the same route. Most of Sound Transit's routes are routes that used to belong to other agencies; for example ST's 522 used to be a Metro route (I don't remember the number).
ReplyDelete564 and 565 have indeed been replaced as you barely mentioned. It is now 566. The common routing has been preserved because routing on the other segments had been extremely low. Similar to above, it make no sense to provide a service that very few would use when that money can be shifted elsewhere.
Third, there is no Sounder light rail system. The Sounder is a commuter rail system that runs on BNSF's tracks (and is operated by BNSF's engineers). There are two lines: one that travels between Tacoma and Downtown Seattle by way of the Green River Valley, and another that travels between Downtown Seattle and Everett via Edmonds.
You're probably thinking of Sound Transit's Link Light Rail, which travells between SeaTac Airport and Downtown Seattle by way of the Rainier Valley. By 2020 it will stretch between Northgate in Seattle to Federal Way.
Regarding Metro's route 194, replacement service is provided by three Sound Transit routes. Between Federal Way and the airport, the pre-existing ST route 574 can be used. ST improved frequencies on this route after the 194 was deleted to accomidate more passengers. Since it is the same routing as the 194, it is not any slower or faster than the 194, and because more buses come more often than the 194 ever did, crowding should not be an issue.
Between Federal Way and downtown, expanded service on the 577 and 578 is provided. These two routes provide 7 day a week all day express connections with ZERO stops between Federal Way and downtown. The trip is 26 minutes SHORTER than the trip on the 194. This is definitely not slower, or maybe you are thinking that the non-hybrid artics are a little bit slower than their clean-diesel conterparts? Acceleration is of course a bit worse, but I don't think it'll be an issue. But I digress...
Between downtown and the airport, service is provided by Link Light Rail. While the *scheduled* trip time is 4 minutes slower than the 194, recall that the 194 was subject to traffic delays, which could delay it between 1 and 15 minutes. Link light rail has an on-time percentage of 99.5%.
I don't see how anything got slower, however crowding may be an issue as more people choose to use these routes. But as more ride, the transit agencies will notice more demand (they have automated passenger counters on all of the buses and trains) and can justify adding more trips. Indeed, it sounds like fun, and I hope to see you on the bus!