Riders take to Community Transit’s Swift buses

EVERETT — In Community Transit’s meetings earlier this year to discuss possible service cuts, some people criticized the agency’s new Swift bus rapid transit program.

The $29.6 million system, which started late last year, ran frequent buses down Highway 99 that some observers said had few riders.

Those people argued that Community Transit should cut more across the board — including from Swift — rather than cutting all Sunday service and most early morning routes, as officials eventually chose to do.

They also questioned why Community Transit was starting a new program while having to cut so much of its service.

Now, the Swift bus program is starting to pay off, Community Transit says.

It now has more riders than any other route in the system, according to the agency’s latest numbers.

The Swift line runs more buses and stops less frequently than other routes, which speeds up trips. Swift’s per-bus boardings are growing and are now comparable to those of other routes, officials said.

“There are more people on this corridor, they’re liking this service and they’re riding these buses,” spokesman Martin Munguia said.

Two weeks ago, Community Transit officials decided to go ahead with fare increases and severe cutbacks in bus service in response to make up $16 million of projected lost revenue this year and next year. Those changes take effect June 13.

Swift began service Nov. 30, and the proposal for service cuts was announced in early January.

“The timing was really bad,” Munguia said.

Ridership along Highway 99 was up 11 percent between February 2009 and February 2010 while ridership in the rest of the system dropped 8 percent during that time, and it’s because of Swift, officials said Wednesday.

While many Swift riders have switched from Route 101, the local bus route that runs from south Everett to Aurora Village along Highway 99 as a companion to Swift, the ridership on that line remains healthy, officials said. It is second highest in Community Transit’s system with an average of 2,218 weekday boardings in February.

Combined, Swift and Route 101 carried 4,878 passengers each weekday last month, compared to the 4,376 combined weekday boardings on the two routes that ran down Highway 99 in February 2009.

Overall, Community Transit’s ridership was down 4.6 percent from 2008 to 2009, from 11.9 million to 11.4 million. A similar trend is taking place around the nation, according to the American Public Transportation Association, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group.

Ridership nationwide dropped 3.8 percent last year from 2008, according to the group. In King County, ridership on Metro dropped 6 percent from 2008 to 2009, to 111.7 million from 118.8 million boardings, Metro spokeswoman Rochelle Ogershok said.

Transit buses and commuter trains nationwide experienced a revival in 2008 when gasoline prices spiked at more than $4 per gallon, but in 2009 gas prices dropped and so did the employment rate.

Community Transit officials defended Swift in the face of the criticism, saying that it had been in the works for several years and was financed entirely with state and federal money that could not be shifted to the rest of the system.

Most of the meetings were in January and February when ridership on Swift was building, Munguia said Wednesday. Also, local routes sometimes will have few riders on a bus between some stops and more between others.

Swift buses run from 5 a.m. to about 12:30 a.m. Most of the ridership is taking place during the day, officials said.

“I’m very happy with it,” Community Transit chief executive officer Joyce Eleanor said of Swift. “It typically takes six months to a year to establish a new bus route.”

While Swift’s boardings per vehicle per hour were at 11.6 in December, in February they reached 18.1, compared to 19.8 for other local routes and 21.9 systemwide.

“We’re very sad about the service cuts,” Eleanor said. “At least we’ve got one bright spot.”

Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.

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