Trainlike bus service is one step closer to chugging down Highway 99.
Community Transit’s Board of Directors on Thursday voted to spend $12.2 million to buy 14 buses. They would travel the congested highway so frequently that it should feel like light rail train service, agency officials said.
Called Swift, the new service is scheduled to start in 2009, with buses stopping every 10 minutes during peak hours, said Martin Munguia, a Community Transit spokesman. The agency has been working on developing the service since 2005.
“These are the first concrete steps to making this project a reality,” Munguia said. “That’s very significant.”
The agency on Thursday also adopted a design-build construction model for building 26 bus stations to serve the buses. That will allow them to design and build the stations at the same time, allowing them to be built more quickly and with flexibility, he said.
There will actually be 13 stops between Everett Station and Aurora Transit Center just across the King County line – each stop will have two bus stations, one on each side of the road.
The new bus line, which will start at Everett Station and at the King County line, is projected to cost $28 million, Martin said.
Bus rapid transit, called BRT for short, is rising in popularity all over the country because it acts like light-rail train service but is far cheaper, said June Devoll, Community Transit’s manager of strategic planning.
The way it works is buses come so frequently that passengers don’t have to worry about a schedule – they just roll out to the station and hop aboard the next bus.
With limited stops, the service is also supposed to be faster.
Devoll estimates a bus rider who travels from Everett Station to the King County line will save 17 minutes with the new service. Today, that bus trip takes about an hour, which means riders will cut their trip time up to 30 percent.
The buses will stop every 10 minutes from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., Devoll said. Each bus will have a Global Positioning System unit on it, which will be linked to reader boards at each station that will tell riders exactly when the next bus will arrive.
“The goal is to make transit attractive to people who aren’t currently riding,” Devoll said. “That’s exactly what’s being experienced in other cities around the country.”
Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.
Community Transit
Community Transit plans to expand its bus service on Highway 99 in 2009. On Thursday, it decided to buy 14 new buses like the one shown here.
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