CT brings back weekend run

Published 12:03 pm Thursday, February 21, 2008

After a hiatus of more than two years, Community Transit restarted its weekend bus service on Route 120 between Lynnwood and Bothell on Sept. 29.

“That’s been a gap in our service,” CT spokeswoman Kristin Kinnamon, said Sept. 26.

“It really impacted people who are transit dependent,” she said, adding that when the route wasn’t running, neither would the Dial-A-Ride Transportation, or DART, buses that serve people with disabilities.

Route 120 weekend service was cut, along with other bus services, after voters approved Initiative 695 in 1999. The measure, which mandated $30 car tabs, led to the loss of roughly 28 percent of CT’s budget. The agency had a budget of roughly $70 million last year. The weekend service is being restored thanks to last year’s successful ballot measure, which increased the sales tax by 0.3 cents per dollar. Roughly 65 percent of CT’s budget is from local sales tax revenues, and the agency has been increasing services incrementally since the start of the year.

Many other routes have been slightly tweaked to improve connections with Sound Transit and other CT buses. Riders should check the new Bus Plus local and commuter schedule books for details.

Sound Transit also has made route and schedule changes to many of its Snohomish County ST Express bus routes. Buses will no longer serve Everett Mall, but will use Everett Station instead.

More route changes are being planned for next year. CT officials are gearing up for a complete restructuring and expansion of bus service in February, which translates into a 21 percent increase in bus service above September 2001 levels, Kinnamon said.

This story was compiled by the Herald Newspaper staff in Everett.