Flush with money from a ballot proposition approved by voters last year, Community Transit is planning major route revisions for 2003.
Riders should be ready for big changes to some existing routes.
“We haven’t had a service change this big in the past 10 years,” said Kristin Kinnamon, Community Transit spokeswoman.
“It’s a fulfillment of a promise made to voters: That we would increase our bus service and help reduce congestion on Snohomish County roads,” she said.
In September 2001, voters approved the agency’s request for a sales tax increase of 0.3 cents per dollar. That funding will now help CT restore service to 1999 levels.
Roughly translated, that’s about 50,000 more hours that buses will be on the road. The expanded services mean more frequent runs and improved direct service to the Alderwood Mall from Lynnwood, Edmonds and Mountlake Terrace.
Two-thirds of the expanded services will start in February; the rest will start in September.
On CT’s 20 local bus routes, 10 will have major changes, including new route numbers.
Four of the agency’s highest-ridership routes will undergo significant changes; Route 610, which operates on Highway 99 and has more than 1 million riders a year, Route 620 to the Everett Mall; Route 210 in Marysville, and Route 621 to Everett Station.
During peak hours, buses on Highway 99 will run every 10 minutes, instead of every 15. In Marysville, buses that now run every half hour will be running every 15 minutes.
Those changes, however, have only been proposed and haven’t been officially approved by the CT board, Kinnamon said.
CT is also planning an increase of about 30 percent more bus trips for the Lynnwood park-and-ride. Also in the works: “One-bus ride” routes to connect north and south regions of the county, as well as from Edmonds to Mill Creek, so riders won’t have to transfer from one bus to another.
Expanded service means more bus drivers will be needed next year. The 2003 budget proposes 54 additional employees for next year; 40 of them coach operators.
The agency will have a total budget of $111 million budget in 2003, up from $96.9 million in 2002. Approximately $43 million in the 2003 budget is for capital improvements, and much of that money, about $31.3 million, is carry-over funding from 2002.
Capital improvements next year include buying new buses to replace ones in the agency’s aging fleet, and work on park-and-ride facilities in Marysville and Lake Stevens.
But the increase in services could grow even more if voters across the state are feeling generous in the weeks to come.
Next year’s spending plan does not include the $2.5 million that Community Transit would receive if voters approve Referendum 51, the $7.8 billion statewide transportation package, in November.
“We obviously have not included any Referendum 51 in this budget,” Kinnamon said.
“We don’t know what the voters are going to say,” she said before the election. “We’ll know Nov. 5.”
The measure was soundly defeated statewide on Nov. 5.
The governing board of Community Transit will meet to discuss next year’s spending plan later this week. A public hearing is scheduled for Nov. 7, after deadline for the Enterprise.
Brian Kelly is a reporter for the Herald in Everett
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