Thursday, February 16, 2012

Service Changes on Monday, Feb. 20

Next Monday, Community Transit bus service will change significantly.

For local riders in Snohomish County, there are major changes to the route network, as well as schedules. Several routes have been eliminated and others serve different destinations. Peak hour schedules (5:30-8:30 a.m. and 3:30-6 p.m.) will be largely the same, but off-peak schedules will have fewer trips, especially away from the urban areas. On Saturdays, buses will run less frequently than they have throughout the county.

Also, the latest any buses will operate is between 10-11 p.m.

For commute riders to downtown Seattle, several routes have been eliminated but most other routes remain the same, with fewer trips. Expect more riders on the remaining buses. Based on current ridership numbers, there should be seats for every rider if people store their belongings on their laps or beneath seats. Some trips may experience standing loads, especially in the afternoon when more people try to take the same bus back to Snohomish County.

Routes to UW are largely unchanged, except for some trip times.

If you have not planned your trip for next week (and maybe considered a Plan B), pick up a copy of the Bus Plus schedule book on buses or use the online Trip Planner. All new route schedules are available online, along with stop lists to tell you where the bus stops along each route.

While Monday is Presidents Day, there will not be a holiday schedule. All buses will run according to the new regular schedule. The Customer Information line (425 353-7433) will be open that day from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Community Transit employees will be at various locations to help people with their trips on Feb. 20 and 21.

Community Transit is reducing service because of low revenues due to the economy. The agency is pursuing new funding options during the State Legislative session.

4 comments:

  1. Did the 425 scheduled to arrive at 7:12 a.m. at LTC not make the stop? I was there at 7:10, and there was someone already waiting there. We both stood there until the 421 arrived at 7:30.

    Just wondering because this will probably be my main morning route from now on, and I want to make sure I'm reading the schedules correctly.

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  2. @Paul, I cannot tell you if the Route 425 bus was late in arriving to LTC. If it was 10 minutes or more late, there would have been a dispatch page and none was sent. Because LTC is an estimated timepoint (denoted by E in Bus Plus), that bus might arrive and leave earlier than that time. There are many buses going to Seattle at that time, so you can catch other 400-series routes heading south. Normally, Route 425 should arrive around 7:12 a.m., but due to varying traffic conditions that's not a guarantee. In the next bay over, Route 402 has buses leaving LTC at 7:15 and 7:26 a.m. Those are "hard" timepoints, which mean they will leave no earlier than that time. I hope this information helps you.

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  3. A lot of us at Edmonds Community college were confused today the two remaining bus bays for our two remaining routes (115/116) had the wrong numbers and schedules. There were two people there distributing the bus plus guides this morning and they're aware of this.

    Also, I use OneBusAway for Android and although CT doesn't have real-time tracking like Metro does, they still have the timetable data, which still hasn't been updated. I emailed the developer today and I got a reply stating that CT hasn't given them the new schedule data yet. It would be great if CT gave OneBusAway the new schedule data. Just thought I'd post that here.

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  4. @Lupon, there were some problems we dealt with on the first two days of the new service. I believe the signs at Edmonds CC have been updated. We thank the students and staff there for working with us to help make service easier to use there. As for OneBusAway, we are working on their information request. We did not get a request from them until last Thursday, and we've been a bit busy the past few days. But they should be posting our new service information soon. Thanks!

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