Holiday Service Levels - More Art Than Science

Over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we went. The holidays are over and we have flipped the page to 2017. January is a great time for looking to the future and also time to reflect on how things went the past year.

This past holiday shopping season saw record-breaking sales for retailers, which had Community Transit buses working hard to meet the demand of riders heading to work, shopping, school, or just to grandma’s house.

Our data gurus tell us that Sundays are typically the lowest ridership day of the week and our planning gurus tell us that lower demand calls for us to have a Sunday service schedule on major holidays such as New Year’s, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Historically, those holidays have lower ridership than a typical Sunday. Did you ride on any of these holidays in 2016?

For example, on Thanksgiving 2016 we had 4,423 boardings which, is about half of a typical Sunday and much less than a typical Thursday (which is about 35,000 boardings). While this is a small ridership number compared to non-holidays, it shows that we were able to meet transportation demand for more than 4,000 people who had to find alternative solutions when we had no holiday service.

Why do people ride the bus on Thanksgiving? Families and friends like to be together on this day and share a meal or a football game, so that’s one reason. We can also assume that a lot of these riders were heading into work for the Black Friday sales that start Thanksgiving night, or to be the first shoppers to get the hot deals. Were you working or hitting the sales on Thanksgiving?

Christmas Day had only 3,687 boardings, living up to its reputation as our lowest ridership day of the year. Christmas this year also landed on a Sunday which called for a Monday, December 26, “observed holiday.” Based on historical ridership trends, we ran a Sunday service schedule with no commuter service that day. So we want to know, were you going over the river and through the woods or did you hit the salt mines on December 25 and 26?

New Year’s presented a planning quandary. The holiday was on a Sunday, but the “observed holiday” on Monday, January 2, had our planners coming together for an action plan. We originally planned only a Sunday schedule that day, which means no commuter service. But we thought some businesses or go-getter types would want to kick off 2017 right away. The action plan was put into place to add three commuter routes to meet the possible demand of people heading out of Snohomish County into Seattle. Routes 402, 413, and 421 were supplemented to the Sound Transit Route 512 service for those riders headed back to work right away. This was the first time Community Transit added extra commuter service on a major holiday. Turns out we had more than 11,000 boardings on January 2, which tells us there was definitely a demand. 

Just when we thought the holidays were over we jump right into 2017’s first holiday -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Jan. 16. Because many businesses remain open on several "minor" holidays like this one, we run regular local service but a reduced commuter schedule. Let us know how you use Community Transit on the holidays!  Happy New Year! 

It's Lovely Weather for a Swift Ride Together With You

In the spirit of the holidays, celebrating Swift's 5th Anniversary and, of course, Santa Swift, here's a little ditty about a bus rapid transit system near and dear to Community Transit's heart, sung to the tune of Sleigh Ride.

Santa Swift, aka Swift Coach Operator Phil, has the holiday spirit.

Swift Ride 

Just hear those Swift signs chiming
Departure time's glowing it’s “Due”
Come on it’s lovely weather
For a Swift ride together with you 

Outside the traffic’s building
Lone drivers are crying “Boo Hoo”
Come on it’s lovely weather
For a Swift ride together with you 

Swipe your card, buy a ticket, get aboard-- let’s go
Let’s look at the glow
Of storefronts blurring (Swift's not slow) 

Swipe your card, buy a ticket, get aboard-- Swift's planned
We're in capable hands
It's gliding along—can’t go wrong
Swift's the fastest BRT in the land

Just hear those Swift signs chiming
Departure time's glowing it’s “Due”
Come on it’s lovely weather
for a Swift ride together with you

Has this inspired you to create an altered holiday classic of your own? Share your lyrics with us in the comments, but let’s be family friendly lest Santa give you a lump of coal. :)

New Sunday/Holiday service proposed for 2015

Community Transit has announced a proposal to bring back Sunday and holiday bus service in June 2015.

The service increase is possible due to increasing sales tax revenue, which makes up about 65 percent of the agency's operating budget. It was a sharp and prolonged reduction in sales tax revenue that led to the service cuts in 2010 and 2012.

In addition to Sunday/holiday service, Community Transit is proposing to add some trips to both commuter and local service on weekdays, and local service on Saturdays, as well as several small routing changes. See details online.

Sunday/holiday service
By next June, it will have been five years since Sunday and holiday service was suspended, a move that was always considered temporary, but the recession proved so dire t
hat it has taken this long for it to return.

The proposed Sunday/holiday service is different than that of 2009. Buses would not be as frequent, hours of operation would be shorter and some routes have changed since back then.

DART paratransit service
In this proposal, DART paratransit service would also return on Sundays and holidays parallel to the 16 fixed routes. By federal law, DART will pick up riders and take them to destinations that are within 3/4-mile of an all-day fixed route bus line. The Sunday/holiday bus suspension meant that DART riders could not get service on those days.

DART riders may also be impacted by the routing changes. There are three areas where regular bus service would be eliminated, in Marysville, Monroe and Sultan. There are also areas of Marysville and Monroe that would see bus service added, so DART riders in those areas should review those route changes carefully.

Public comment
The service proposal is just that, a proposal. Public comment will be taken through January 9, 2015 and every comment made through official channels will be provided to the Board of Directors for review. A public hearing will take place before the board on January 8, 2015, so whether you have submitted a comment or not, any person can take three minutes to state his or her opinion about the proposal at that meeting.

Details on how to submit public comment are available online at www.communitytransit.org/2015changes.

While dialogue is encouraged on this blog and through other social media channels, only the comments provided by letter, email or phone call are considered official. You can also attend any of the four public meetings to ask questions about the proposal, or ask them here.

Why is There Limited Commuter Service on "Minor" Holidays?

By Martin Munguia

For transit agencies, figuring out how much service to put on the road on holidays is a guessing game. You might provide more service than necessary and have empty buses. Or, you might constrict service to the point that it inconveniences some riders.

Community Transit offers service on four “minor” holidays: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving Friday. These are days when businesses and schools are closed or people take the day off and transit demand is lower than a typical weekday, but there are still a significant number of people riding the bus. A couple other days that sometimes warrant this minor holiday schedule are Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

After years of studying transit use patterns on these days, our planners have come up with a consistent schedule for these days: regular local service (including Boeing routes), and reduced commuter service to Seattle and the UW (Routes 402, 413, 421 and 855).

This way, even if people aren’t working those days, they can still travel by bus to do shopping, run errands or visit family. If people want to go to Seattle, there are some Community Transit options available, but there is also Sound Transit service.

On these days, ridership to Seattle is as low as 20 percent of a regular weekday, so the reduced commuter service makes good business sense. Local ridership is typically lower than usual, but not as drastic.

In the coming year, we will be evaluating whether to bring back service on major holidays, as well as Sundays. But we want to be cost-effective whatever decision we make. So on days we know ridership is going to be low, we may continue to offer reduced service to still serve our riders, but in a fiscally responsible way.