Emmet Heath, Community Transit
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AGENDA SHORELINE CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP DINNER MEETING Monday, July 23, 2018 Conference Room 303 · Shoreline City Hall 5:45 p.m. 17500 Midvale Avenue North 1. CALL TO ORDER 5:45 p.m. 2. DINNER with EMMET HEATH & JUNE DeVOLL, COMMUNITY TRANSIT Introductions Presentation by Guests Discussion and Questions 3. ADJOURNMENT 6:45 p.m. The Council meeting is wheelchair accessible. Any person requiring a disability accommodation should contact the City Clerk’s Office at 801-2231 in advance for more information. For TTY service, call 546-0457. For up-to-date information on future agendas, call 801- 2230 or see the web page at www.shorelinewa.gov. Council meetings are shown on Comcast Cable Services Channel 21 and Verizon Cable Services Channel 37 on Tuesdays at 12 noon and 8 p.m., and Wednesday through Sunday at 6 a.m., 12 noon and 8 p.m. Online Council meetings can also be viewed on the City’s Web site at http://www.shorelinewa.gov/government/council-meetings. Memorandum DATE: July 23, 2018 TO: City Council FROM: Nytasha Sowers, Transportation Services Manager CC: Debbie Tarry, City Manager Randy Witt, Public Works Director RE: Dinner Meeting with Emmett Heath, Community Transit (CT) CEO and June DeVoll, Community Transit Manager of Strategic Planning and Grants At tonight’s dinner meeting, the Council will be joined by Emmett Heath, Community Transit CEO, and June DeVoll, Manager of Strategic Planning and Grants, to discuss current service and future opportunities that the City will have to partner with Community Transit. The following memo provides a short introduction of our two guests at Community Transit (CT), an overview of the services Community Transit provides to Shoreline residents, outlines Community Transit’s strategic focus areas pertinent to Shoreline residents and key questions Shoreline has regarding Community Transit’s strategic focus areas. 1. Background on Community Transit guests: Emmett Heath has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Community Transit since August 2014. He previously served as the agency’s Director of Administration for 10 years. Emmett has had a long career in public transportation and the electric and water utility industry in the Puget Sound region, serving in executive leadership positions at both King County Metro and the Snohomish County PUD before coming to Community Transit in 2005. June DeVoll has been the Manager of Strategic Planning and Grants for Community Transit since 2005. She is also the Program Manager for the Swift Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Program. June has worked in the transit industry since 1992, previously working for the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, where she was the Project Manager for the initial Las Vegas BRT line, a BRT national demonstration project that began service in 2004. 2. Primary services provided to Shoreline residents by Community Transit: Approximately one-third of transit trips (29.6%) are regional destinations to points north: Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood and Everett. Over half of these regional trips are served by CT with the majority of this service provided by the Swift Blue Line bus rapid transit service. Community Transit’s Swift Blue Line serves a 17-mile corridor along Highway 99 between Shoreline and Everett. Both Swift terminals are major transit hubs. At the south end, Aurora Village Transit Center (AVTC) offers connections to King County Metro Transit buses; the Swift station at AVTC is adjacent to Metro’s Rapid Ride E Line station. At the northern terminus at Everett Station, Swift provides connections to Community Transit, Everett Transit, Island Transit, Skagit Transit and Sound Transit buses, Sounder and Amtrak trains, as well as Greyhound commercial buses. There are 30 Swift stations between the two terminals, with each pair located about a mile apart. Swift currently operates every 12 minutes weekdays and every 20 minutes on weekends. In September, frequencies will be improved to every 10 minutes weekdays. Local bus stops near Swift stations offer transfers to additional stops in the corridor as well as east-west service provided by Community Transit and Everett Transit. Key destinations served by the Blue Line include: Snohomish County Campus - Downtown Everett Everett Clinic – Gunderson Building Crossroads Shopping Center Edmonds Community College Premera Blue Cross Swedish/Edmonds Hospital 3. Strategic Areas of Focus for CT relevant to the City of Shoreline This will be Council’s first opportunity to have a Dinner Meeting with Mr. Heath. In preparation for this meeting, Shoreline staff have been in contact with CT staff and have identified the following CT strategic focus areas that are pertinent to Shoreline residents: Operational excellence and customer satisfaction; Technological Innovation; Capital Development; and Regional and Local Partnerships. These topics and corresponding City interests are presented below: Operational excellence and customer satisfaction. CT is investing more heavily in the existing bus network with an emphasis on providing a seamless experience for customers traveling within Snohomish County and throughout the region. CT is actively engaging 2 customers to better understand their travel needs. Integration with regional partners to provide regional connectivity and working with local jurisdictions to coordinate short- term and long-term planning are key focus areas for CT. City Interest: The City recognizes that CT plans to further integrate their service with regional transit providers such as Sound Transit and King County Metro Transit. A long-term focus for Shoreline will be opportunities for bus transit service that will encourage ridership on the Lynnwood Link Extension light rail system with easy and minimal connection changes for Shoreline residents at the 185th rail station. The City understands that Community Transit will be initiating a scoping study for future operations of the Swift Blue Line later this summer. The Blue Line currently runs from Everett to Aurora Village and will be extended to the 185th light rail station, with an additional stop at the 192nd and Aurora Park and Ride. The City understands that the scoping study will address the following questions of interest to the City: 1. How Swift BRT service will be coordinated with KC Metro bus service on Aurora and 185th. 2. Where the location of additional Swift stations (if any) between Aurora Transit Center, the Shoreline Park and Ride and the 185th light rail station will be. 3. If Blue Line service changes will include moving service out of the Aurora Transit Center. 4. If Blue Line service becomes more frequent- determining if moving to a 10-minute frequency (which starts in September 2018) will be sufficient for the projected loads when light rail opens? Technological innovation– CT provides customer information on a mobile platform called BusFinder and is using data collection to support cost-effective improvements and coordination with other transit providers. City Interest: Are there are other technological innovations CT is considering and does CT’s mobile platform now and in the future sync with mobile customer information platforms in use or under development by Sound Transit and King County Metro Transit? 3 Capital development– CT is moving forward with several significant projects including a new Seaway Transit Center near Paine Field, a second Swift Bus Rapid Transit line (Green Line scheduled to launch in 2019) and implementing the next generation of ORCA. City interest: Shoreline residents will be able to use the Green Line to access destinations in Bothell, Mill Creek, Mukilteo and Everett, including the Boeing Manufacturing site and commercial airline service at Paine Field. The City is interested in learning CT’s plans to minimize connection times and maximize the opportunities for a seamless customer experience for riders using more than one CT route and/or transit service provider. ORCA cards are accepted on Community Transit, Everett Transit, King County Metro Transit, Kitsap Transit, Pierce Transit, Sound Transit and Washington State Ferries for fare payment. The City understands that public transit agencies throughout Central Puget Sound are building the next generation of ORCA which is scheduled to come online in 2021. The new ORCA will greatly improve the customer experience, offer new payment options, maintain customer data security, and be flexible enough to adapt to changing technologies. The City is interested in any benefits CT would like to highlight regarding this next generation of ORCA and how they will make the transition to this new system. Regional and local partnerships– Supporting seamless inter-operation among regional transportation providers, and close collaboration with local jurisdictions as transit agencies work together to improve our transportation network. City interest: The City understands that the implementation strategy for Community Transit includes partnering with its local partners to maintain and improve transit performance. The City is investing in multi-modal access and vehicle performance improvements on the 185th corridor in Shoreline. This corridor provides key connections to 185th light rail station as well as providing essential local and regional access across north King County. The City would like to hear about what potential partnering opportunities CT plans to engage in with the City to support multi-modal improvements on these corridors. 4 .