Update from Eastside Transportation Forum - DSTT and 550 route plans change

Colleagues – I am following up with a report on two changes that have occurred to the benefit of eastside transit riders since we met last month at the Eastside Transportation Forum.

1. Convention Place Station sale impact to buses in Downtown Transit Tunnel (DSTT). As you may recall, the expansion of will eventually require that all buses still operating in the DSTT will have to move out and operate on surface streets, starting in September 2019. King County’s proposed sale of the Convention Place Station to the Washington State Convention Center was slated to accelerate the removal of buses from the DSTT to fall of 2018. Last week, I proposed an amendment to the Convention Place Purchase and Sale agreement that will delay the removal of buses from the DSTT until one of the two 2019 Metro service changes. The new language sets the September 2019 date as our default date for the change, although it allows for buses to be moved out in March 2019 if the Convention Center construction is permitted and ready to proceed before that time. The Council’s committee of the whole approved the amendment language last week and a final vote is scheduled for Monday, June 26. If approved, this action will gain back at least 6 months in the transit tunnel for eastside buses, and leaves open a good possibility that the eastside buses will remain in the tunnel until forced out by light rail expansion. To read more about the current legislation, follow this link.

2. 550 restructure taken off the table in One Center City planning. The One Center City collaboration of SDOT, and originally proposed truncating the Sound Transit 550 bus (a workhorse of the I-90 commute) at the International District- Chinatown Station, forcing transfers for those continuing north through downtown Seattle. This proposal was removed from consideration recently, based on consideration that the transfers would make the route less attractive and decrease ridership. This is a win for eastside transit riders.

On the down side, most of the more aggressive proposals to keep transit moving through downtown Seattle have now been dropped from One Center City planning. The plans at this point seem to do very little to keep eastside (or any) transit routes moving during the period of greatest construction impacts. I believe this misses a key opportunity and will be advocating to look at more ambitious options that will continue to keep people moving through this bottleneck, including many eastside commuters. And, the Metro proposed truncations of buses on the 520 routes remains under consideration, and potentially is more likely to be pursued because so many other options have fallen off the table. Follow this link to find the report that was sent to Council on the OCC planning effort.

Thank you for your continuing interest and advocacy for eastside transportation interests --- I will continue to advocate with Metro and Sound Transit for plans to maximize transit service for our mutual constituents. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any concerns or suggestions!

Claudia

Claudia Balducci

Metropolitan King County Council, District Six

King County Courthouse

516 Third Avenue, Room 1200

Seattle, WA 98104-3272

206.477.1006

[email protected]

www.kingcounty.gov/council

This email and any response to it constitute a public record and may be subject to public disclosure.