Sound Transit panels OK Capitol Hill compromise
Sound Transit panels OK Capitol Hill compromise
Daily Journal of Commerce / 11-5 / Ryan
Two key committees of Sound Transit's board approved the agency's transit service plans for 2005 yesterday, including improving service on its popular and controversial route 545 from downtown Seattle to Redmond.
The finance and executive committees voted not to reroute it to serve more of Capitol Hill as some transit advocates had been urging for the past five months.
More than one third of the route's riders live on Capitol Hill, the city's most transit-dependent neighborhood. Currently, they must ride a slow local bus or walk downtown to get on the express to Redmond.
The express route, dominated by Microsoft commuters, has generated the most discussion of any topic in Sound Transit's 2005 service plan.
People for Modern Transit President Richard Borkowski and Capitol Hill resident and former Microsoft employee Anirudh Sahni had been pressing the agency to send the route east over John Street and north along 24th Avenue East to Montlake before crossing the state Route 520 floating bridge.
Such a change would provide Capitol Hill residents a direct route to Redmond. But because it would add at least seven minutes to the trip for 545 riders beginning or ending their trips in other neighborhoods, agency staff and Redmond officials have consistently opposed the idea.
"This is a critical component of our transportation infrastructure," said John Resha of the Redmond City Council and the Greater Redmond Transportation Management Association. "We don't know that high-capacity transit will ever come to Redmond. This is our express connection to Seattle."
The Redmond and Capitol Hill advocates crafted a compromise solution last week and urged Sound Transit to adopt it yesterday. They agreed to support the agency's plan to increase the route's frequency from 15 to 10 minutes without sending it over Capitol Hill, as long as the agency explores other options to improve connections between the dense residential neighborhood and the job-rich Eastside.
Among other changes, the agency will explore extending the 550 bus route between Bellevue and Seattle, which currently ends in the downtown Seattle bus tunnel. The extension would include stops on Capitol Hill.
"Changing the middle of a route is not as good as changing the end of a route," said Resha.
Sahni said the agency had also committed verbally to adding a stop on the 545 route at Bellevue Avenue and Olive Way, just east of Interstate 5 on Capitol Hill. Such a stop could serve the densest, western part of Capitol Hill, while adding only one minute to the ride.
"Capitol Hill is getting maybe one-third the benefit at maybe one-tenth the cost (to other riders' schedules)," Sahni said.
Other proposed service changes for the coming year include:
- A second weekday round-trip on the Everett-to-Seattle commuter rail line, starting in late 2005. A recent agreement with Amtrak allows monthly commuters to hop on Amtrak trains at no cost. The agency expects the second round-trip to boost the line's ridership from 94,000 per year to 207,000.
- Extending route 565 (Federal Way to downtown Bellevue) to the Overlake Transit Center.
- Changing route 555 (Issaquah to Northgate) to also serve the University District.
The full Sound Transit board will vote on the 2005 service plan Nov. 18.
"It looked like something that nobody was going to walk away happy from, and now a lot of people are walking away happy," said Sumner Councilman David Enslow of the 545 route controversy.
"It's a good ending," said Kenmore Councilman Jack Crawford.