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Regional Transit Service Temporarily Reduced in Response to COVID-19
Community Transit will further reduce bus trips on Monday, April 13 to align with current ridership levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency’s new reduced service schedule will represent a total reduction of approximately 30% over regular bus service levels.
“Transit remains essential for many in our community who are working critical front line jobs,” said Community Transit CEO Emmett Heath. “During this crisis, a number of bus trips are seeing little or no ridership at certain times of the day, so we are temporarily canceling some of those trips to operate more efficiently and focus on routes that riders are using for essential travel.”
Last week Community Transit’s total boardings were down 71% compared to February 2020.
Service Reduction
- Across routes, the span of service hours and frequency of trips will be reduced. There will be longer gaps between trips but the reduced service schedule should cut down on the number of unplanned daily canceled trips related to staffing levels.
- Buses remain on regular schedule Saturday & Sunday.
- In accordance with the Governor’s Stay Home, Stay Healthy emergency order, transit should be used for essential trips only.
- Passengers should board and exit Community Transit buses through the rear doors only. The front door will remain accessible for ADA customers only. The front 10 feet of all buses will be available for bus drivers and ADA customers only.
- Community Transit has suspended the collection of fares through April 30.
Further details of the service reduction will be released later this week as agency planning staff complete their work. A complete listing of all trips affected will be updated at www.communitytransit.org/reducedservice by Friday, April 10.
Sound Transit's changes affecting northeast King County can be found here.
King County Metro kicked off temporary service changes, as well as new and discontinued routes, on the Eastside. For information about changes ranging from Bothell/Woodinville to Redmond, visit this page.
Public Comment needed for Northgate Link Rail Project
Public invited to comment on refined ideas for bus connections with light rail
when Northgate Link opens in 2021.
Community Transit and Sound Transit are exploring bus service changes to connect riders
with fast, reliable service to the University of Washington, downtown Seattle and other
regional destinations when light rail reaches Northgate in 2021. Link light rail trains will
depart Northgate every six minutes during peak hours. Travel time on Link from Northgate
to the U District is expected to take six minutes; Northgate to downtown Seattle will take 14
minutes.
After receiving feedback from riders last year, the agencies refined their ideas for bus
connections to light rail.
Sound Transit and Community Transit are presenting these updates
and collecting additional feedback in an online open house open through May 6 at
https://northgate.participate.online/.
While current bus and light rail service has been temporarily reduced due to the COVID-19
pandemic, planning and approval for future service changes must continue in order to meet
the scheduled opening of Northgate Link in 2021.
King County Metro will change bus service to connect to the new Link stations, affecting northeast King County including the greater Bothell area. You can find King County Metro's North Link Connections Mobility Plan here.
Snohomish County Survey Open until May 8
To prepare for the arrival of light rail, Snohomish County is proactively planning to leverage major transit investments to benefit surrounding communities in the Ash Way and Mariner Park & Ride areas. They want to engage with the people who live, work, do business or own property in these areas to consider what light rail could mean to their community and to plan for the future.
For information about the project and to access the important online survey that is open until May 8, click here.
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Trainings & Webinars
Receive one hour of Advanced Training Credits for each training if you attend the webinar and complete the ETC Webinar Survey after each training session.
Rideshare Online training hosted by King County Metro.
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April 15: Basic Orientation, 10-11:30 a.m.
This orientation will provide a basic overview on network hierarchy and employer/worksite configuration, working with employees in the system, and generating reports. EventBrite registration: https://bit.ly/33uzbul
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April 16: Incentive Management, 10-11:30 a.m.
This orientation provides an overview on how to perform random drawings for employee commuter programs such as "commuter of the month," create mode-specific rewards programs, configure ongoing or one-time incentives and run employee participation in rewards program reports. Note: Basic Orientation must be completed before attending this training. EventBrite registration: https://bit.ly/2QsXFP8
April 23: Getting Management On Board Webinar, 10-11 a.m. – Ross will cover the all important question of how to get management to support your CTR Program. Why is it important? What are some tips and tricks? RSVP to Ross and tune in to find out! You are welcome to also bring any scenarios and share your successes and challenges with other ETCs so we can learn and collaborate with one another.
Recommended online trainings available on the ETC Resources Page
Webinars are posted to our ETC Resources page under CTR Recorded Trainings. To receive advanced training credits for watching recordings, please complete an ETC Webinar Survey once you have reviewed the webinar.
Guaranteed Ride Home Refresher
A quick overview of the elements and processes around the Guaranteed Ride Home Program. (Advanced Training Hours: 1)
Telework Tips and Brainstorm
As new Stay at Home directives were unfolding in March, the CTR team hosted a webinar to provide tips and learn what our ETCs were deploying. (Advanced Training Hours: 1)
Luum: How to Build Your Best Commuter Benefits Program Webinar
Luum highlights Seattle Children’s Hospital’s trailblazing employee commute benefits policy. Although we understand that the scope of their program may be out of reach for some of our worksites, we thought their progressive steps taken were nothing short of inspirational.(Advanced Training Hours: 1)
 First Quarter Reports Due Next Week
This is a reminder to please take a few minutes to document how your Commute Trip Reduction progam fared in the first quarter of 2020. We added a question related to COVID-19 and how it has impacted your worksite.
Please complete your quarterly report here by Friday, April 17.
Some helpful tips:
- Progress on the online form cannot be saved, so please make sure you have time to complete the report in one sitting (10-15 minutes).
- If you have more than one ETC at your worksite, only one person needs to complete the report.
- Please take the time to thoughtfully compete the narrative sections. "N/A" is not an acceptable answer.
We will review your reports and provide recommendations by May 8.
Let us know if you have any questions.
Time to Vote! Peer Advisory Board ballot closes soon
Voting for new Community Transit Peer Advisory Board members is open until Monday, April 20. On the ballot are Tim Rowe from T-Mobile, Garrett Jensen from the City of Mukilteo and Dani Sissons from the University of Washington, Bothell.
You can find the ballot here.
Community Transit CTR Team
CTR@commtrans.org
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