For anyone who commutes from Edmonds into Seattle on the Sounder train, here’s a link to a new report from a citizen’s oversight panel that delivers a “devastating evaluation” of commuter (heavy) rail service in north Seattle, according to the Transportation Issues Daily blog.
“Known as ‘Sounder North,’ the service operated by Sound Transit since 2003 provides four peak-commute runs between Everett and Seattle during the week, and averages about 1,100 passengers per day. While 2012 ridership has increased, it is still only half of what was projected and has yet to match the 2008 peak of 1,200 people daily,” Transportation Issues Daily reported.
According to Transportation Issues Daily, the Sound Transit Citizen’s Oversight Panel (COP) notes that Sounder North:
“is more expensive to operate, has higher fares, has a longer travel time, and is substantially under-utilized while the bus routes are less expensive to operate, have lower fares, have shorter travel times, and suffer from severe overcrowding (“North Shore Alternatives Task Force Report,” PDF 208 kb).
You can read the complete story here.
I sure hope they don’t discontinue the Sounder North route. It is a great way to get into Seattle and there is no way CT can accomodate that number of riders on their existing bus service.
The panel of citizens wrote this in their report: “We do believe that the Board and the public should be aware of just how costly this service is and what the implications are of continuing to allocate scarce resources to an underutilized service when the alternative express bus service is running overcrowded every day with standees in the aisles, at a much lower cost.”
The comparison between the train and the alternative bus leaving from the same station in Everett gets at the heart of the legal question not mentioned by the citizens panel.
Under state law as stated in RCW 81.104.120, a commuter train is supposed to be less expensive than using buses in order for Sound Transit to have the authority to operate the train. In the 1990s Sound Transit made theoretical calculations to justify Sounder. The calculations showed Sounder trains cheaper than buses for the same service. The theoretical calculations have turned out to be wrong in actual experience.
It’s use it or lose it time for people who like Sounder, because that train is illegal unless more people use it.