[Update: Sounder Ridership statistics corrected below.]
Puyallup is the only city in the region, aside from Seattle and Tacoma, that has two designated urban growth centers. One is the downtown area near the Sounder station, and the other around South Hill Mall. The city is in the early stages of connecting those two areas with a Bus Rapid Transit line, modeled on the Eugene’s EmX service.
It’s called EZRA (“Easy Rider Area”), named for Ezra Meeker, the 19th century founder and first mayor of Puyallup. The only online resources I’ve identified are the City website and a blurb in the Tacoma News-Tribune. See especially the pdf slideshow in the first link. I briefly chatted with Puyallup City Manager Gary McLean about the project.
The line’s proposed features, and its legal and funding status, are after the jump.
Features
The line’s northern terminus would be the the Puyallup Sounder Station, which has more boardings than any other Sounder station aside from King Street and Kent* (1100 940/day). The first four miles would take it to the South Hill Transit Center, which may serve as an initial terminus if that’s how the funding works out. Ultimately, the project could extend a total of 9 miles to approximately S. 176 St. near Graham, with a total capital cost of about $3m/mile. The full system is expected to draw about 3,000 boardings a day.
Like most BRT projects worthy of the name, EZRA would have Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technology: next bus signage, signal priority, signal timing, closed circuit cameras to identify problems, etc. There would also likely be off-board payment, assuming planners determine it’s cost-effective to collect fares at all.
Weekday service would run at least 14 hours a day at 15 minute headways, with 10 minute spacing in the peak hours. Weekends, frequency may drop to every 20 minutes or so.
As for right-of-way, as with RapidRide and Swift we can expect a mix of options implemented along the route. McLean suggested that in different segments, the City would eliminate parking, turn lanes, or medians to create bus-0nly lanes. In other places, the route might deviate from Meridian Ave. by a few blocks to avoid chokepoints and serve key destinations.
It isn’t yet clear how far apart the stations will be, and therefore whether conventional bus service will still be required in this corridor. This is a City of Puyallup project, but Pierce Transit is a “partner” that is contributing staff time, according to PT spokesman Lars Erickson. EZRA will almost certainly figure in to Pierce Transit’s “PT Tomorrow” planning project.
Funding
The City got the ball rolling by winning a “Local Infrastructure Financing Tool” (LIFT) grant from the State, paying out $1m a year for 25 years. EZRA was the cornerstone of their application, which also included TOD and trail links.
In the current federal budget process, Sen. Patty Murray has inserted a $1.5m earmark to pay for the alternatives analysis study, a requirement for FTA funding. Assuming the measure survives in Congress, the study would probably begin in 2010 and conclude in 2011, and would fill out most of the specifics we don’t yet have.
As many of you know, Congress will either extend the current, expiring comprehensive transportation bill (SAFETEA-LU), or replace it this year with a much more transit-friendly one. The transit-friendly version has an earmark from Rep. Adam Smith for $8m towards the construction of the line, assuming the study goes well. The remaining $19m for the whole project would come from LIFT funds as well as whatever other grants the City can scrounge up.
* Puyallup has more boardings than Kent if you count peak-direction boardings only.
Your posting reminds me that Sound Transit has given up on the idea of using the Sounder to take people to the Puyallup Fair on weekends, a real shame. I took my family on the train when it was briefly an option a few years ago, and it was an ideal way to go, complete with discount coupons. I understand ST has no interest in repeating the service, although I’m not sure why. Would the transit corridor you talk about impace possible station-to-fairground travelers? The problem with the station as it now stands is its distance from the Fair, walkable, but a bit long for most people. ST provided shuttle service the last time out.
Gary
I’m sure ST will “blame” BNSF, but it’d be interesting to know why they can run specials to the stadia for football and baseball, but not to The Fair.
Given the $ spent on improving tracks and signaling by ST in assistance of BNSF, one would think they could clear a couple of pathways each way during the day and evening to encourage folks to Do The Puyallup by train.
Well, for starters, football and baseball games start and end at fixed times, and people attend the event in its entirety. People show up at and leave the fair at essentially random times, so you’d need a bunch of trains and probably have pretty dispersed ridership.
Where there’s a will there’s a way – certainly at the wewekends, one trainset doing more-or-less continuous round trips with a break for the crew’s lunches ought to work… and this would give a nice foretaste of what weekend service could be like.
I was reading a plan a while ago for urban villages in unincorporated South Hill south of Puyallup. I wonder if that will pan out. If so this would be good for that area.
Thanks for the update Martin. This is an exciting project. I hope that a lot of infill and up-zones comes along with this sort of investment in the sprawling South Hill are.
This is promising, and would be a great feeder for Sounder. I’ve lived on South Hill most of my life and would’ve never imagined an urban village or BRT line around here!!
You cannot mention Ezra Meeker without at least linking to pictures: http://images.google.com/images?q=ezra+meeker
I’m looking forward to the photo op!