Transit Partnerships

Goal of Presentation

• Review the Transit Partnership Proposal

• Seek Ordinance Approval:

– Authorizing the Mayor to submit Transit Partnership Proposal and execute Agreement

– Amending Proviso

Metro Transit Now

• Approved by King County voters in November of 2006

• Bulk of Transit Now resources (500,000 service hours) subject to 40/40/20

• 20% of the Total Transit Now Hours (100,000 service hours) dedicated to:

•West Sub-area (Seattle, Shoreline, Lake Forest Park)

Metro Transit Now

• 90,000 service hours set side for Transit Partnerships to leverage Metro’s resources

• 30,000 additional service hours could be available for Transit Partnerships at the County Council’s discretion

• Ordinance sets forth minimum requirements for partnerships

• County Council adopted additional criteria to evaluate Transit Partnership proposals

Bridging the Gap

• Approved by Seattle Voters in 2006

• Included funds intended to leverage King County’s Transit Now

•$1.5 Million annually through 2015 for transit service increases

•$22.5 Million for corridor projects including transit speed and reliability capital improvements through 2015

Transit Partnership Proposal Outcomes

•Implements the Transit Plan

• Increases transit service in Seattle

• Implements Bus Rapid Transit

Seattle Transit Plan

Seattle Transit Plan

Transit Now Partnership Program

• Types of Transit Partnerships:

– Direct Financial

– Speed & Reliability

• Competitive

• Eligible projects will be evaluated for implementation in accordance with criteria approved by County Council

Direct Financial Partnership

• Bridging the Gap funds can “purchase” 15,000 hours

• Metro 2:1 provides additional 30,000 hours

• 45,000 new transit service hours possible

Direct Financial Partnership

• City’s Proposal:

– Investment Criteria in Transit Plan

– Increases transit service along priority Urban Village Transit Network (UVTN) corridors

– Designed to serve the highest amount of people

– Considered geographic equity

Speed & Reliability Partnership

• UVTN corridors reaching a 10% transit speed increase can receive 5,000 annual service hours per Core Route in that corridor

• Rapid Ride Corridors qualify for S & R hours

• Additional Transit Service received as a result of S & R continues indefinitely

• $22.5 M Corridor Projects project funds to construct transit corridor improvements

Speed & Reliability Partnership

• City’s Proposal:

– Phased S&R improvements along seven key UVTN corridors:

• Phase 1: Focus on Rapid Ride corridors first, plus Rainier

• Phase 2: Strategically implement selected UVTN corridors next

– Secures up to 35,000 annual service hours

Speed & Reliability Partnership

• Types of improvements being evaluated along Rapid Ride and UVTN corridors:

– Signal Interconnections for 25 signals

– Transit Signal Priority (TSP) at 93 locations

– Signal Improvements at 4 locations– Revised Signal Phasing at 17

locations

Speed & Reliability Partnership

• 8 Queue - Jump Locations

• 22 miles of Transit Priority Lanes

Speed & Reliability Partnership

• In-Line stops at 140 locations

Proviso Amendment

• Modeling of speed and reliability improvements is required to demonstrate 10% speed improvement

• Resources to accomplish modeling and analysis are currently restricted by proviso

• Proviso amendment needed to allow work to move forward.

Next Steps

• Proposal due to King County Metro - October 1, 2007

• Metro’s recommendations to County Council – April 2008

• King County Council action - May 2008

• Transit Service improvements anticipated to start Summer or Fall of 2008

Actions RequestedApprove Ordinance:

Funds will be used to perform analysis and model the proposed speed and reliability improvements

Allow Mayor to sign Transit Partnership Proposal and Agreement

Support from City Council:

Transit Partnership Proposal as it moves through the process and action by the King County Council

Release of additional 30,000 hours by vote of County Council