When it comes to public transit, the city of Seattle is in a good place.
Recent studies have shown that the citizens of the city are utilizing public transport in record numbers. In 2017 alone, the Metro bus system transported a record 122.2 million riders, the Sound Transit Link light rail system carried a record 23.2 million riders, and 9.6 million passengers chose the Metro-operated Sound Transit Express service.
When it comes to these popular forms of transport, the people have made their voices heard, and the city has listened.
Per King County Executive, Dow Constantine: “People wanted more bus and light rail options, and we delivered. More service means more riders. From operators to transit planners and engineers, we are focusing our energy and resources to meet the demand, and we will deploy more bus service and other innovations on the streets this year and beyond, including more connections to light rail as we further expand the regional network.”
The city’s transportation services can only improve from here, and officials look forward to continued expansion. The new budget going into 2018 will include $30 million that will be attached to any crowding, reliability and service expansion needs.
In addition, this money will go towards an increase of 300,000 annual hours of bus service while also improving weekday all-day service to 10-minutes or better. The funds will also go towards encouraging youngsters to take public transit with the Youth ORCA Program that ORCA cards to teens that are income-eligible.
As far as the various other forms of mass transit are concerned, the numbers speak for themselves with the RapidRide A-F lines seeing an increase of 4.2 percent, light rail ridership up 22 percent over 2016, and 75 percent of morning commuters reporting that they now use trains, buses, bikes, and vanpools as their chosen route of travel each and every day.
Here at Northwest Bus Sales, we have been emphasizing the importance of public transportation for the past 27 years. We sell new and used school, shuttle and trolley buses for the many tour and charter markets in Seattle. Contact us today to learn more about our services.