Tacoma Dome Transit Popular as Ever

I have a new job that allows me the freedom of working from home many days of the week. As such I haven’t been making the commute to Seattle on a regular basis. This morning I was a little surprised to see the line waiting for the 590 Seattle Express buses. The line stretched well past Zone E. In my estimation this is a bus and a half of people. With buses leaving every 5 minutes at this time of day nobody should have to wait too long.

I have been plagued with a constant mystery since I first rode the 590 express buses a year ago. I can’t understand people who opt out of the first bus available. For those who have never ridden the 590 Seattle Express there is a class of passenger who if they are not among the first 10 people to board they will opt out and wait to be first, or fifth even, on the next bus. I realize not all seats on the bus are created equal but when I’m commuting by bus I just want to get on and get going. I’m always curious if these people are waiting for window seats, the awesome seat by the driver in the MCI coaches or a seat in the wheelchair accessible row and the superior leg room available there.

The Tacoma LINK remains popular. I counted 17 people on the platform at 7:05 AM today. I could not find the specific 2007 ridership numbers for the LINK but according to Sound Transit “In 2007, nearly 14 million riders boarded Sounder commuter rail, ST Express buses and Tacoma Link light rail trains, an increase of 12.3 percent over the previous year.” An interesting fact is that Sounder rail had the largest increase, at 27.4%. As a Sounder passenger I definitely noticed that ridership increase. The number of passengers seemed to swell with the I-5 construction last fall and it never really receded.

I’m looking forward to moving downtown this summer so I can catch the Tacoma LINK to get to the Sounder.