Link Transit proposing new schedule, later service for Leavenworth

Link Transit is proposing a later bus schedule for most routes, and a revised schedule for outboard routes to Chelan and Leavenworth. Link Transit Marketing and Communications Manager Eric West said the changes are part of the resources they have available.
“We have some money put aside in our budget in 2018 to add a little bit of service. This is what we’re able to do with that limited resource of about $450,000,” West said.
A recent Link Transit survey revealed most favored later buses and more weekend service.
“Looking at what we are able to get the most bang for the buck in terms of ridership, we feel adding the addition of service during the week will probably result in higher ridership than adding more service on weekends,” West said.
West said they have to be cognizant about their federal funding which is based on ridership and productivity. They do not want to jeopardize funding. If their productivity levels went down, the funding would go away.
He said they want to do the best thing from that perspective but also from just ridership in general.
“Based on current ridership, the routes were proposing to add later routes are the ones that have the most ridership. It’s officially every route in the Wenatchee and East Wenatchee area, except for route 7, which has low ridership when you compare it to other routes,” West said. “Those are the highest ridership routes in the Wenatchee area, so those were the ones we felt were more deserving of additional evening service.”
Routes 21 and 22 to Chelan and Leavenoworth, West said they are consistently getting requests for later service on those routes. The last trip to Chelan leaves Wenatchee at 5:15 p.m. and 6 p.m. on the route 20, so it’s not very late.
“People working past 6 p.m. that live in Chelan are kind of out of luck. We added later service on that route and we changed the frequency on it, going to every hour rather than half-hour frequency morning and evening, then the sporadic hour and 15 minutes, sometimes up to two hours,” West said. “We realized that could have some impact on people’s travel patterns, so we’re really wanting to hear from people on that. The changes to the 21 and 22 are probably the most impactful for the people that presently riding.”
Currently, the route 22 to Leavenworth operates every 30 minutes in the morning and afternoon. Midday, it is about every hour. West said they are proposing to go every 45 minutes all day.
“What that does, it allows us to use fewer buses, because we don’t have to have those extra buses on the road four two or three hours in the morning and afternoon to have the higher frequency. So there is a little less cost involved,” West said.
Currently, the last bus to Leavenworth leaves at 8 p.m. The new schedule would have that bus leave at 8:30 p.m. “It does affect some of those trips which are arriving in Wenatchee on the hour or half-hour schedule morning or afternoon,” West said. “We want people to comment on those. If it is a positive change, great, we want to hear that. If it is a negative change, we certainly want to hear about that because we don’t want people to be caught off guard, especially if this is something that doesn’t allow them to ride the bus moving forward.”
These are not final, by any means, he said. People can still comment for another month-and-a-half.
The last bus from Leavenworth would leave at 9 p.m. West said he believes people will appreciate the later service.
“What does that do to the folks that have been accustomed to getting on a bus at 6:30 in Leavenworth or 6:30 in Wenatchee to get to Leavenworth and you can’t do that anymore,” he said. “People have to be at work at a certain time and they have to leave at a certain time, so if they are impacted by 30 minutes or so, it might impact their decision to ride the bus.”
Moving forward, West said it’s going to be tough to meet everyone’s needs. They want to keep their existing riders, but also attract some new riders. It’s a balancing act.
The new service schedule will be implemented on July 2.
“We have a service plan that takes place the first Monday in July. That is typical when we make our changes because school is out so we’re not impacting that market. People might be on vacation so their work schedule might be helter skelter that time of year. It’s not a huge impact on people to change during the middle of summer rather than after school started when people’s schedules are set,” West said.
To comment, go to linktransit.com. There is a news article on the center of the page that will direct you to a list of each route Link is thinking about changing. At the top of the page, you can click on a specific route. That’s an email link which will allow to send an email to their planner.
“You can comment, I don’t like what you’re doing to the 22. It needs to be done this way. Or it makes me have to do this to my schedule. Whatever the comment..we want to hear positive and negative. People have until April 17 to comment. We really want to get the word this is something we want people to take a close look at. Once it’s done and on the books, it’s tough to go back,” West said.
The information will be available at the Columbia Station and at the Link facility at Olds Station. You can also call 662-1155 to get the information in another format. The hope is that most comments will come through the web.
“We really encourage people if they are a current rider or interested in anything at all in riding, to take a close look at these and see if these are going to work for them,” West said.
Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.