Destination 2040: A Long-Range Vision for Transit in Pierce County

Pierce Transit is getting ready to take public input on a long-range plan for transit services. This week on its Facebook page the transit agency announced a series of public hearings planned for early 2016:

Mark Your Calendars! Pierce Transit is developing a vision for how we might provide and expand service to our community over the next 25 years. This Long Range Plan, called Destination 2040, will impact anyone who uses Pierce Transit’s fixed route, Vanpool, or SHUTTLE services. Pierce Transit is drafting the Plan now and will soon be seeking public input on it. Please mark your calendars to attend one of our Open Houses where you can learn more about Pierce Transit’s draft Long Range Plan, including future fixed route growth scenarios, and weigh in: 

Pierce Transit – Destination 2040 Long Range Plan - Open Houses

Tacoma – Feb. 3, Hilltop Community Room, 1202 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma 3–6 p.m.

Puyallup – Feb. 16, Puyallup Public Library – South Meeting Room, 324 South Meridian, Puyallup, 4:30–7:30 p.m.

Lakewood – Feb. 25, Pierce Transit Maintenance Building 5, 3720 96th St. SW, Rainier Conference Room, Lakewood, 5–8 p.m.

The plan, "Destination 2040," will serve as the agency's blueprint for services out to the horizon year 2040. The plan will include the development and analysis of four scenarios for the future: three for varying amounts of growth, and the fourth for a "worse case" situation in which the agency is forced to shrink services.

1. Aspirational Growth Scenario (Vision): Based on high growth in transit service hours, expanded or new routes, and unlimited or non-constrained funding availability. Identifies long-term agency priorities in years 11 thru 25 (Horizon Years 2025-2040).
2. Rapid Growth Scenario (Baseline Plus): Based on maintaining or upgrading the assets and facilities we have today, while still returning to the agency’s historically highest levels of service/service hours whenever feasible.
3. Incremental Growth Scenario (Baseline): Identifies 6-year TIP capital project candidates and agency priorities (2015-2020) plus 10-year/Mid-Term Implementation Strategies (2020-2030).
4. Core Service Scenario (Baseline Minus): Identifies what routes would be reduced or discontinued entirely if local revenues, state funding, and/or federal funding were temporarily suspended or dramatically cut.

Public outreach opportunities begin in January, with a draft plan scheduled to come out sometime in early February. The timeline shows an anticipated final adoption sometime in mid April. Read more about the plan on the Pierce Transit website.

So... long-range transit planning for Pierce County... What do you want to see?