Whatcom Transportation Authority will restore Sunday bus service in Bellingham starting Sunday, June 12.
The agency also will make other changes to various routes, as well as launch an online trip planner that day.
WTA cut its Sunday service last September after voters rejected a sales tax increase for WTA. Then Bellingham formed a citywide transportation benefit district, which asked voters for a two-tenths of 1 percent sales tax increase for various transportation purposes, including contracting with WTA to restore Sunday service. Voters approved it.
"This has been a real boost for everybody to feel that we're not cutting anymore," said Paul Schramer, WTA director of operations. "Last year was tough."
"It's much more fun to work on a project of adding service than it is cutting it," he added.
When WTA restores Sunday buses, there will be some changes, including:
• Former Route 10 Birchwood Avenue will not be restored.
• On Route 401, service will be once per hour, instead of the previous twice per hour.
WTA also will make changes to existing service on other days, including the following:
• Route 3 Maplewood/Cordata: Add a 7:40 a.m. departure that would go out of service at Cordata Station at 8:05 a.m. That will better serve class times at Bellingham Technical College.
• Route 50 Gooseberry Point: Eliminate service on Bayon Road and on Marine Drive between Bayon and Country Lane. That is designed to improve on-time performance.
• Route 55X Blaine/Birch Bay: There are numerous changes to the "flex" route, which deviates from a fixed route, upon request. Changes include: Expand the route south to Alderson Road; change the route's local service from on-demand flex, where the bus doesn't run a fixed route but responds to calls for service, to routed flex service, where it runs a fixed route but still responds to calls for route deviations; cut Portal Way just north of Ferndale as a flex area (routed service would remain); cut the route along Portal Way between Grandview and Birch Bay-Lynden roads because the narrow, bumpy stretch poses safety issues when passing large trucks or during icy conditions (the flex service to the area would remain); the first trip daily from Blaine will depart 20 minutes earlier.
• Route 70X Bellingham: The second morning arrival's end point will be at Bill McDonald Parkway and Samish Way, instead of Western Washington University's Viking Union.
• Route 72X Kendall: Serve Kendall-area neighborhoods in a consistent order regardless of time of day, starting with Oregon Trail, Peaceful Valley and then Paradise Lakes.
• Route 512 Sudden Valley: End the special service to the Whatcom Hills Waldorf School that's done on the 2:40 p.m. weekday trip, because of on-time issues with the route.
With all of the changes, much must happen behind the scenes, and the difficult part was the relatively short time frame, Schramer said. The work involves rehiring drivers, giving drivers a chance to shuffle which routes they work, reprinting and reprogramming signs, and reprinting schedules.
"Doing it in the amount of time we've had here I think is quite an accomplishment," he said.
Some work can't be done until the last minute. For example, schedules at 800 bus stops must be changed Sunday morning before the first bus runs. Six or seven workers will start at 5 a.m. Sunday making the changes.
WTA also hired new drivers, but there won't be enough time to finish training them before service is restored, so existing staff members will work overtime to cover through early July, Schramer said.
"It's the first time we've had a class of new people in about two years," he said.
Also on Sunday, WTA will launch online trip-planning software at Ridewta.com. WTA expects to continue refining and improving the planner after it goes live, said Rick Nicholson, director of service development.
An updated version of WTA's website also will go online Sunday.
SEE NEW SCHEDULES
To see the bus schedule that goes into effect Sunday, June 12, go to ridewta.com and click on "Preview new schedules effective June 12 2011."
