Proposed Bus Cuts Target Bonney Lake/Sumner Riders

Nell Snodgrass worries about how friends and neighbors--especially senior citizens and the physically disabled--are going to get by if Pierce Transit eliminates bus service to Bonney Lake and Sumner this fall.

Snodgrass, an alternate member of the Bonney Lake Senior Center Advisory Board, said residents who depend on public transportation to reach employment in Sumner, Puyallup and points west could end up losing their jobs for lack of transportation.

“If they don’t have car, they’re just out of luck,” the Prairie Ridge resident said.  “But it’s not just people going to work.  I know several women who come up here (to the Bonney Lake Senior Center) in wheelchairs.  They won’t be able to get up here anymore.”

Bonney Lake, Sumner and Buckley residents would be among the hardest hit as a result of Pierce Transit’s $51-million funding shortfall. The Lakewood-based agency is contemplating dropping virtually all service east of Meridian Avenue in Puyallup, including Routes 496, 406, 408 and 407.

Route 496 shuttles riders between the Bonney Lake Park & Ride and Sound Transit’s Sounder train station in Sumner, while Route 406 connects the Park & Ride facility to Buckley and Rainier School to the east.  Route 408 provides general daily service with local stops between Sumner and Bonney Lake.  Route 407 serves riders between Bonney Lake and Prairie Ridge.

Pierce Transit has been looking at those cuts, among other outlying routes within its regional service area, as a way to bridge declining sales-tax revenues.

Other potential service reductions would target riders on the Key Peninsula and in Gig Harbor and Olympia.  Particularly worrisome, however, is the effect on Bonney Lake, since much of the community is not easily walked.

Pierce Transit spokeswoman Jessyn Farrell said her agency logged 14.1 million total passenger trips last year.  Yet East Pierce County accounted for only 1.6 percent of those.

Of that segment, the largest ridership, 62,129 passengers, traveled on Route 409 between Sumner and Puyallup.  Route 406 carried the fewest, 11, 771 passengers.

Pierce Transit is looking to eliminate virtually all service east of Meridian Avenue in Puyallup by Oct. 2. If that happens, riders still would be able to travel between Tacoma and Puyallup, and between Lakewood and Puyallup, but service to Bonney Lake, Sumner, Prairie Ridge and Buckley would cease.

“The board directed us to look at two things, ridership and cost,” Farrell said.  “As you go further east, the cost goes up because buses have to travel further from the Lakewood base.”

Added Farrell, “What the board called for was for staff to develop proposals that maximize ridership for the most people.”

Of special concern is Route 496, which transports riders from the Bonney Lake Park & Ride lot to SoundTransit’s Sounder train station in Sumner for the morning and evening commute to Tacoma and Seattle.

Route 496 carried 59,502 riders last year, but its numbers still paled by comparison to other Pierce Transit lines.  For example, 2.3 million people rode Route 1 along Pacific Avenue through Parkland and into Tacoma and South Tacoma last year, agency records show.

And Route 2, originating in Lakewood and coursing through University Place to Tacoma Community College and downtown Tacoma, served more than 1 million riders.

Farrell said Pierce Transit recently opened talks with Sound Transit about the possibility of it taking over Route 496. The Sumner Sounder station, which accommodates 286 vehicles, is always full, she noted.

Sound Transit spokeswoman Kimberly Reason said she does not know what the solution will be.

“Certainly, the Sounder service is important to our constituents,” said Reason. “We’re still working on determining the impact.”

Sound Transit is reluctant to commit to additional expenses right now, she said, because economic forecasts show the agency with nearly a $3.9 billion shortfall by 2023, when it will need an estimated $17 billion budget.

“This is the same thing Pierce Transit is going through,” she said.  “Ninety percent of our revenues are funded by sales tax. The reductions that Pierce Transit has to make, like our agency, are tied to the loss of sales-tax revenue.”

The point, Farrell said, is that officials in both agencies understand the importance of Route 496 to Bonney Lake commuters and are keeping communications open.

“We’re just not sure how it’s going to turn out,” Farrell said.

Also unknown is the fate of Pierce Transit’s Bonney Lake Park & Ride facility if service is terminated.

“Those are policy matters that still need to be explored by the board,” she noted.