14 December 2020

RE: EVERETT TRANSIT PROPOSAL TO TERMINATE ROUTE 70

Dear Everett City Council;

Joe A. Kunzler here. Since I need more words than a quick oral public comment, thought I should

e-mail comments. It is theatre of the absurd that when I left the Paine Field transit advocacy cause in

the spring of 2019 for multiple reasons things have gone from bad to now backward with discussion of

an indefinite suspension of Everett Transit Route 70, the route from Seaway Transit Center past Future

of Flight to Mukilteo Multimodal Terminal. Granted I have seen the ridership statistics and am well aware

of Everett Transit’s fiscal crisis. My only issue with the Route 70 suspension is indefinite.

As such, for your consideration during your deliberations, I have liberally copy-pasted from a

StreetsBlog post by John Stout, the current Transportation Advocate for MASSPIRG, “working to

transform the Bay State’s transportation network by increasing public transit ridership and improving

walking and biking infrastructures so the easiest, cheapest and most enjoyable ways to get around are

also the cleanest and healthiest”. So here you go with my emphasis:

Looking back over the past seventy years, there are plenty of examples of “temporary”
transit cuts that end up turning permanent. For example, in December 2016, the Washington D.C.
Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) — one of the largest transit agencies in the country
— moved to eliminate eight hours of late-night Metro service per week to allow more time for
maintenance. After four years, this service, used primarily by hospitality and service industry
workers traveling considerable distances between their workplace and their homes, has never
returned even though it was introduced as a temporary two-year cut.

In the Midwest, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), citing declining ridership, began what
it called a six-month experimental closure of Blue Line operations on the Douglas Branch
beginning in April 2008. Perhaps unsurprisingly, in early December of the same year, the CTA
announced its decision to permanently discontinue Blue Line service on the Douglas branch.

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 Joe A. Kunzler
RE: EVERETT TRANSIT PROPOSAL TO TERMINATE ROUTE 70

A late-1980s map of the Green Line shows the "suspended" segment of the E branch to
Forest Hills. The T has long since given up any pretext of resurrecting light rail service through
Jamaica Plain. Courtesy of the MBTA.

A late-1980s map of the Green Line shows the “suspended” segment of the E branch to
Forest Hills. The T has long since given up any pretext of resurrecting light rail service through
Jamaica Plain. Courtesy of the MBTA.

Going back to 1986, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) temporarily
suspended a stretch of the Boston Green Line E due to nearby construction. Ultimately, this
service was permanently cut, to be replaced only by bus service, which set the city on its path to
nation-leading congestion issues.

Just as other budget crises have led to permanent service cuts, the COVID-19 pandemic
will be no different in its long-term effects. While it’s important for us to use our resources wisely
during this public health crisis, we should also understand what’s at stake.

Transit agencies are public service organizations, not Fortune 500 companies. Especially
during a pandemic-induced budget crisis, the success of these agencies should not be based on
financial solvency. Rather, public transit agencies should be evaluated on the service, access and
safety they provide to their riders.

If we don’t maintain adequate transit service, riders may never return after the pandemic
is over. This makes no more sense than closing schools because children aren’t inside them.

On top of maintaining transit service for the future, we need these services now. COVID-
19 is surging across the country and many essential workers still need public transit to get to work.
Making “fiscally conservative” cuts to public transit now could have dire impacts on our ability to
overcome the virus and would be a betrayal of the frontline workers who are continuing to put
their lives on the line to get us through the pandemic.

...

“Temporary” almost never means what it should when it comes to transit. Instead of
rushing to approve budgets by making deep, permanent service cuts, transit agencies, governors
and legislatures should wait a few months so that we all have a better understanding of what the
future looks like with a vaccine and additional federal aid. …

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 Joe A. Kunzler
RE: EVERETT TRANSIT PROPOSAL TO TERMINATE ROUTE 70

With all of that, I really hope there is a plan to use any rescue funding out of Congress to keep

Everett Transit’s Route 70 around. I don’t want to be “Save My Bus” but rather make clear we need to

stop the dismantling of the regional transit network if at all possible. Riders and potential riders simply

do not care if the bus is a red Everett Transit bus or a blue-white Community Transit bus.

Second, the failure to connect the Mukilteo Multimodal Terminal to Everett Station via Seaway

Transit Center with limited stops every hour and preferably every half-hour is going to haunt the region

in the economic recovery. There should be a plan to properly connect multimodal terminals that state

and county and local taxdollars have paid handsomely into. It is theatre of the absurd that for a

community that champions Paine Field so much at every opportunity will not serve with transit in the

recovery the Future of Flight – the #1 Snohomish County tourism attraction – hourly.

Finally, it is the premier theatre of the absurd that we have a transit network that has Everett

Transit have responsibility for serving Mukilteo via routes 70 & 18 – the latter of which a necessary

backup to Sounder North – and seemingly no plan as of 14 December 2020 to hand off those regional

routes to a regional transit agency like either Community Transit or Sound Transit. That’s something

worthy of discussion with the Rethink Transit teams in the next few months. So, I guess this is the

premier torch I will have to carry while lobbying for fixing Everett Transit’s fiscal crisis.

Very thoughtfully;

Joe A. Kunzler
growlernoise@gmail.com

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