Last week, we reported on Community Transit’s future plans for Swift II, a new bus rapid transit line in Snohomish County that would connect Canyon Park (Bothell) to Paine Field (Boeing-Everett). The pieces are quickly falling into place for the project with newly granted approval by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to proceed with project development. This is an important step because it means that the project could qualify for the coveted and valuable New Starts grant program. Earlier this year, the agency received a $3.3 million dollar grant from the FTA to proceed with design and environmental analysis on the line.
Community Transit has a lot of work left:
- The County and State need to develop a plan to improve capacity and speeds along 128th Street at I-5;
- Small Starts grants must be secured in order to deploy new buses and stations;
- State taxing authority is required to operate Swift II service; and
- The agency must work with local jurisdictions to upgrade infrastructure along the proposed routed.
Working with local and state agencies are manageable issues for the agency. New taxing authority would come through a local options sales tax that the Governor proposed last week. It is unknown if such a proposal will be successful in the 2015 Legislature. Meanwhile, if the application by Community Transit rates high enough, it could qualify for the New Starts funding in the next two years. The agency believes that the soonest deployment of Swift II service could be early 2018.
