Busy Transit Systems May Get Assistance Sheahan’S Legislation Inspired By Pullman’S Situation

Sen. Larry Sheahan is introducing legislation that would give efficient, highly-used transit systems advantages over others.

If approved, Senate Bill 6769 would distribute state transit money based on criteria such as cash reserve levels and the number of passenger trips per hour.

Under the bill, those who fared well in the criteria would be “first in line” when money is disbursed, Sheahan said.

Sheahan, R-Spokane, said the bill was inspired by Pullman Transit’s specific situation, but would also benefit many other rural transit systems in the state.

“A lot of students and citizens of the area have pressed upon us the importance of Pullman Transit and the uniqueness of it,” Sheahan said.

“We need to find a way to reward those transit systems like Pullman that are doing well and encourage those that aren’t to improve, and this bill will do that,” he said.

Like other public transportation systems in Washington, Pullman Transit is undergoing cuts due to voter-approved Initiative 695, which slashed car tab taxes.

But unlike other transit systems, Pullman’s buses are usually packed, mainly with Washington State University students. In fact, Pullman Transit has the highest number of passenger trips per hour in the state - 69.6 compared with King County Metro Transit’s 31.7 and Spokane Transit Authority’s 21 per hour. Last year, Pullman Transit gave 1.2 million rides in this town of 25,000.

In the past 20 years, $5.3 billion has been spent on transit, Sheahan said, but there’s never been criteria based on efficiency, ridership or actual route use.

“The problem is, there are huge mass transit systems in the Puget Sound with substantial cash reserves, but with extremely low ridership levels,” Sheahan said. “These systems end up siphoning money away from the smaller, more-used transit systems in some rural areas.”

Introduced last week, the bill is now awaiting a possible hearing in the Senate Transportation Committee.

Sheahan has sent e-mail and a letter to lawmakers from districts with transit systems that would benefit from the bill - including Kitsap, Walla Walla, Whatcom, Thurston and Skagit counties.

Pullman Transit Manager Rod Thornton said Pullman is positioned well for such performance-based budgeting. “Having the ridership we have and the community we have, it sounds really promising.”

The Pullman City Council was able to soften some transit cuts after discovering it would receive $226,000 of car tab money collected in the third quarter of 1999. In the past two weeks, many students have written letters in support of Pullman Transit’s attempts to secure outside grants to keep the popular bus system intact.

Though students don’t pay fares, they help subsidize the bus system through $229,000 in student fees and $128,000 in parking money. That averages out to about $6 per student, per semester.

Service reductions - including cancellation of four routes and scaled back hours on other routes - are scheduled to take effect Monday.