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C-Tran replaces Rose Village route

Package also to provide direct service to Portland International Airport for PDX workers

By Jeffrey Mize, Columbian staff reporter
Published: May 14, 2019, 9:19pm
2 Photos
Passengers board the 65 route that travels to Fisher's Landing Transit Center in Vancouver at the Parkrose/ Sumner Transit Center in Portland, Ore., on Monday evening, May 13, 2019.
Passengers board the 65 route that travels to Fisher's Landing Transit Center in Vancouver at the Parkrose/ Sumner Transit Center in Portland, Ore., on Monday evening, May 13, 2019. (Alisha Jucevic/The Columbian) Photo Gallery

C-Tran will launch a package of service changes in September that will add 8,000 hours of service annually but irk some residents in Vancouver’s Rose Village neighborhood.

The transit agency’s board of directors unanimously approved the changes Tuesday night that will eliminate Route 39 in Rose Village.

Route 39 would be replaced by scaled-back service in a smaller area that would be buttressed by a “dial-a-ride” program where residents can receive door-to-door service for the same price as a regular bus fare.

The changes approved Tuesday include establishing direct service to Portland International Airport’s terminal.

Route 67 will run from the Fisher’s Landing Transit Center to PDX. It is intended to serve airport workers, not PDX passengers, and will operate from 2 to 4 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. to midnight weekdays.

Christine Selk, C-Tran’s communication and public affairs manager, said there are two reasons for afternoon and evening service.

“The route caters to swing-shift employees at PDX because early-morning workers don’t face the traffic or parking issues that the swing-shift workers do,” she said prior to Tuesday’s meeting. “C-Tran also has more available vehicles during this time frame.”

Selk said C-Tran’s research indicates that about 40 percent of airport employees live in Clark County.

Currently, Route 65 provides service between the Fisher’s Landing Transit Center and the Parkrose/Sumner Transit Center in Portland, where riders can walk across a pedestrian bridge to a light-rail station providing service to the airport terminal.

C-Tran also has dropped plans, at least for now, to extend Route 71 to The Waterfront Vancouver development.

Scott Patterson, C-Tran’s chief external affairs officer, said after Tuesday’s meeting that the waterfront so far doesn’t have high enough densities to justify extending a route that will have buses running every 15 minutes during peak periods. Route 71 buses currently run every 25 minutes but will increase to 15-minute intervals during peak periods starting in September.

There was relatively little discussion Tuesday of delaying service to Vancouver’s new posh waterfront or providing direct service to the airport.

Instead, a handful of residents made a final plea to save Route 39, which has suffered from low ridership, especially since the transit agency started offering The Vine. C-Tran’s first bus-rapid transit route connects downtown Vancouver to Vancouver Mall, primarily along Fourth Plain Boulevard.

Earlier this month, C-Tran released a revised proposal that would maintain limited hourly bus service in Rose Village, with fewer buses running in a smaller area.

The alternative would replace Route 39 with a shorter loop along 33rd Street, Grand Boulevard, Fourth Plain Boulevard and Main Street, with a short trip into the VA Portland Health Care System’s Vancouver Campus. The Rose Village bus would run only in a clockwise direction and would make four hourly loops in the morning and another four in the afternoon. There would be no service on weekends.

C-Tran officials estimate it will take about 20 minutes for a small bus or van to make that loop. During the other 40 minutes between hourly service, the driver will pick up residents within the loop and farther north to 39th Street and state Highway 500.

Same-day requests would need to be made at least 90 minutes in advance, similar to C-Tran’s existing Connector service in Camas, La Center and Ridgefield. Cost would be the same as C-Tran’s standard $1.80 local fare, with a 50 percent discount for people with disabilities, children 7 to 17 and seniors 65 and older.

That alternative was not embraced by those who testified prior to Tuesday’s decision.

“People have a life,” Debbie Simonds said. “We don’t have a Monday through Friday life. We have a Sunday through Saturday life.”

Dominique Horn also objected to scaling back service to weekday mornings and afternoons.

“I believe reducing service in this way really cuts off Rose Village on the weekends,” he said.

Sara Hitchcock said Route 39 provides needed service in an area where people with mobility issues cannot walk a half-mile to catch The Vine.

“People are getting really tired of you stealing service from the little routes,” she said.

C-Tran officials said they will meet with area residents, including at this month’s Rose Village Neighborhood Association meeting, to refine details for the Connector, or dial a ride, service.

Shawn Donaghy, C-Tran’s CEO, said he hopes he will be back before the agency’s board of directors next year saying they need to add hours based on heavy use of the Connector in Rose Village.

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Columbian staff reporter