When we reported yesterday that the Route 773 shuttle for West Seattle’s King County Water Taxi run would include weekday-midday Morgan Junction service, the schedule wasn’t online. Now it is – with service 9:45 am-1:34 pm weekdays – see the schedule here.
I agree. I hope they don’t use those ridership numbers to determine whether or not they should expand service regularly to Morgan Junction. I for one would be likely to use the service more in the morning or evening hours.
Seems like they’d want to give rides during commuter hours – morning and evening times – I know they’d get more riders then.
I’d definitely use it if it ran during commute hours. This mid-day schedule is no help to me at all.
Great hours. I will be sure to let my grandma know when she comes to town.
I work in transportation for the county. As many of you know, funding for the King County Ferry District is tight because of the recession and political pressure. But we have long wanted to extend service to the Morgan Junction. We examined whether there was enough time to get a shuttle down to Morgan from the Alaska Junction. During peak hours it was not possible to reach both junctions, but it did work during the midday hours.
We are limited to our existing budget, but decided to make this simple change because it added no cost and ridership was low at this time. It is our hope that the many seniors who live along this route might be served by a midday shuttle and that it would at least provide more transit on Fauntleroy in the mid day when few Vashon or express buses run.
Our hope is to continue to grow the Water Taxi ridership and justify further spending. If we had the money, we would love to run shuttles to more locations in West Seattle, but this was something we could try during tight times without spending much.
The lack of shuttle that goes North up California Ave. from the Alaska Junction (which it did originally) to Seacrest has a huge impact on ridership. The current shuttle is a slow “milk run” and misses a huge portion of potential WS commuters, and instead loops down Avalon Way and along the waterfront where the commuter population is almost non-existent. Currently, it’s quicker to take a 55 downtown then it is to go to the Alaska Junction, get on the water taxi shuttle and loop around WS. It would be nice to have the KC folks take another look at this.
Why complain when it is free? I noticed the riders are mostly seniors and tourists and they ride all day. if it brings more business to Morgan Junction than good for us.
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