Letter: Bus service in west Pasco needs upgrade
Those of us who live in Pasco, west of Road 68, and south of I-182, are not seeing any truth in Ben Franklin Transit’s claims that their recent changes provide “more direct routes” and “increased route frequency.” This whole section of town has been hung out to dry by BFT.
Not a single bus travels down Court Street west of Road 68, and the one that comes the farthest (Rt. 67) only runs once an hour. Hardly an increase in frequency. My commute to PNNL, which once took two buses, now takes three and at is least 40 minutes longer per day. Depending on the timing between routes 225 and 66 or 67, the journey home can take two hours. Do they really think this is reasonable when the same journey takes 30 minutes to drive in heavy traffic?
The new transit system does not fix the fundamental problem suffered by the old one. That is, it is still designed to shuttle people from one transfer station to another, rather than taking people to where they need to be in a timely manner. The service to the west end of Pasco (never great to begin with) now just stinks.
Gregg Lumetta, Pasco
This story was originally published October 19, 2017 at 5:39 PM with the headline "Letter: Bus service in west Pasco needs upgrade."