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Pierce Transit to restore additional bus service Sept. 20
Starting Sunday, Sept. 20, Pierce Transit will restore additional bus service that was lost in early 2020 during the agency’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The service will be at about 90 percent of pre-COVID levels and was designed to retain as many weekday trips as possible to reduce impacts to daily bus riders as the economy reopens and many people begin returning to their workplaces. The agency also took into consideration equity impacts for riders and communities; preservation of high-performance routes, high-need routes and geographic access; and social equity at the route level.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, Pierce Transit made several service reductions over the course of a few weeks. In late May, the agency restored service 75 percent of pre-COVID levels. On Sept. 20, the agency will bring back even more service; this schedule will run through mid-March, 2021.
Below are some of the major changes going into effect Sept. 20 that will be different from what riders experienced over the summer:
- Route 4 – Will serve Pierce College Puyallup on weekdays.
- Route 13 – This route had been temporarily suspended, but is being restored Sept. 20. To more closely match the needs of commuters and students Monday through Friday, all morning trips will travel toward Tacoma Dome Station, and all afternoon and evening trips will travel toward Proctor & North 24th Street.
- Route 100 – Due to increasing ridership on this route and the need to run larger buses, the route will no longer turn into the Uptown Shopping Center, but will stop outside it. In addition, the bus stop at Pioneer and Grandview northbound is removed, because larger vehicles could not safely make a right turn on Pioneer Way from Kimball Drive.
- Route 102 – This route will remain discontinued until further notice. Alternative routes include Route 100 and Sound Transit Route 595 to Tacoma Community College in Tacoma, with connecting bus routes to downtown Tacoma.
- Route 212 – Will not serve Pierce College on Sundays.
- Route 402 – Reduced to hourly service on weekdays.
- Route 425 – This route had been temporarily suspended, but is being restored with this service change. On weekdays, the service operates hourly service from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; on Saturdays, the service runs every two hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- JBLM Connector On-Demand Service – After being discontinued temporarily due to COVID-19, this on-demand service is available again beginning Sept. 20.
- Sunday service will be reduced on many routes, with one-hour frequency on Routes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 500, and two-hour service on most other routes.
Detailed route changes and the new electronic Routes & Schedules book are posted at PierceTransit.org/pierce-transit-routes. New schedules will be posted on each route page when the new schedules go into effect.
Riders can find out when their next bus is coming by:
- Checking their routes on PierceTransit.org/pierce-transit-routes
- Using the Transit bus locator app
- Texting 253.533.7084 from their bus stop and entering the bus stop number found on the pole
- Calling the agency’s Customer Service Office at 253.581.8000, option 1, 1
- Riders can also sign up for route text alerts by visiting PierceTransit.org/StayConnected
Pierce Transit has taken many steps to keep transit customers and employees safe during the pandemic. Buses are disinfected every two hours as they stop at transit centers. To increase social distancing on buses, the agency has marked off seats and limited the number of passengers. Pierce Transit’s administrative lobby is closed to the public and the number of people allowed inside The Bus Shop customer service center is limited to two. The agency is distributing masks onboard buses and has installed clear operator health barriers around the driver area to protect customers and operators.
