Hello and thanks for checking out Transiterranean, a Tacoma-centric transit newsletter-blog exploring commuting, food, drink, and destinations across the City of Destiny, Puget Sound, and beyond! I’m Michael Grass, a former journalist and communications professional who has lived car-free for about 25 years, including in Washington, D.C., New York City, Seattle, Bellingham, and now Tacoma. 

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In July, Pierce Transit’s Board of Directors will consider putting forward a ballot measure for local voters to consider in November that would, in the agency’s words, expand transit service to “more people, more places, more often” across Tacoma and neighboring communities in Pierce Transit’s service district.

Ryan Packer of The Urbanist recently had a good rundown of the service improvements Pierce Transit is envisioning plus the challenging fiscal outlook the agency is staring at if voters don’t boost the current 0.6% sales tax. That tax rate hasn’t budged since 2002 and is far less than peer transit agencies in Washington, including Community Transit in Snohomish County (1.2%) and Intercity Transit in Thurston County (1.2%).

"Pierce Transit will continue running the current service levels for as long as possible, but rising costs will eventually need to be covered by cutting back that same service," Pierce Transit chief financial officer Christopher Schuler said during a recent presentation, according to The Urbanist. "So, starting in 2027, Pierce Transit would begin planning for cost-cutting measures that would prioritize maintaining service and service reductions could begin as early as 2031."

So, what would expanded local transit look like in and around Tacoma? I wanted to take a closer look at Pierce Transit’s proposed new routes and enhanced service levels since some of the details of the envisioned expansion may go overlooked by voters, especially those who don’t ride local buses or do so infrequently. 

Overall, there’s a lot to like in the proposal! Let’s dive in …

More Service: Many Pierce Transit bus routes currently lack frequent service, especially in the evenings and on weekends. Expanding the agency’s sales tax capacity would allow more frequent service levels across the system. Nearly all routes, at minimum, would see service every 30 minutes, a great improvement over the multitude of routes currently with once-hourly service.

(Meanwhile up in Bellingham, a far smaller city compared to Tacoma, the Whatcom Transit Authority is moving toward system improvements that will feature buses every 10 minutes on core routes.)

Pierce Transit buses on Routes 1, 2, and 3 would come every 15 minutes on weekdays and every 20 minutes evenings and weekends. While the Stream Community Line along Pacific Avenue, which supplements Route 1 with limited-stop bus service between Spanaway and Downtown Tacoma, would continue, Route 2 (S. 19th St.-Bridgeport Way) and Route 3 (Lakewood-Tacoma via South Tacoma Way) would also be upgraded to new Stream lines. 

Route 4 (Lakewood-South Hill via 112th St.), Route 41 (Salishan-S. 56th St.), Route 54 (38th St.-Portland Ave.) would also see their weekday service frequencies increased to buses every 20 minutes.

Eighteen Pierce Transit routes would see their weekend service boosted to buses every 30 minutes. Currently, only four Pierce Transit routes feature buses twice an hour on weekends.

New Routes: If Pierce Transit’s Board of Directors places a sales tax measure on the November ballot and local voters approve it, the agency would add five new routes to the network.

Do you have thoughts on Pierce Transit’s expansion proposal? The agency will be hosting an in-person open house on June 3 at the at the Tacoma Public Library’s main branch and virtual open houses on June 5 and 11. 

The Sound Transit Board of Directors will convene on Thursday to consider a revised proposal from Snohomish County Executive and board chairman Dave Somers to realign and right-size the over-budget ST3 system expansion program through the regional transit agency’s Enterprise Initiative. Despite all the recent speculation and hand-wringing that Pierce County projects would be unfairly scuttled in the realignment, nearly everything promised in the 2016 regional ST3 ballot measure in Sound Transit’s Pierce subarea is, at this point, on track to move forward. 

That includes, via Somers’ revised proposal:

Board members may introduce amendments during Thursday’s meeting. Thus far, Seattle City Councilmember Dan Strauss has said he plans to introduce an amendment addressing the over-budget Ballard Link Extension, as Packer reported over Memorial Day weekend. Instead of truncating the Ballard extension at Seattle Center as Somers has proposed, Strauss is proposing a “Ballard Starter Line” between Westlake and Ballard, deferring an expensive second Downtown Seattle transit tunnel for a later date and prioritizing connecting Ballard first.

In their reporting on an April 27 Pierce County transit town hall meeting co-hosted by the Transportation Choices Coalition and Tacoma on the Go, Packer made note of something that also caught my attention but was likely overlooked by many attendees in the room. Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello, who is a Sound Transit Board of Directors vice chair, “referenced an announcement forthcoming later this year that could involve a creative way” to deliver Sounder improvements for Pierce County commuters. 

As we await that announcement from Sound Transit in the coming months, it’s important to underscore that expanded Sounder service could greatly improve mobility in Pierce County, especially in South Tacoma and Lakewood, sooner than the agency could deliver the Tacoma Dome Link Extension.

During the April 27 town hall meeting, Tacoma City Councilmember Kristina Walker, a Sound Transit board member who chairs the agency’s Rider Experience and Operations Committee, noted that board had recently approved a package of Tacoma Dome Station access improvements funded through the 2008 Sound Transit 2 ballot measure.  

The future improvements, approved on April 23, are envisioned to wrap up by 2032 and are the result of changing commuting patterns. When Sound Transit 2 was passed by voters in 2008, planners had anticipated that additional parking would be eventually needed at TDS. But the existing parking garages, which have 2,300 car stalls, are currently at 50% capacity.

“Construction of additional parking would result in more underutilized parking, and surface parking is unaffordable with the allocated project estimate in the financial plan,” according to a Sound Transit Board of Directors resolution on the station access improvements. “The proposed scope was included in the voter-approved plan as alternative improvements which still fulfill the stated purpose of enhancing rider access to Sound Transit services” through non-motorized and transit improvements in the Dome District.

During the transit town hall, Walker framed these station access improvements around getting the Dome District ready for the arrival of the 1 Line. 

Although there wasn’t time during the town hall for Walker to go into the details of what’s planned in the Dome District — the agency hosted an open house last week at the Tacoma Art Museum to solicit public feedback on the proposed station area improvements along the Tacoma Dome Link Extension — some of the projects near Tacoma Dome Station include:

If there’s remaining funding available, other improvements are envisioned for the E. C Street rail crossing; sidewalk upgrades along E. 25th Street between Interstate 705 and E. J Street, E. 26th Street between A Street and E. F Street, and Pacific Avenue’s on-ramp to Interstate 5 between S. 28th Street and S. 30th Street; and upgrades for the mid-block crossing on E. 25th Street outside the existing Freighthouse Square complex.

During the town hall meeting, Walker also noted that Sound Transit is also continuing to explore options for relocating commercial tenants in the Freighthouse Square complex, most of which would be demolished to make way for the 1 Line’s elevated station terminus at Tacoma Dome.  

En route to Pierce Transit’s TCC Transit Center on a Route 2 bus midday on Sunday, I noticed that the Fred Meyer grocery store had someone stationed facing arterial traffic along busy S. 19th Street with a sign saying “No Event Parking.” The event in question? A banana ball game between the Savannah Bananas and the Party Animals at Cheney Stadium.

Upon arriving at TCC, there was a small group of banana ball fans (pictured above), including one dressed in a banana costume, assembled at the bus bay for the downtown-bound Route 2 bus. While most sports fans drive to events at Cheney Stadium, if someone in a banana costume can ride the 2 bus to Cheney Stadium, which is about a half-mile walk from the nearest bus stops on S. 19th Street, imagine how many more sports fans in Tacoma could avoid driving to Cheney Stadium if the sports venue was better served by transit.  

You don’t necessarily need a car to explore the best of what the City of Destiny and our region has to offer. Here are some recent transit-accessible food, drink, and cultural highlights from my transit wanderings you may want to consider.

Although there are numerous ways to construct a breakfast sandwich, some people can be very particular about what makes one a top-tier example. While some breakfast sandwiches I’ve come across in Tacoma might be considered elevated versions due to elaborate toppings, like the delicious versions at Third Space and Three Hearts Tacoma, the breakfast sandwiches offered by Lander Coffee in the North End scratch a certain itch for their simplicity. Lander’s breakfast sandwich with egg, cheese, and sausage, while a comparatively simple construction, is delicious, crispy, and melty. It scratches a certain itch that others miss.

In an era of rising food costs and restaurant bills, it’s always refreshing to stumble upon something delicious as a more reasonable price point, especially when it’s conveniently located near a transit hub. In addition to poke bowls, Poke Pop, a local chain with locations in Fircrest, Gig Harbor, and Poulsbo, offers a version of Korean yubuchobap, or sweet-savory marinated tofu skin pockets stuffed with seasoned rice and some sort of protein. While you won’t necessarily see Poke Pop’s yubu listed on the main menu board indicating they’re available — there is a little sign near the register — instead of a poke bowl, you can order a few yubu and be satisfied. Each one is priced at $4.99 and you can get your yubu stuffed with Poke Pop’s array of proteins, including tuna, spicy tuna, salmon, spicy salmon, ground spicy tuna, tuna mayonnaise, imitation crab meat, or masago.

Regulars at the Proctor Farmers Market have certainly noticed the absence of Fife-based Balloon Roof Baking Co., where a sandwich board message indicates that their fans should stay tuned for updates about their future market participation. Balloon Roof’s long-awaited brick-and-mortar Tacoma location on 6th Avenue opened earlier this spring. While they’re still getting settled in their new space, Balloon Roof is a very welcome addition to this stretch of 6th Avenue. On a recent visit, I gladly devoured a delicious, buttery kouign amman and would do so again in a heartbeat.

I’ve previously talked up the khao soi at Thai Pepper (for good reason). But let me highlight another dish worth checking out at this wonderful Thai restaurant in Downtown Tacoma, a short walk from the T Line’s Old City Hall Station. Hor mok isn’t necessarily a very photogenic dish, but it is tasty. Wrapped up in aluminum foil and served on a hot plate, Thai Pepper’s hor mok features shrimp, squid, and scallops, egg, basil, and cabbage cooked in a coconut-forward curry. When unwrapped, hor mok may end up as a messy melange, but some magic alchemy results when the curry sizzles on the hot plate for a bit.