ROUTE CHANGE – Route 47

In response to two separate requests for service, Route 47 will be seeing some temporary changes during this summer, along with the introduction of a brand new route.

The change to Route 47 will begin on Monday, May 20, while the new Route 810 will start service on June 10.

Southridge Deviation

Route 47 with the Southridge deviation

As requested by the Kennewick Parks & Recreation department, Route 47 will be making a deviation south to the Southridge area. Currently, Route 47 stays on 27th Avenue east of Union Street. With the deviation, this will be changed so that the bus continues south from the 27th/Creekstone/Union/Southridge roundabout onto Southridge Blvd. From Southridge Blvd, the bus will head east on Hildebrand Blvd, and then north on Highway 395 before heading east onto 27th Avenue and continuing with the existing route. With this route change, there will be 3 stops that will have service temporarily discontinued. 2 of them are located approximately at 4300 West 27th Avenue (in between Union Street and Highway 395). The third is located on 28th Avenue, just east of Wal-Mart, and is only served by the eastbound 47 currently on a “loop-back.” The discontinuation of this stop is likely to ruffle a few feathers, as I’ve already heard several passengers complain about this. On a personal level, I think it’s a stop that should have never been put in place, but I can certainly sympathize with those impacted. However, noting that there is a stop already at 27th Avenue and Quillan Street (next to Burger King), I don’t think it’s a big impact.

I do question the accuracy of the new schedule a bit, as I don’t think the route will be able to be completed in the time shown. Of primary concern is the streetlight at Hildebrand Blvd/Highway 395. The westbound 47 will be largely unaffected, but the eastbound 47 could end up a few minutes down if it were to get stuck at this light. However, the potential wait time at this streetlight is comparable to the current waits at the 27th Avenue/Highway 395, and the removal of the Wal-Mart loop does help a bit.

Route 810

New Route 810

Using the deadheads of peak buses for Route 47 that already exist, a new route will be created in response to the many requests for service to the ARC. Initially, BFT looked into the possibility of taking Route 110 and having it detour onto Fowler Street on some or all trips, but it was determined that this would be unfeasible. Instead, the Route 47 deadheads will run on a new limited-express route called Route 810.

On this route, there will be just three trips a day: 9:00AM westbound from Dayton TC, 1:30PM eastbound from the ARC, and 5:00PM westbound from Dayton TC. Along the way, passengers will be able to board and alight at Clearwater Avenue/Huntington Street (making connections with Huntington TC) and at Three Rivers TC.

Currently, this route is only being run as a demonstration project to survey the demand for service at the ARC, so there’s no promises as to whether this will be continued or expanded in some way.

If you have any further questions about these changes, please contact Ben Franklin Transit by calling (509) 735-5100.