Amid all the discussion in Issaquah about reducing car traffic by making the city more walkable and encouraging people to use public transit, Sound Transit is considering reducing service on one of the routes that serves the community.

Citing the economic recession and reduced revenue, Sound Transit issued its Draft 2011 Service Implementation Plan on Oct. 8. The plan calls for reducing or discontinuing routes that have consistently low ridership and postponing service expansions that were part of the Sound Transit 2 (ST2) ballot that passed in Nov. 2008.

Route 554 between Issaquah and Seattle is among the routes that will be impacted by both of these proposed changes. Under the draft plan, midday service on the 554 bus would be reduced from every 15 minutes to every 20 minutes and Sunday/holiday service would be reduced from every 30 minutes to every 60 minutes. Also, the expansion of 554 approved of by ST2 will be deferred to a later date.

According to the City of Issaquah’s press release,”Current data from Sound Transit’s executive summary points to decreased ridership, indicating improvements planned for Route 554 are not needed at this time.”

The public is encouraged to learn more about the changes and voice their opinion at a public hearing scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 4 from 12-1:30 p.m. or at one of the scheduled public meetings.

A complete draft of the Service Implementation Plan is available on the Sound Transit website.