King County Metro 255 at South Kirkland P&R.
King County Metro 255 at South Kirkland P&R. Photo by Oran.

In the first regular service change since the “big bang” in September, Metro is making some minor changes to eight routes, and deleting one:

  • Route 42 will be deleted. To celebrate the benefits all Metro riders will collectively share from the reallocation of the resources required for this route to more effective use, STB will host a meetup on Friday; details to follow in a separate post.
  • New surface alignment for tunnel routes 41, 71, 72, 73, 74, 76, 77 and 316 when the tunnel is closed: 2nd & 4th Avenues versus 3rd Ave. Routes 101, 102, 106, 150, 216, and 218 already use this arrangement; the 255 uses 4th and 5th when the tunnel is closed.
  • Route 216 will no longer serve Eastgate P&R in the afternoon peak (morning service is unaffected). Riders are directed to use alternative Routes 212, 215 or 554. This is presumably part of Metro’s grand band-aid plan for I-90 service.
  • In the afternoons and evenings, Route 21 will serve its terminal loop in Roxhill both when arriving from, and departing to, downtown (currently, it only serves this loop when departing). This provides slightly more useful coverage of Arbor Heights Roxhill.
  • Route 24 will gain one more trip, in each direction, in the evening. The last bus out of downtown will be about 10:15 PM, and back in from Magnolia Village about 10:10 PM. This makes Magnolia slightly less impossible to access in the evenings on transit, but the smart thing to do would have been to restructure Magnolia service along the lines originally proposed.
  • The schedule for Route 55 will be slightly tweaked to provide more consistent headways. Also, one special trip, from Alaska Junction to the Admiral District at 7:31 AM will be added. I suspect this is effectively a school tripper, or useful for some other unique, yet locally popular purpose.
  • Very minor changes will be made to the stops, alignments or scheduling of routes 71, 131, 152, 246, and 372.
  • Westlake customer service center hours will change.
  • Sound Transit 510, 511, 512 and 513 will no longer serve the stop at 6th Ave S & Atlantic St.
  • Sound Transit 550, 556 and 566 will have minor schedule changes.

You can read all about it here.

51 Replies to “Minor Sound Transit and Metro Changes Coming Saturday”

  1. “Route 216 will no longer serve Eastgate P&R in the afternoon peak”

    I’ve been directing passengers to 2nd Ave for service to Eastgate P&R. I’m glad this change has been made. On the flip side, seeing passengers grab any bus headed out of the tunnel to Rainier Ave so the can transfer to the 212 bodes well for implementing more efficient service that requires transfers. If passengers are willing to wait for a transfer at Rainier Ave, they’ll be willing to wait in many more comfortable places, assuming service is realigned. (South Bellevue, Kingsgate P&R, an eventual Eastlink stop for 23rd & I90, Evergreen point and Montlake after 520 is finished……..)

    1. It seems to me that the solution to Eastgate riders flooding the 216 and 218 isn’t to cut off passengers trying to board the 216 and 218 at Eastgate in the evening, but to advise 216 and 218 passengers to pick whatever bus happens to be heading to Eastgate to take that bus, and then transfer to a 216 or 218 at Eastgate. If that doesn’t stop the complaints, then make Eastgate the western terminus of the 216 and 218.

      But gosh, wouldn’t it be so nice to tell riders that if their destination is Mercer Island or downtown Bellevue, their place to wait for the bus is in the tunnel, and if they are headed to Eastgate or points further east, their place to wait is on 2nd Ave. (Yes, I know, this is not true. I just wish it were this simple, and it could be, so easily.)

      1. I actually wrote an extensive email to metro about this. I really think they should move the 218 to 2nd ave (i know pipe dream), so that all buses going to the eastgate flyover are gathered together (this has been discussed extensively here about other routes). Shift some of the 212 platform hours to the 216/218 and run those more often. MOST 212ers exit at the flyover anyway…so shifting the platform hours wouldn’t negatively affect most passengers. I know that isn’t a perfect sum game but they can work through the particulars. The major concern I have is the poor condition of the sidewalk (not really ADA compliant) and even now THONGS of passengers get off at the flyover and walk down 142nd place to the park and ride. There is no barrier between the sidewalk and the cars that fly by (when it isn’t congested). I think there is a major safety issue here that needs to be address regardless of the change to the routes…

      2. the other thing is that perhaps we should include the ST 554 in this reorg…i think this would solve some of the over crowding too…

      3. I really like the routes metro suggest for 216 riders don’t go anywhere near Sammamish.

        The sooner the buses are kicked out of the tunnel the better. There is no reason for a bus to Sammamish to be there unless Sammamish is getting light rail in Sound Transit 3.

        In the mean time I’m going to fight for Metro’s choice of direct service from Eastgate/ Bellevue College or a greatly improved 269.

      4. ALL I-90 buses should have common stops downtown. It just doesn’t make sense that you need to choose where to stand if you’re going to MI P&R, Eastgate P&R or Issaquah Highland.

      5. Is there any possibility of a Sammamish->Bellevue College vanpool forming, as a replacement for the former service that existed on the 216?

      6. Well it’s pretty much If you are going anywhere on the Eastside except Eastgate, use the tunnel. If you’re heading to Eastgate we don’t want you interfering with our trainset, so you can use 2nd Ave. About the only exceptions are the all day ST bus and teh 215.

  2. An updated web page is here (the posted link just goes to a page from Dec 29):

    http://www.kingcounty.gov/transportation/kcdot/NewsCenter/NewsReleases/2013/February/nr_020613_MetroServiceChange.aspx

    Also added are printed C and D line schedules.

    “Also in response to rider requests, Metro is testing a new style RapidRide timetable for the C and D Lines that shows departure times along their routes to make it easier to plan travel and make connections to other bus routes. Metro operates RapidRide service by managing the spacing between buses and previously printed schedules that identified only frequency during different periods of the day.”

    3. I wish Metro had done it for A and B. (Link is a Sound Transit issue.) But it follows logically from Kevin Desmond’s statement at the last meetup, that RapidRide A and B have gotten positive community feedback ever since they launched, RapidRide C less so but still generally positive, while RapidRide D has gotten a lot of opposition. He attributed this to Seattlites having higher expectations, and the level of difference surprised Metro. So my impression is, the schedule is mainly due to the D’s situation, and the C came along with it because it’s through-routed with the D. But if we give enough positive feedback about the schedules, we may be able to convince Metro to do it for the E too, and perhaps also the F, A, and B.

      1. They do have the paper ones available–when I noticed that the rack at the downtown library had been refilled with the new timetables, there were a whole bunch of C and D ones. The afternoon peak is still shown as headway-only, but there are specific schedules given for all other times.

        Given this, I would assume that the timetables will be available online as of the 16th. Although it would certainly be nice to have them up already.

      2. The paper timetables for Route 55 have included a 128 to C-Line transfer timetable that show specific times for the C-Line leaving downtown and the West Seattle Junction. It’s possible to estimate C-Line (and D-Line) times using the information inside the 55 paper timetable.

      3. Of course, it’s F***ING INSANE that riders should have to infer the schedule for Metro’s banner West Seattle route by looking at timed transfers from some other random route.

  3. Community Transit will be adding 30 net daily commuter runs starting next Monday, as well as altering a couple other route paths, except that, since Monday is Presidents’ Day, they will be immediately cancelling a lot of those runs, so the new runs won’t really kick in until Tuesday.

    1. Adding commuter runs is relatively cheap, since it doesn’t require adding any paratransit service to go along with it. Adding Sunday service, however, much more expensive.

      After a few more cycles of recession and recovery, maybe Saturday and midday service will go away too, leaving Community Transit with nothing left except for commuter runs.

      1. Grants paid for the increase in CT commuter runs starting next week. I suppose they will go away when the money runs out in a year or so, but much needed for now.

  4. Anybody have any idea when the 124 will stop being re-routed around the now-no-longer-closed Georgetown viaduct?

    1. According to Metro’s site, the 106 and 124 returned to regular route along Airport Way when the bridge reopened on December 22.

      I haven’t ridden either one since then. Are they still actually using the detour?

      1. The Metro route map for the 124 online still shows it taking the detour; perhaps they just forgot to update the map. I don’t take the bus in the winter time (I only use it when I am taking my bike into work), so I cant say for sure which route the bus has been taking.

      2. The official Metro route map still shows the detour in place.

        Then again, the official Metro route map for the 55 still refers to the “Route 55 night shuttle” which died in September.

      3. Heck, my new 131/132 schedule labels South Park as 3rd & Main on weekends, but only southbound, while 8th Ave S & S Kenyon St becomes “Highland Park” on weekends, but only southbound. I reported this to Customer Service 2 months ago, with nothing but an auto-acknowledgement.

      4. This is typical practice for reroutes that last more than one shakeup.

        The route map is still the one from the printed timetable released in the September shakeup. It will probably change when the new timetables are put online Saturday.

        There is a reroute alert (available through the Alerts Center) that shows both the 106 and 124 returning to Airport Way as of December 22. While I haven’t actually ridden the buses, I’d be very surprised if they were still using the reroute despite this alert.

  5. Would the 550 also now theoretically run on 2nd/4th if the tunnels ever closed? Before the expanded hours, it used to run on 3rd during evenings and Sundays, which made sense at the time, since that’s where all the other tunnel routes ran.

    1. The 550 does operate on 2nd and 4th when the tunnel is closed and has done so for some time now.

  7. Very minor changes will be made to the stops, alignments or scheduling of routes 71, 131, 152, 246, and 372.

    What are these minor changes?

  8. Great going Metro. You messed up the routes to your own agendas and now you can’t even get the route maps and your computers to match the actual routes!!

    1. How was the Airport Way bridge replacement “Metro’s own agendas” (whatever that means)?

      It was a City of Seattle construction project.

  9. So, when is the 16 “reroute” to avoid the Mercer St. loop-the-loop going into effect? Will the scheduled times be adjusted, or is OneBusAway just going to report it as early/late/whatever for every run?

    1. I saw the 16 heading northbound on Aurora from Denny the other evening. Maybe it has already taken place?

    2. I was curious about that as well. I’m a regular rider and haven’t been on the reroute yet – I also haven’t received an alert from Metro about it.

  10. I’m not one of the WSB complainers but saying the 21 serves Arbor Heights is incorrect. The 21X does but the loop that the 21 local takes serves the Westwood and Roxhill neighborhoods.

  11. Even though I don’t think I’ve ever been to the South Kirkland P&R, I’m having trouble accepting the fact that the guy in blue isn’t me. The resemblance (clothing especially) is uncanny.

  13. This is the order in which Metro lists the locations of Orca card retail outlets:

    Ticket Vending Machines
    Snohomish County Retail Outlets
    Kitsap County Retail Outlets
    Pierce County Retail Outlets
    Trip Planner Retail Map
    King County Retail Outets

    https://www.orcacard.com/ERG-Seattle/p2_002.do?m=42&i=542

    Is there some reason they can’t use alphabetical order? Someone looking at the list looking for King County (which is to say, the vast majority of people looking at this list) might give up before they’d find it at the bottom of the list.

  14. Are there many remaining bus stop benches or shelters left on 2nd or 4th Avenues after the big kill-off last year?

    I suppose the new temporary stops can be marked by handwritten sandwich boards and orange traffic cones for as long as they’re needed, but it seems like a waste or a planning ovesight or something.

  15. Very disappointed that there are no updates to make connections more convenient at Alaska Junction. Before we had the 56 or 55 to make direct (one seat) rides to north West Seattle. Now we have to transfer, but timings for transfers are terrible (the 50/128 typically departs about 2 minutes before the C is schedule to arrive in the late evening). This makes the two-seat experience terrible and hardly encourages riders to like the new connection-based system.

  16. The change to the 372 is an added stop that comes in a long stretch of no stops (from 92nd-110th) but does anyone know of demand for this stop?

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