King County Metro Transit Adds Nearly 70,000 Service Hours

King County Metro Transit is adding loads of new service in its first service change of 2017. More than 80 routes will get improvements in the form of added trips and schedule changes. Much of the impetus for the changes is to reduce overcrowding on routes during weekday peak periods and improve reliability. Some changes will also include route revisions and new service concepts to deal with local conditions. Taken as a whole, the service change will add more than 68,000 service hours over the network baseline, which stood at 3.8 million in 2016.

The changes go deep into the network affecting riders in nearly all parts of the county:

• Added trips going to routes: 5, 8, 15E 17E, 18E, 21E, 26E, 28E, 31, 32, 40, 41, 60, 62, 63, 65, 67, 70, 74, 75, 101, 121, 158, 212, 216, 218, 255, 257, 271, 311, 346, 355, 372, RapidRide C, D, and E lines

• Schedule changes to address reliability going to routes: 5, 9E, 15E, 17E, 18E, 21E, 22, 29, 37, 41, 55, 57, 60, 64, 83, 84, 99, 101, 102, 111, 113, 114, 119E, 121, 122, 123, 128, 143, 148, 150, 153, 157, 158, 159, 164, 168, 177, 180, 182, 187, 192, 193E, 197, 217, 219, 221, 232, 244, 246, 252, 269, 271, 303E, 304, 308, 309E, 312E, 330, 331, 345, 355E, and the RapidRide E Line; and
• A mixed bag of other revisions go to routes: 3, 4, 106, 111, 121, 122, 123, 157, 158, 159, 192, 241, 630, 907, and 915.

Seattle Service Improvements

• Route 5: On weekdays, two morning trips will be added in the southbound direction to increase headways to every 12 minutes between 6.30am and 8am.
• Route 8: On weekdays, service will be slightly adjusted between 7.54pm and 8.54pm to increase headways to every 15 minutes. On Sundays, service will be slightly between 8.45pm to 9pm to increase headways to every 20 minutes.
• Route 15 Express: Two new morning trips will be added to improve frequencies and extend span of service later into the morning. Additionally, one new evening trip will be added, departing at 6.32pm.
• Route 17:  Two extra trips will be added with one headed to the morning peak and the other in the evening peak to extend span of service by a half hour.
• Route 18: One evening peak trip will be added in the 4pm hour with corresponding schedule adjustments.
• Route 21 Express: One trip will be added in the evening, departing at 6.35pm in the peak direction.
• Route 26X: On weekdays, one new southbound trip will be added around 7.20am to depart from Greenlake; corresponding schedule adjustments will be made.
• Route 28X: On weekdays, two new southbound trips will be added during the 7.30am and 8.30am timeframe, which will reduce headway timing to as low as every seven minutes.
• Route 31: One new eastbound trip will be added, departing at 7.50am.
• Route 32: On weekdays, one eastbound trip departing at 7.53pm will be eliminated and converted to a new eastbound trip, departing at 8.25pm.
• Route 40: On weekdays, three new northbound will be added between 4pm and 7pm, which will improve headways to every 10 minutes or better.
• Route 41: On weekdays, frequency in the southbound direction will receive improved headways to every 10 minutes in the 9am hour. On weekdays, frequency in the northbound direction will received improved headways to every 10 minutes the last half of the 6pm hour.
• Route 48: Service will be returned to its regular routing on 23rd Ave E.
• Route 62: On weekdays, two new southbound trips will be added during morning peak departing from Greenlake, which will improve to headways to every 10 minutes or better. On weekdays, one new northbound trip will be added, which will improve headways to every 10 minutes between 5.45pm and 6.15pm.
• Route 63: One new trip will be added at 6pm and schedule adjustment will be made in the evening peak.
• Route 64: One new trip will be added during the morning peak with corresponding schedule adjustments; additional schedule adjustments will be made during the evening peak.
• Route 65: On weekdays, frequency will be improved across the board in the evening hours. Headways will be improved to every 12 minutes in the southbound direction between 5pm and 6pm and every 12 minutes in the northbound direction between 6.30pm and 7.30pm. Headways will also be improved to every 15 minutes in the southbound direction until 9.25pm and every 15 minutes in northbound direction until 10.05pm On Saturdays, headways will be improved to every 15 minutes in the northbound direction until 9.30pm and every 15 minutes in the southbound direction until 9.55pm.
• Route 67: On weekdays, headways will be improved to every 12 minutes in the southbound direction between 6.15pm and 7.15pm and every 12 minutes in the northbound direction between 5.30pm and 6.30pm. On Saturdays evenings, headways will be improved to every 15 minutes in the southbound direction until 9.38pm and every 15 minutes in the northbound direction until 9.45pm.
• Route 70: On weekdays, two new southbound morning trips will be added to improve headways to every eight minutes or better between 7.30am and 9.30am. On weekdays, one new northbound evening trip will be added to improve headways to every eight minutes or better between 4.20pm and 5.12pm.
• Route 74: Two new morning trips will be added improving frequency to 15-minute or better headways between 6.22am and 8.26am. Schedule adjustments will also be made in the morning period to stagger trips through the University District with Route 355 trips, which will improve overall frequency along that segment of the service corridor to every 10 minutes or better.
• Route 75: On weekdays, one new northbound trip will be added, departing at 3.14pm; evening frequencies will also be improved to headways every 15 minutes until 9.09pm.
• Route 106: The express stop service on Rainier Ave S between S Forest St and S Dearborn St will be changed to local service and all bus stops will be served in both directions.
• RapidRide C Line: On weekdays, one new northbound morning trip will be added; scheduled will be adjusted to provide headways between five and eight minutes from 8.45am to 9.25am. Also on weekdays, one new southbound evening trip will be added; schedules will be adjusted to provide headways between eight and nine minutes from 5.45pm to 6.15pm.
• RapidRide D Line: On weekdays, one new southbound afternoon trip will be added in order to relieve after-school crowding from Ballard High School.
• RapidRide E Line: On weekdays, one new southbound morning trip will be added; schedules will be adjusted to provide headways every four minutes from 8.11am to 8.31am. Also, one new northbound afternoon trip will be added; schedules will be adjust to provide headways every four to five minutes from 4.24pm to 4.52pm.

South King County Service Improvements

• Route 101: On weekdays, one trip will be delated in the morning peak direction, which will be replaced by a trip on Route 102; however, one new morning trip will be added in the peak direction, departing at 9.22am, and one new morning trip will be added in the off-peak direction, departing at 7.54am.
• Route 102: One new northbound morning trip will be added, departing at 6.20am.
• Route 121: On weekdays, two new northbound morning trips will be added and one new southbound afternoon trip will be added; schedule adjustments will be made, which will partially align with Routes 122 and 123 in Downtown Seattle.
• Route 122: Schedule adjustments will be made to partially align with Routes 121 and 123 in Downtown Seattle.
• Route 123: Schedule adjustments will be made to partially align with Routes 121 and 122 in Downtown Seattle.
• Route 143: One new morning trip from Renton to Black Diamond will be added, departing at 6.11am.
• Route 158: One new morning trip from Kent Station to Downtown Seattle will be added, departing at 5.10am.

Eastside Service Improvements

• Route 212: Three new early morning westbound trips will be added with morning schedules adjusted. One new morning eastbound trip will be added, departing at 8.43am. And one new afternoon eastbound trip will be added.
• Route 216: One new afternoon eastbound trip will be added.
• Route 218: Two new morning westbound trips will be added.
• Route 255: On weekdays, two new westbound morning trips will be added; schedules will be adjusted to improve headways to every eight minutes or better between 6.55am and 8.40am. Also on weekdays, one new eastbound afternoon trip to Totem Lake Transit Center will be added; schedules will be adjusted to improve headways to every eight minutes or better between 4pm and 5.22pm.
• Route 257: One new morning eastbound trip will be added.
• Route 271: On weekdays, two new morning eastbound trips will be added; schedules will be adjusted to improve headways to every eight minutes or better between 7am and 8.40am. Also on weekdays, one new afternoon westbound trip to Eastgate Park-and-Ride will be added; schedules will be adjusted. When the University of Washington is not in session, all Route 271 trips scheduled to arrive or leave the University District between 5pm and 6pm will be maintained.

North King County Service Improvements

• Route 311: One new westbound morning trip will be added, departing at 8.33am. Also, one new eastbound evening trip will be added, departing at 6.40pm.
• Route 346: On weekdays, one new southbound afternoon trip will be added, departing at 3.20pm.
• Route 355: One new morning southbound trip will be added, departing at 7.09am; schedule adjustments will be made with corresponding changes to Route 74 (see above).
• Route 372: On weekdays, two new trips in each direction will be added to the afternoon and evening improving overall frequency. On Sunday, service frequency will be improved. When the University of Washington is not in session, four morning weekday trips from the Kenmore Park-and-Ride will continue operate as normal, which will improve service.

Revisions to Routes 3 and 4

Metro will revise the northern tails of Routes 3 and 4 in the service change. Both routes will be extended to a new loop terminal at Seattle Pacific University, which will result in minor impacts to riders who currently use the Galer St (Route 4) and Ray St (Route 3). The change is expected to negatively affect about 120 riders (1% of total ridership), but provide more direct service to a major ridership destination and other complementary service like Routes 29, 31, and 32.

Revisions Routes 907 and 915

Metro is making big changes to rural service between Enumclaw and Black Diamond. Metro will delete fixed-route service between both cities, leaving the higher performing portions of Route 907 operating between Renton and Black Diamond. To compensate for the loss of fixed-route service, residents will be able to request special dial-a-ride service on weekdays between 6.30am and 4.30pm. The cost to riders won’t change with fares remaining the same on the dial-a-ride service, but it may mean that riders will need to make transfers to reach destinations north of Black Diamond. The dial-a-ride service will provide flexible pick-up and drop-offs in certain areas of Black Diamond and Enumclaw while service will be fixed on SR-169 between the two cities. With savings from the reduced length of Route 907, frequencies between Renton and Black Diamond will be improved to every 60 minutes, which currently stand at every 90 minutes.

As part of related changes, fixed-route service will be added to Route 915 to areas south of Enumclaw proper, which will make up for the loss of Route 907 that currently service to the area. The extended service will be limited to weekdays between 8.50am and 4.19pm. The remainder of the time, Route 915 will operate on its normal routing and dial-a-ride service area.

The full suite of service changes will begin on Saturday, March 11th, which coincides with service changes also planned to be implemented by Community Transit and Pierce Transit the following day.

Related Articles

Pierce Transit’s March 2017 Service Change: Nimbler And More Frequent

Community Transit Adds 40 New Trips In March Service Change

Comment On Changes To Routes 3 And 4

Metro Looks Toward Innovative Rural Transit In Southeast King County