The 14 SUMMIT was a bus route with strong ridership and frequent service until the mid 1970s. Today’s 47 SUMMIT provides just a fraction of the service that was offered by the historic 14 SUMMIT. The 47’s routing is pretty much the same as the historic 14 route, except that during peak hours the old 14 SUMMIT was extended to Main Street (southbound via 2nd Avenue/northbound on 3rd Avenue). There were also route 14 trips that live-looped in downtown Seattle and interlined with the 9 BROADWAY.
The decline of route 14 began with the commencement of route 43. The historic 14 schedule shows service every 18-20 minutes off-peak and peak headways in the 5-12 minute range. Before the 43 was established, the 14 was the only bus route that operated on Bellevue and Olive. With the addition of the 43, the 14 began to share its service area with another frequent service line and the 14’s ridership began to fall. Effective in September 2014, the entire 47 SUMMIT route will be discontinued in the first round of service cuts. But with the 8 and 43 providing very frequent (although somewhat unreliable) service nearby, most of the 47’s riders will be within walking distance of bus service.
So this was one of the routes that used the wires that are now only used by MEHVA.
Well, the 47 is still using the wires on weekdays, so I wouldn’t refer to it in the past tense quite yet. But the 47 is one of the routed to be deleted soon.
So the wires stay up but whats the likelihood of service ever returning?
This route seems ideal for a one seat ride from Capitol Hill into and thru downtown to Pioneer Square during rush hour given how short the route is, its barely a stand alone line, it would be much less of an issue for delays impacting schedules which I understand is the reason for no one seat rides at rush hour thru downtown on the Capitol Hill lines.
Over the years, there has been a buzz on STB about deleting route 43–usually in the context of Link on Capitol Hill and building a grid-based bus system. We know that both the 12 and 47 are going to be deleted, then if the 43 goes away, there will be some significant holes in Capitol Hill’s bus service.