After another round of comments, Metro staff has finalized its recommendation for changes to Eastside bus service centered around RapidRide B opening on October 1st.
The recommendations go to the County Council for approval, which is not a mere formality. The relevant committee is holding a public hearing on April 12th, 6pm, at the Mercer Island Community Center, where riders are invited to make comments. Also, there’s an email option, probably less effective than showing up.
Here are the changes from the previous proposal:
- Revised Route 222 would be renumbered as Route 241
- The revised western section of Route 230 would be renumbered as Route 235
- Revised Route 233 would be renumbered as Route 226
- Route 240 would serve the South Bellevue Park-and-Ride, Bellevue Way SE, and 112th Avenue SE rather than SE 36th Street, the Eastgate Park-and-Ride, Richards Road, and 112th Avenue SE. [Metro apparently went with Bellevue’s recommendation on this subject].
- Revised Route 249 would run on NE 29th Place between 148th Avenue NE and NE 24th Street instead of through the intersection of 148th Avenue NE and NE 24th Street.
See also this informative service frequency chart. The B line, 255, 271, 545, and 550 will constitute the frequent (15 min. mid-day) service network, with the 245 only a few trips short. Many more maps and other details are available at the project website.
I like most of the changes except for the little jog that the 249 takes between Beaux Arts to service 108th Ave SE between Bellevue Way & Main Street. It’s not a huge deal but it adds time and down the road Metro is going to have to realign service again to provide replacement service on Bellevue Way once the 550 goes away.
Metro is going to take an existing 222 trip, that services many apartments along Bellevue Way, that is almost competitive with car travel today and make it longer to service a lower density area. Sad…
You’re correct, the current proposal will put no Metro service on Bellevue Way between 112th Ave SE and NE 8th. However, the density of the hotel and court district on 112th is relatively substantial. Replacement service for Old Main and the Bellevue Way apartments will have to be provided by the 550, which I believe stops at most places Metro stops on Bellevue Way.
The 249 jog is also annoying, however I believe it is needed to retain service through Surrey Downs and get service through Enatai and Beux Arts Village using one route instead of two.
I am actually really excited about the frequent corridors which will be created by this service change:
234+235 Bellevue-Kirkland
B Line Bellevue-Crossroads-Overlake-Redmond
240+241 Bellevue-Factoria
271 Bellevue-Eastgate/Bellevue College
255 Seattle to Kirkland
245 (most of the time) Factoria-Eastgate-Overlake-Kirkland
and 245+221+226 for Eastgate-Crossroads
*full disclosure, I was on the Sounding Board which looked at these changes. It has disbanded and I do not know anything now that an interested observer would not know. These are my personal beliefs.
With so much frequent service on the Eastside, maybe it’ll become politically palatable for Metro to move to a frequency-based system map! :D
Was that supposed to read 112th Ave SE rather that 12th Ave SE?
Yes
Did anyone get any feedback from Metro about moving the 255 onto 4th Ave / 5th Ave in downtown Seattle, to consolidate the SR 520 trunk line?
This service revision was focused on changes due to RapidRide B. 255’s downtown routing is not integral to that.
For some reason, all this time I had thought RR B was only going to Overlake, not Redmond. Maybe I had it mixed up with the current frequent corridor…
I had thought the same thing up until just a few weeks ago. I’d still like to see it turn south though at Crossroads and go to Bellevue College and Eastgate P&R after Link is running.
Link won’t serve Crossroads and RapidRide B won’t serve Bel-Red. Although the Origins and Destinations (Redmond/Overlake and Bellevue) are the same, they do not serve the same purposes
Obviously Link won’t serve Crossroads and it’s important that Crossroads have good access to DT. you are correct that RR B doesn’t serve Bel-Red so it makes no difference to that area where it goes. The down side is Crossroads to Overlake loses some service but I expect that the corridor along 148th and 156th will have plenty of service. DT Redmond to Overlake likewise would need good service and the RapidRide route would still need to be served even after Link reaches DT Redmond since the NE 85th St. to Willows Rd. has a lot of apartments. The big plus for Crossroads is I’m betting as many or more are trying to get to Eastgate and points south and across I-90 as to Overlake and Redmond.
During peak time, there will be 8 buses an hour between Crossroads and the College/Eastgate (245, 221, 226). I think it could be a good future RapidRide segment, however, the demand for service is really split between 140th, 156th, and 164th. In this case, it’s better to have the three routes serve the origin and destination points while going slightly different from Crossroads to the College. It’s not like NE 8th where that’s the only through street from Lake Hills Connector to Northup.
The 230 and 253 currently serve Bellevue-Redmond through Crossroads/Overlake, which is what the B Line is intended to replace.
Bel-Red is also an important east/west connector that’s between Northup/NE 20th and NE 8th. But I think the point of RR should be to make limited stops and mainly provide “rapid” service between major destinations and transfer points. For too long getting from anywhere on the eastside to anywhere else on the east side has required either going into Seattle first or taking a milk run that takes the most tortured route imaginable, MT 236 for example.
NE 8th and Crossroads-Redmond have always had the most frequent transit in Bellevue. RR B is basically consolidating the tradition. The 230 and 253 make the same stops Bellevue-Crossroads, then go different routes Crossroads-Redmond.
Link’s switch to Bel-Red Rd is a kind of innovative because it’ll go on the diagonal which is faster but bypasses Crossroads, and it’ll bring frequent transit to an area that has had little transit before. But it’s only feasable because RR B is taking care of Crossroads.