Wednesday is Veterans Day, which is a holiday for some, but not for most transit agencies.
Indeed, Sound Transit, the monorail, the South Lake Union Streetcar, Pierce Transit, Community Transit, Everett Transit, Skagit Transit, Island Transit, Whatcom Transit, Intercity Transit, Twin Transit, Jefferson Transit, Greys Harbor Transit, and Mason Transit are all running on regular weekday schedules.
Kitsap Transit will be running regular service except for route 19, which will not be running. There are also some administrative and non-fixed-route reductions.
The King County Water Taxis and Clallam Transit are the only transit agencies in the region that will not be operating on Veterans Day.
For Washington State Ferries, the advice on holidays is to always check the schedule for your route.
King County Metro’s holiday schedules are a little more complicated.
Thanks to funding from Seattle’s 2014 Proposition 1, no Seattle-only routes will be running a reduced weekday schedule. However, a few routes will be running on a reduced UW schedule, namely routes 31, 32, 48, 65, 67, 68, 75, 167, 197, 271, 277, 331, 372, and 373. The specific trips that will be cancelled are designated in the schedule for each route.
A longer list of routes that serve areas outside Seattle will have designated trips cancelled for Reduced Weekday Service: routes 101, 102, 105, 106, 107, 111, 116, 120, 121, 122, 123, 125, 128, 143, 150, 153, 157, 158, 159, 167, 168, 169, 177, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 186, 187, 190, 212, 214, 218, 219, 232, 242, 244, 249, 252, 255, 269, 303, 311, 312, 342, 907, and 931.
A few routes will not run at all: routes 114, 192, 201, 237, 304, 308, 316, 330, 355, 601, 661, and 930.
Interesting – so after the re-organization, when the 48, 65, 75, 372 and 373 become the main legs to get to light rail and thence to downtown, will those routes run on regular weekday schedules Veteran’s Day 2016?
I think that is what everyone wants to know.
Similarly, when the 31 and 32 are the only bus routes in Wallingford south of 40th Street, will they run on normal routes on Veterans Day 2016? I understand that the UW subsidizes some of these routes, but they don’t just serve the campus and in some cases, like this, they are basic transportation for people who have no association with the UW at all. Metro and Proposition 1 should have enough money to fund them on a UW holiday that isn’t general observed by employers.
I agree, and was about to post the same thing. The UW is a destination for a lot of people who are not students or faculty. Furthermore, it is a major transfer point. If you are trying to get from the north end to Fremont, it makes sense to take a bus to the UW, then another bus to Fremont. Both buses (e. g. 373 and 31/32) will be reduced.
I sure hope this changes when the restructure goes through. It would be bizarre to run the buses to Link, but only when students are in session.
It’s not really that massive of a difference since there aren’t many peak-only buses on those routes. Currently for the morning peak service to UW, there are only 1x 75 and 5x 65 routes that don’t run when UW isn’t in session. Changing from 30 minute to 15 minute service would more than overcome that.
That being said, I also hope that Metro evaluates different rush hour needs. Peak service to UW tends to skew later than peak service to downtown. For instance, I’ve been on crushloaded 68s and 372s at 10:30 am that leave behind people at 25th and Blakely.
“Peak service to UW tends to skew later than peak service to downtown.”
Currently. I don’t take the 372 now as I can’t use it to get to downtown. My plan after the re-org is use whatever comes first (65, 75, 372, 312, 522) and either take Link or not. It is to be hoped that Metro and ST will be watching the numbers between April – October 2016.
@Larry — The 373 is reduced 40% when school is out of session (from ten trips to six). If something like continues, it would pretty much kill the connection I mentioned.
The nature of these routes is changing, so I expect Metro to treat them more as core routes. A frequent service network requires frequent service. However, the 373 is a peak extra so it probably won’t change. Mid north Seattle has the 67, far north Seattle has the 41, and Shoreline has the E. Also, some of these are relief runs for capacity; e.g., the 48 is still frequent without them.
The March restructure will have the 373 replace the 73 during the peak period, peak direction, so you probably will not see as much of a service reduction on this route during UW reductions (since the 373 leaves the City of Seattle city limits, may not be subject to Seattle’s Prop 1 when it comes to reduced weekday rules. see route 120 for example).
Only two you missed that I know of:
Rural and Tribal Transit of Thurston and Lewis County. They don’t say on their web site that I have been able to find.
Looks like Snoqualmie Valley Transit is on regular schedule.
Bus connections at Husky Stadium will doubtless be adjusted over time. Because the major problem is that our system will handle passenger loads no longer being boarded, but poured.
First train southbound will make U-LINK into a replica of the 72″ sewer main our machines had to miss. With results of slightest blockage same as for Water Quality division. Whether caused by wheelchair boarding, failure to start engine, or discussing and finding fare.
Based on six years’ joint ops performance, I think that any DSTT bus operations will result in slow parades of crush-loaded trains from Husky Stadium to Sea-Tac. More than once per rush hour. Maybe for a whole rush hour.
So I think that right now, transit’s main preoccupation for buses should be preparing the system, and the passenger public, to get those Tunnel routes back on the surface before southbound Train One clears the crossing at Convention Place.
However much effort and distress that’s going to cause will be nothing compared to what happens if events are allowed force the decision.
Mark Dublin
It’s interesting that you mention route 661, because that route is only used internally at Metro to move drivers between bus bases, and it’s not a public route.
Do minor holidays like Veterens Day still qualify for free parking at all the parking meters downtown?
Yes: http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/parking/freeparkingdays.htm
What is KC Metro Route 661? I’ve seen artic buses for it on I-5 but don’t see a schedule for it.
Yes, Metro doesn’t publish a schedule for it. I found it on OneBusAway, though (complete with a schedule), and I tweeted at Metro and got back this response:
(my tweet) @kcmetrobus Your data in OneBusAway shows route 661, which isn’t on your website. Is this a real route?
(kcmetrobus) @AlexKven Rt 661 is used to move drivers from one base to another; it should not be on OBA. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Route 661 is the North Base Drivers Shuttle. Used to shuttle drivers back to North Base in the AM and down to Central Base in the PM. It was part of the mitigation to reduce the number of buses returning back to North Base during weekend midday when the base was built in the late 80’s (also why Employees have to use the freeway ramp to access the base). Also reduces the mileage of coaches at the same time.