Several transit agencies have their twice-yearly service change today or this week. South King County and Pierce County have the most extensive changes to coordinate bus service with Federal Way Link. East King County implements the almost-last phase of its East Link bus restructure. North King County and Snohomish County have some route restructures too. Two ST Express night owls start from downtown Seattle: a route 597 south to Lakewood, and a route 547 east to Bellevue and Redmond. A planned route north to Everett is delayed until 2027.
Are you doing a first-day ride today? Or tomorrow or next week? Which route(s) do you want to do first? Is it because they’re so different, or a trip you make regularly?
I won’t be riding any new (well, restructured and renumbered) routes today, as I am away on family vacation.
I was away on family vacation when SeaTac Airport Station opened. I got to ride the train to Beacon Hill Station and take the 60 from there for the first time in January 2010.
ST Express 597 will provide much less functionality for South Seattle.
We still need night owl service on MLK and from Beacon Hill to get airport workers to/from their jobs, for the many who don’t have mid-day shift. Even with such service, Metro will need to step up and build an extensive night-owl network with tolerable wait times. 30-minute maximum scheduled headway on the A Line is an awesome start.
I wish the H Line could extend to the airport overnight, since 30-minute night owl options dead-end at Burien Anti-Transit Center.
+1. Losing the late night trains that went FW to BH before going out of service took an hour off Link’s span of service.
Transit planners who do not ride transit tend to not get it that ridership on the last ride will always be low, not because demand drops off, but because smart riders try not to rely on the last trip. It is there in case the second-to-last trip fails.
I try to avoid flying on Sundays because of Link’s schedule. I have had multiple panicked runs to catch the last trip northbound, even on weekdays.
For me, living in south Seattle, the 597 is no substitute.
For plane trips, I don’t think it’s terrible to let Uber be the emergency backstop, in case a flight gets delayed and you miss the last Link trip. When Uber as the backstop a problem is when it’s a trip you have to make over and over again, like a daily commute for someone who works at the airport. An extra $50 once per year is tolerable; an extra $50 once per week becomes a big expense.
I have seen that, and it’s funny that the last trip here is usually empty. In Japan, the last trip is generally the most crowded of the night. But I never had a train or bus that just didn’t show up on schedule in Japan. It happens all the time here, so you really can’t rely on it.
Jarrett Walker makes that point in a comment on this blog post: https://humantransit.org/2009/05/in-search-of-fair-fares.html. I can’t seem to directly link to the comment but it is his first comment.
When Uber as the backstop a problem is when it’s a trip you have to make over and over again, like a daily commute for someone who works at the airport.
Which gets to the main point that was made:
We still need night owl service on MLK and from Beacon Hill to get airport workers to/from their jobs, for the many who don’t have mid-day shift.
There are a fair number of airport workers in Rainier Valley/Beacon Hill that work at SeaTac (about 5,000). There are only about 100 workers from Lynnwood who do so.
@asdf2 I work at the airport, and I had to get a parking pass when Link stopped running earlier. 1 uber ride costs more than a months worth of Link fares. For airport workers or frequent fliers, it is a significant additional expense that was not necessary before this year. And an Uber to my home in Columbia City is $70+, not $50.
As a South Seattle resident who sometimes flies back in the evenings, losing the late-night service back to Beacon Hill is like losing an insurance policy. And surely ST has to bring back some or all trains to the OMF. The schedule implies that eight trains each weeknight return from Federal Way to the OMF out of service . Surely ST doesn’t just leave them at the station!
Restoring at least some of them as far as Beacon Hill seems pretty easy to do. They’ll just be running out of service on the tracks anyway.
ST has trains parked just south of SeaTac station similar to trains parked at Northgate station.
The issue is that if you return it to base it has a number of outcomes all bad none good.
It reduces the time for nightly maintenance by at least an hour. When they are in a crunch to ensure reliable service, we need more maintenance not less. Also, it’s needed to ensure service can start on time in the morning. If you leave super early you cut another hour off maintenance. Sound transit rail never sleeps.
But buses have to be at the base for maintenance. I can’t imagine Metro does remote maintenance unless a bus is stuck somewhere else.
I really wish they would increase frequency of the 56/57.
West Seattle is past ready for a restructure.
I remember when the 56 ran all day both directions. Since it became a commuter’s bus for downtown workers, I’ve cut way back on often I use the bus due to the massive inconvenience to get anywhere.
It’s a question of tradeoffs. Every bus doing something is a bus not available to do something else. If the price for running the 56 all day were the C-line or H-line being cut back to every 30 minutes, would you take it? It would be a difficult pill to swollow.
The 56 was cut before the C line or H line. To get downtown I have to walk over a mile to pick up the C line or walk over a quarter of a mile to pick up a bus that operates every 30 minutes to pick up the C line to get downtown. I understand there are trade offs. It’s just I lost on the trade off and as a result I’ve cut back on using the bus from my neighborhood. And, there is plenty of housing being built in my area.
The restructure was in fall 2012 around lines c and d. It appears there was too much emphasis on one way peak only service. Between fall 1998 and fall 2012, routes 21, 22, and 56 were paired with Ballard routes 15 and 18 via 1st Avenue.
West Seattle and Ballard were getting extra service from monorail tax revenue. That revenue source dried up about the time of the C/D restructure.
The cuts continue for West Seattle, with the 773 and 775 water taxi routes going away. I don’t see any transit connection left for the West Seattle end of the water taxi.
Brent, how did you hear about the 773 and 775 going away? I just saw the 775 this weekend. I also think it would have been mentioned in the West Seattle Blog.
The 773 and 775 schedules have been deleted from Metro’s website.
Brent, I think it may just be a broken link on the Metro site. Both routes still show up on the drop down menu.
Brent: the ETC or SMP spent no funds on bus service.
The ferry district funds to two DART routes.
I contacted the West Seattle Blog. They confirmed routes 773 and 775 are not going away.
Metro never said the 773 or 775 would go away. It would have mentioned that prominently in the proposal if so, because it would have to have a public hearing and get feedback before doing so. Unless it was funded by a third party and they suddenly withdrew funding and Metro had no control over it.
My first trip will be the 269 to see Sammamish. I’ve only been through Sammamish a couple times over a decade ago in a car because transit access has been so minimal. I’ve never known anybody who lives there; do people really live in Sammamish or is it just a myth?
I’ll take Link to Mercer Island and the 269 end to end. If the transit wait is long I’ll stroll the station area. Afterward I might take the 269 the other way to Issaquah Highlands and transfer to the 554 to Bellevue or the 203 to South Bellevue.
I rode the 203 eastbound once. I might ride it westbound to confirm my impressions of Issaquah’s and Newport Way’s transit coverage. I remember a few surprisingly long nonstop segments that went past recent large apartment complexes, so I want to quantify that.
Yes, people live there. Very upper middle class people.
Last I checked, Sammamish had the highest median income of any city in the entire state, so I don’t think it’s upper middle, just upper.
$200k is upper middle? It’s not that rich…
An annual income of $200,000 is generally considered upper-middle class nationwide, though in high-cost states like Washington, it often sits at the upper edge of the standard middle class.
Also doesn’t the 269 go to Redmond. You could just take Link back from there.
This would be to take the 556 afterward. Yes, the 269 goes to Marymoor Village station.
I live in Sammamish and have typically commuted to Seattle via park+ride plus the 545. The 2 line has been too slow for my commute and the 269 has been pretty useless for connecting to transfers in Redmond (would be much more useful if it extended to Redmond transit center and made less detours like Bear Creek p&r). The new service change makes me hopeful. I like to use my bicycle to get around, so a commute from Seattle to Mercer Island+269 sounds enjoyable. Weekend service is also a game changer and lets me start and end my recreational rides farther out.
The only unfortunate thing about all this is that Sammamish is losing late night weekday service which was filled by the 554. There were a small handful of trips that extended through Sammamish from around 7pm to past midnight. I’ve used them a few times when out late. However, the new 269 ends around 8pm on weekdays and has no further service.
A two-way all-day route 269 was planned during the 2003 ballot measure two decades ago.
I will be interested to hear if anybody (apart from Mike) rides on a 269 this Saturday or Sunday. Has there been any attempt to market the new weekend service? I suspect that well over 90% of Sammamish residents don’t know anything about it. By the way Rideshare and Metroflex do attract some ridership in Sammamish even though 269 is very sparsely used. A good proportion of the Sammamish residents are well over a 1 mile walk from the nearest 269 stop. And if you get in a car to drive to Issaquah (or even downtown Seattle off peak), it doesn’t make much sense going to a park and ride and continuing by bus. But Rideshare or Metroflex might be useful.
I’m adding the 111 to my list. So my priorities are:
1) 269.
2) 111 (+105+101/106).
3) 556
4) 203
I may get only #1 and #2 today. For #2 I’ll have to get to South Bellevue, so I might take 269 to Marymoor Village and Link to South Bellevue. If I’m in Renton I also want to see The Landing again, because some have said it has more retail than I’ve noticed.
“I suspect that well over 90% of Sammamish residents don’t know anything about it.”
This always happens with new routes or even Link segments. It takes a year or more for people one by one to realize it exists, or where it goes, or that it can benefit their trip, or for them to move to the area or get a job there.
It seems like 269 took this chance to get rid of the snow route.
I think newer residents in Sammamish are probably those who work at BKR but think BKR are all too urban to them.
Back in the 70’s, I knew a kid whose family moved from Surrey Downs to Sammamish near Pine Lake. I’m not sure why they moved, but I imagine they wanted to live in a more rural environment. Back then the homes were on much bigger lots. The Sammamish of today is much different. A lot of Microsoft residents live there, and it also has a very large Indian community. I think the contract/vendor MS workers tend to live in apartments near Microsoft, but the upper level, full-time employees live up on Sammamish, and in other expensive neighborhoods.
The 111 and 270 seems to be operating fully articulated to start.
The 220 is a bit of a mess. I think ridership will go dramatically down on that portion of the former 271. The transfer time does not line up with the 270…. Making you wait 20-30 mins. Note that if Metro shifted the schedule by 5 mins, they’d get the bus immediately. Utterly garbage scheduling as usual from Metro.
Still waiting to check the 215 and 269. Not too interested about the South changes because they suck and we didn’t get any new special route besides breaking up existing ones into lower quality (though more frequent) service.
The 215 is also articulated. The nice thing about these shorter routes is that they can run fewer buses for more trips. But the downside is the transfers and trips taking longer. Without under 10 min headways, a transfer can still suck.
More context: 215 seems to only be articulated on Issaquah-MercerIsland trips according to pantograph, and using gillig low floors to north bend. Interestingly the 269 is fully articulated.
Yeah I noticed that after. I just saw the first trip and assumed but makes sense why smaller buses are used for North Bend
[off-topic. The issue of whether intentionally late bus drivers exist is not specific to the service change or the routes in these areas.]
“The transfer time does not line up with the 270”
220 riders are not necessarily going to the U-District. They may be going to Seattle, Kirkland, Renton, etc. Link provides another way to get to the U-District if the 270 won’t come for 30-60 minutes.
I’ve always thought the 220 is too short to generate a lot of ridership. The 271 was way too long, but the 220 is too short. But the 220 is not a permanent route: it’s a holding pattern until RapidRide K subsumes the corridor. The K will run Totem Lake, Kirkland, Bellevue, Lake Hills, Eastgate.
220 riders usually don’t go to U District (but many do), but a lot went to Bellevue Mall and probably some would like to ride up Bellevue Way or get to Yarrow Point for a transfer. That’s not going to work out now until the K Line opens.
It looks like truncating 271 opens the chance to run 270 full articulated, which is probably the one good thing coming out of 270.
Bellevue/East Base seems to have limited number of 60-ft fleet they can use on regular Metro routes.
From my experience taking 271 (especially during summer), I think 271 not fully articulated is the worse thing than 270 not running ever 10 minutes during peak hour.
I only saw 60 foot buses being used on the route 270 yesterday and today.
Yeah that is a good thing.
The 164 and 166 appear to be through routed on many of the trips, so I guess it’s not much of a change from the 165.
The real change is that not all 164 trips continue as 166 trips. Half of 164 do continue and half turn around at Kent Des Moines Station. So on weekdays, the 164 might have 15 minute headways and the 166 only gets 30 minutes. But all 166 trips by nature continue as 164 trips.
Yeah, I did say “many” not all. I don’t think most riders will have this awareness, but for those who are good at checking bus schedules… It would be a great help in planning trips. On Metro’s part I don’t understand why they split the route number.
They can do it like the 215, and just say only 1/2 of trips continue to Burien. And if they want independent runs, sure they can have new routes 164/166 for those. But the 165 should have stayed as a full route for clarity. Green River and High line are connections.
Snohomish County didn’t fare too well. Still no Link night bus between Seattle & Lynnwood, though Redmond & Federal Way gets them. The popular 515 goes away because ST thinks climbing from the Link stations on 3rd to 5th in downtown isn’t a big deal, and they think Stewart is close to Westlake. Oh, and Community Transit pretty much ended all late evening trips to/from Lynnwood, so if you don’t have a car and wanted to go to a game or event in Seattle, you’re kinda screwed.
Stewart is close to Westlake though – it’s like one block from Stewart/6th to the Westlake entrance between 5th and 6th on Pine. And if walking between 3rd and 5th downtown is a hassle, the 510 will still be running when the 515 did, it just stops at MLT instead of Lynnwood. And you could also catch it from Westlake up 5th.
MLT is a lengthy, tough transfer. If the 510 is to stay, I wish it would at least stop at Lynnwood Station.
How about Route 510, two-way all-day between Everett and Lynnwood Link?
Having one-way service to Seattle entails significant empty deadhead trips.
CT 102, 270, 904, and 909 lost rides due to low ridership. I can whittle down the unnamed route you are complaining about to not be the 904, since the 905 runs later than the 904, and serves all the 904 stops except a local one in south Marysville, but certainly serves south Marysville, although the southbound stop in south Marysville is a good nominee for saddest bus stop in America, waiting up to an hour on unlit grass next to a fast-speed freeway entrance.
I wish all the Marysville 900s would include a stop at Everett Station, so peak riders from Everett would get at least one express route to Lynnwood Station, and Marysville riders could catch the first 900 that comes along, and have a much more comfortable wait, at Everett Station.
Many late-night CT routes and trips remain. The Blue Swift Line, 201, 202, and STX 512 even gained some.
ST just needs to let Metro handle the night owl routes, since the future 517 will be about halfway in King County anyway, and Metro could tell each of them when to wait for the others to arrive with transferring riders.
Also, to be clear, the 270 trips became 271 trips, so basically a stop change, but no loss of runs.
Brent: Route 271 had 10-mimute headway in the weekday peak periods; routes 220 and 270 have 15-minute headway in the weekday peak periods, so in those important times, waits will be longer. There was a “loss of runs”. In addition, ST 566 was changed and will not connect BTC and the U District.
Remember back in 2023, when Metro gutted a bunch of service because of severe staffing shortages? Thats where Community Transit is at right now. Theyre not really in a position to add service, and their drivers have been without a contract for two years. Sound familiar? Thats a big reason for the cuts.
The Metro schudules show the effective dates of the new service pattern, but still show the old routes and expired schedules. I don’t recall this getting missed so late into a service change day.
Update: Metro’s front page still lists the old routes, and none of the new ones.
But the linked schedule for each route is the new version.
I’m excited to take the 215 to the Tiger Mountain trailhead stop at some point and into Snoqualmie/North Bend. I had wanted to do a hike from that stop previously, but the 208 schedule was basically impossible to make work. Having Sunday service and not having to deal with the old 554 weekend schedule makes half-day trips from where I am in Seattle doable. It’s less than 30 minutes from Mercer Island out to Tiger Mountain! Obviously service every 90 minutes isn’t ideal, but still. Super excited to have reasonable enough transit out in the I-90 corridor
I’m really excited for the 215 as well, both for Tiger Mountain access and North Bend hiking/biking opportunities. It should pair well with the SVT Valley Shuttle to get back to North Bend from Duvall. Now we just need daily service on the 224 to Duvall as well!
The 77 cuts the trip time between Bitter Lake and Lake City virtually in half. Riders no longer need to transfer through Northgate or Shoreline. I have personally waited ~15 years for a direct route between these two neighborhoods, and am very excited to test it today. In my opinion the route is too long and should not run all the way to the U District, let alone Sand Point. I’m curious to see how ridership will fluctuate along the route.
Cut off the UW portion of any route, and ridership will drop dramatically.
If the 77 were to just be an east west route along 130th/125th, it would mostly be riders going to or coming from Pinehurst Station.
It might not last very long.
If the 77 were to just be an east west route along 130th/125th, it would mostly be riders going to or coming from Pinehurst Station.
You would also get riders going from Bitter Lake to Lake City (and places in between). I will use if for that, since I live in Pinehurst (not too far from 125th). The particular connection to the UW is very poor. That is part of the problem. I can’t see riders from Bitter Lake riding it all the way to the U-District. They will just get off the bus and take Link. The same is true for Roosevelt. Maybe riders will use it to get to campus but because it goes the slow way, riders in a hurry will transfer to Link and catch an earlier bus from U-District Station. Heading from Bitter Lake to U-Village will take a long time while going from Bitter Lake to Sand Point this way is just silly.
In contrast if the bus was just part of the 75 they would most definitely take a trip to Sand Point, the U-Village and the UW Campus. Destinations like the U-District and Roosevelt would be accessed via a transfer to Link. Thus the route complements Link instead of trying to copy it. The combination of trips are just a lot better.
Meanwhile, those in Lake City would be better off as well, since the 77 barely skirts the area. Think about that for a second. Pinehurst and Roosevelt are by far the fastest Link option for those in the Lake City. Yet this barely serves it. This is also the fastest connection to Roosevelt and a good option for those who want a one-seat ride to the U-District. But again, it barely serves Lake City. It is designed poorly from the standpoint of both Lake City and Bitter Lake. It is just so much worse for so many reasons than just sending the 75 to Bitter Lake.
Yes, the east-west part of the 77 is huge. I just wish the rest of it was designed better. In terms of length it is worth pointing out that it will through-route with the 75. It will like the picture on red (to the left) here. (I proposed the routing to the right which would be shorter although arguably still too long.) So yeah, the routing will be a bit too long. But the bigger problem is that it is just a really bad combination (as I wrote about here).
Despite all that, it will be very nice to have east-west service on 125th/130th.
I rode the 77 today. I picked it up close to my house, at 125th & 20th. I was lucky as I only had to wait a couple minutes. Unfortunately, the driver got lost when she entered the roundabout. She went south on Roosevelt instead of northwest (towards 130th). This would have been OK if she followed the path of the 75 and went east on 125th. But instead she kept going south. She struggled after that, stopping several times to see if she could get on track. She ended up talking to the dispatchers who recommended going down to Northgate Way and back north on 5th. Rather than take the shortcut (by just staying on 5th) she took a left on 125th to the same roundabout. At this point we could see several buses, including a 77 coming from Lake City (just like us). That bus driver got confused as well. They turned left but fortunately just kept going, making a full loop before heading the right direction (northwest). We eventually joined that bus and headed towards Bitter Lake. By the time we got to Aurora we had full on bus bunching — three buses all right next to each other. Oops. First day bugs I guess. Oh, and the bus driver was very nice and otherwise quite competent. My guess is the GPS didn’t make it that clear which way to go.
There were about a dozen people on the bus. Overall ridership looked pretty good considering it doesn’t even connect to Link yet. After getting off the bus I walked to Carkeek via Broadview (a pleasant walk — I recommend it). Then I walked through the park, and out Mary Avenue towards Holman Road. I crossed using the overpass and walked to Greenwood. After lunch and a beer I took the 61 back to my neighborhood. Overall it was an interesting and fun trip.
To qualify on the new route, I expect they had to see the roundabout beforehand.
I am reminded that the 75 and 77 are now through-routed. Consider a driver coming from the east, heading to the roundabout. Half the time they go into the roundabout and head northeast on Roosevelt towards Bitter Lake. The other half the time they go east on 125th and eventually get to Northgate. It is quite likely this added to the confusion. She approached the roundabout just like before. But this time she is supposed to go a different direction. She knew she wasn’t supposed to do what they did last time (go on 125th) and by the time she got past 125th she saw it was Roosevelt. So she exited Roosevelt going the wrong direction (Roosevelt turns there, adding to the confusion). This also explains why the other driver did a full loop. They probably started towards the route of the 75 (using 125th) only to catch themselves and make a complete loop.
By the way, I predicted this. I knew this would add to driver confusion. The pairing is terrible. It is also too long. Check out these two maps. The map on the left is what they drive. The map on the right is what they should drive.
In fine dining the pairing of food and wine is considered; the pairing of the two halves of Route 77 is a poor choice; the Route 75 through routing makes it worse.
[Fixed typo]
the pairing of the two halves of Route 77 is a poor choice; the Route 75 through routing makes it worse.
Agreed. Like pickles and peanut butter.
How are the routes 75 and 77 through-routed?
“How are the routes 75 and 77 through-routed?”
On Stevens Way. See the 75 schedule. The combined route goes on University Way, through campus on Stevens Way and Pend Orielle Road, then east on 45th and up Sand Point Way. It probably changes number westbound at 50th before Children’s, and eastbound maybe at Roosevelt. That’s what Metro has been doing for the past several years instead of changing at the midpoint like it did before that (Pine Street in the case of downtown, maybe Campus Parkway for the U-District).
I see it now. Thanks. It reminds of the old routes 65 and 67, but more complicated. The 67’s turned into the 65, and the 65’s turned into the 67. It seems like that’s how the route 75’s and 77’s will operate.
But at the roundabout, westbound drivers have a choice to make. They have to remember if they are a route 75 or 77. I wonder if it’s like how at 23rd and Cherry, the routes 3 and 4 drivers have a choice to make. Are they are they a route 3, and continue on Cherry, or are they are route 4, and make a right on 23rd.
I also remember, back in the day, routes 230 and 253 drivers sometimes getting confused at 156th and 8th. I think the eastbound 230’s went straight on 8th, and the route 253’s turned left onto 156th. Except I don’t know if that was through-routing. That seemed more like trunk and branch, with both routes sharing the same path for much of the middle part of the route, before splitting off into different directions.
But at the roundabout, westbound drivers have a choice to make. They have to remember if they are a route 75 or 77.
Yes, and the same driver has to alternate back and forth. This is what makes it so unusual. Look at the map I referenced. If you go Northgate to Bitter Lake, you exit the roundabout heading northeast. If you go Bitter Lake to Northgate you exit the roundabout heading southeast. This is the same driver, back and forth. That is what they do — Bitter Lake to Northgate, Northgate to Bitter Lake. Every time they have to remember which leg they are on. I’m not sure there are any other routes like that.
To be clear, there are routes that overlap. But the drivers don’t usually change like this. For example, think of the driver of the 72. It runs south on Lake City Way. The driver knows they are driving the 72 — they have been driving the 72 all day. So it turns onto 25th. Then it goes to the U-District and turns around. After a break it heads back. Again, it is on Lake City Way, where other buses run. But it is still the 72. When going north, the 72 goes up to 145th and turns left, towards 148th Station. It is much easier.
I ended up riding the bus from the opposite direction. The ORCA reader wasn’t working for some reason so I got a free ride. Ran an errand in Lake City, and was disappointed to wait ~30 minutes for the next bus to Bitter Lake. The bunching was apparent from my transit app, so it’s nice to have additional context. Hopefully they work that out, because otherwise the frequency isn’t bad for a local route.
Not a new route, but if you take the F Line today, keep an eye out for a red and purple battery electric bus. Metro’s. 6500 series started today and are the first electric and the first 40ft buses intended to run RapidRide routes.
We rode the 61 from Lake City to Northgate Station this morning. Previously ridership would have been sparse on the weekends until Northgate, but there were a lot of people getting on while we were on LCW. I’m guessing these people would have been on the 522 instead, and now transfer to Link at Northgate. Unfortunately, I’m guessing some of these people (certainly the two of us) would have just been on the 522 to get to Roosevelt, and now have to transfer to Link for one stop.
Generally I take an optimistic view on restructures, but I think taking a frequent, busy route that ends in a dense neighborhood and sending it on a stroad to the middle of nowhere is not the right move for good transit. Unfortunately, I don’t think Sound Transit can be convinced of their folly.
And it occurs to me this will get slightly better once Pinehurst Station opens, since it’ll be about the same amount of time to take the 77 to Pinehurst to Roosevelt vs the 61 to Northgate to Roosevelt (factoring in travel time on Link). It’s still not great, because the 61 and 77 go in opposite directions to get to their Link stations, so you have to take a gamble on which one gets there first.
It’s still not great, because the 61 and 77 go in opposite directions to get to their Link stations, so you have to take a gamble on which one gets there first.
It is a complete mess. There are a lot of ways to get to Link from Lake City:
1) Take the 77 westbound to Pinehurst.
2) Take the 77 southbound to Roosevelt.
3) Take the 61 southbound to Northgate.
4) Take the 75 westbound to Northgate.
5) Take the 65 or 72 northbound to 148th.
6) Take the 65 and 75 eastbound to the UW and eventually the U-District.
The first option is the fastest while the last is the slowest. The second and third are about the same while the 75 to Northgate is slower. Going to 148th is relatively fast but takes longer if you are headed south (e. g. to Capitol Hill).
The problem is that they don’t combine very well at all. Although the 65, 75 and 77 all go west they don’t all meet up. You can take the 65 and 75 from the stop just west of Lake City Way. After that the 65 heads north. The next stop to the west is the first opportunity to take both the 75 and 77. Given the 77 is the fastest, that is probably the fastest option. If you are heading south it is even worse. The 61 and 77 both go south on Lake City Way. But they don’t share a stop until 120th. The 65 and 72 don’t share stops despite the fact that they both go from the UW to Lake City and then up to 145th.
Part of the problem is the goofy routing of the 77. It barely touches Lake City. It doesn’t share many stops with other routes. As a result, a lot of people have to walk a long ways to a bus stop or deal with slow and/or infrequent options for getting to Link.
The 77 should go to 130th (like the 61). The 75 should go to Bitter Lake. Then people in the heart of Lake City have a lot more options. Along 125th you could take the 65/75 combination starting at 35th and extending to the stop west of Lake City Way. Again, this would likely be the fastest combination since the 75 would go to Pinehurst (instead of slogging its way to Northgate). Along Lake City Way you would have the 61 and 77 starting at 130th — more than a half mile north of the current convergent point! The options for riders would be a lot better.
This is just another example of the failed routing of the 77. It fails on the macro level and fails on the micro level as well.
Yeah, I didn’t appreciate just how bad the integration would be until experiencing it. I know Metro doesn’t want to make the turns on/off LCW at 125th but they’re running the 77 with 35′ and I feel like that should be doable.
There really is no need to have any buses turning at 125th & Lake City Way. Let the 75 run east/west and the 77 north/south.
Pinehurst can help me avoid Northgate when making my trip from Bellevue to Aurora at 130th.
When I travel from Bellevue to Aurora & 130th for the first time, I thought I’d have many options given there are quite a few east-west routes between light rail and Aurora, but none of them are straight.
All my options from Northgate involves a detour at North Seattle College south of Northgate. 345 is the one-seat ride but it will take longer unless I catch it right after getting off the light rail.
On certain days when traffic is not that bad, Google even suggest I take 44 transferring E Line.
77 will improves this trip so much when Pinehurst Station open.
Yes, absolutely. Pinehurst will be a big help with trips from Lake City. But it will be a huge help for trips from Bitter Lake. Northgate is tough to get to from both sides, but especially the west.
Wouldn’t you just take the 77 south on Lake City Way to Roosevelt?
I guess so, thought that the 77 was on 15th but I see it’s on Roosevelt. For some reason, Transit wasn’t giving that an option, but Metro messed up the OBA feed this morning so a lot of stops weren’t plotted and the 77 wasn’t tracked at all, maybe that was part of the problem.
I’m not sure how it is dealing with the construction in Lake City. Last I checked, they were still working on that little section of 30th (where the bus makes the hairpin turn). That might make it even more confusing. Once it is fixed you can take the 61 or 77 south but they won’t serve the same stop there. You would have to go all the way past 120th to get to a bus stop served by both. Thus riders in that same position (heading south towards Roosevelt from the main part of Lake City) will have to go back and forth between the stop that gets you there directly or the one going the other direction to Pinehurst Station (or the one around the corner that gets you to Northgate). It really needs a diagram to show how ridiculous it is.
One thing I really wish they would add to One Bus Away that PDXBus has: you can create a bookmark with multiple stops.
Eg: I can set up a single bookmark, and selecting it shows me arrival times at 28th and Steele (TriMet route 10), 28th and Holgate (route 17) and 28th and Woodstock (route 4). This allows me to choose the least bad option.
You shouldn’t need a smartphone to figure out bus stops, but given the situation in Lake City, it seems like something like this would help.
That’s an good idea, Glenn. Singular bookmarks are great — but when there’s more than one route and each one goes to the same general destination it requires toggling between several of them. It’s a real challenge at a place like Bellevue TC or even minor transfer points where each stop is a separate bookmark. It’s less of an issue in Downtown Seattle where many routes have a high enough frequency to not need to consider other routes that stop nearby. But in areas with less frequent routes it would be very useful and sometimes time critical when making a transfer.
Perhaps there needs to be new tabs that assemble the arrival info for all the stops within some distance like 100 yards (300 feet) from each other automatically rather than just at a single stop. I’ll call it a “stop cluster” tab off the top of my head, but I’m sure there could be a better term for it.
Speaking of OBA and Bellevue TC, I had a problem last week. OBA said a bus was arriving at one of the bays at the Bellevue TC in 3 minutes. But when I looked up, the stop was closed for construction! Metro didn’t say where the bus would pick me up instead! I wandered across the 6th and 108th pedestrian scramble intersection four times — and yet saw no bus nor any sign where I should go. Metro should have had sandwich boards with walking path diagrams to the nearest stop provided anytime they close a stop for several weeks. I even asked a bus driver on a different route and he didn’t know either.
I saw today that Metro had articulated buses on the #72 while before on the weekends for the #372 they did not.,
That looks like a wise and cautious move, now that the 72 reaches 148th Station.
They got the 72 pretty much right, IMHO.
Google Maps, Metro trip planner, and OBA are all missing a bunch of stops along 145th for the 72 and 522. Notably 32nd (wb only stop), 30th (wb for 522 and eb for both routes) and 15th (for the 522). Hopefully fixed soon.
The F is using the new 40 footer electric buses from Gillig
I’m guessing it’s just a pilot or something, but this is just as I suspected. They’ll probably use the old 60 footers on the I Line once it opens.
The F ridership sucks anyways, compared to the 160 so this makes sense.
I also saw a Rapid Ride Bus on the 101 and 150, so maybe they’ll run the extra fleet on regular routes until the I opens and the 48xx electric buses are back in service after the recall.
Are battery buses only running out of South or Tukwila bases now? No more electric buses operating in Bellevue?
Yeah. The ones out of the East Base were taken out of service forever.
Battery buses (GILLIG) are out of Tukwila Base. There are apparently a few new flyer BEB’s in the wild, and those are likely out of south.
The New Flyer ones are in the South as well. They were recalled and taken out of service a year or two ago. They’re slowly phasing them back in.
They also have an articulated BEB fleet. I saw coaches in testing on the road, so I think those will come back into service soon as well.
Many of the older New Flyers DE60LF and DE60LFR from the East Base have been transferred to the South Base and running on the 101/102/150. The Xcesiors seem to have been transferred to use on the 72… Not sure why they couldn’t have just used the DE60LFRs like they did on the 372 though.
But overall it seems like the South Base is prioritizing articulated buses which is nice to see. Hopefully they run less 40 footers on some of the busy routes here.
The original reason for the move was the 520 freeway station fiasco, which many of the buses couldn’t use. WSDOT finally fixed those stations so now metro has more flexibility with coaches at east base, but thats why east base has 68xx and 69xx exclusively and no other model.
With this move the East Base is still exclusively 69xx
On this note, the A Line also did some mix up. Some of the Xcelsiors were sent up to Seattle for the D and H Lines, but they traded back their DE60LFs (61xx) buses. Not sure why, but I’m guessing they want to rotate the newer and older buses between bases? I think the South Base used to operate them before they were sent up to the East Base.
Now that I can see the 121 schedule, I can comment on the return of King County Metro route 121.
There are four trips going each way in the morning, and again in the afternoon.
A row of daytime employment sites along E Marginal Way that lost bus service have it again. Those who live close to the 128th freeway stops on Hwy 509 have bus service again.
The 121 was the proverbial baby that went out with the bath water when Metro discontinued 20 peak-only routes that had mostly-decent all-day alternatives a couple years ago.
Headway on the 121 is well over a half hour, but those riding it regularly will learn what time they need to be at their stops.
A lot of employees who relied on the 121 will have gotten cars by now. Ridership will be slow to return. The damage of cancelling the 121 for a couple years may be permanent.
Thank you for commenting this. The loss of 121/122/123 imploded Burien transit options, and it will take a long time, if ever, to fix the damage. Reviving the 121 is a good start, but with low frequency and the loss of the 1st Ave S local tail, the utility of the route is quite limited, and ridership will likely struggle. I was on one of the neighborhood tails, and really, really miss it.
I just hope metro takes the time to invest in Burien outside of the Rapid Ride H (which, let’s be real, is a delridge rapid ride with Burien tacked on as an afterthought). The area has potential, and was doing quite well until 2020/2021 service cancellations.
As you’ve said, a lot of workers have bought cars and likely won’t look back, but with the upcoming SR 509 extension in 2028, traffic is just going to get worse and worse in the area.
While I’ve been waiting years for the return of the 121/122/123 and service returning to the Boulevard Park Freeway Station to Downtown Seattle. Although this is now back to a 17-19 minute ride to Downtown, down from a 50 minute ride on the 131 that required a half mile walk from this stop, this week’s return of the 121 has not as popular as I expected. I think for a couple reasons:
1) The 45 minute headway. Gone are the days when the freeway station was served by three routes and riders didn’t need to rely on the schedule during peak hours – it was show-up and a bus will arrive in a few minutes.
2) At Burien Transit Center, they’ve move the route 121 to Downtown from Bay #3 (now only serving H, 131, 132 – all to Downtown), to the other side of the transit center at Bay #5 (where the 121 from Downtown also drops off). So if you’re waiting for a bus to Downtown, and are waiting at Bay #3 – the regular stop for service to Downtown, unless you’ve walked to the other side of the transit center to look for the 121, once you see the 121 you’re stuck waiting for the three slower routes, as the 121 just passes by bay #3 without stopping.
Hopefully ridership on the 121 will get better. My morning trips this week have each had 3 or 4 passengers. My afternoon trips around 8 passengers.