37 Replies to "TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Friday updates & alerts; bus cancellations"

• newnative September 18, 2015 (7:11 am)

  #57 was a no show again. #56 is running late according to OneBusAway.

• Wes C. Addle September 18, 2015 (7:17 am)

  Again the #57 is MIA

• Colleen September 18, 2015 (7:19 am)

  While not announced, there was also a cancelled C line this morning already.

• Noni G September 18, 2015 (7:23 am)

  Just got two metro alerts, the 6:41 57 and the 7:30 56 are cancelled.

  • WSB September 18, 2015 (7:28 am)

    Noni – the Twitter versions of those are now in the story. Thanks.
    .
    Colleen – thanks, I didn’t see that one in the text or tweet alerts either, will add to the story for the record.

• Aghast September 18, 2015 (7:39 am)

  Aaaaand now the 7:18 #55, which gives Metro a coveted all-West Seattle trifecta. Post card apology cards to follow, no doubt…

• olivist September 18, 2015 (7:47 am)

  These cancellations are absurd and continue to indicate that Metro is a complete mess and totally mismanaged. I can’t believe this is what we get for voting to give Metro a big funding boost from Seattle car owners (or maybe I can).

  Also, I’d like Metro to explain why the W. Seattle routes (particularly 55, 56, 57) are so disproportionately impacted. So far today (and it’s only 730AM) there have been 3 W. Seattle cancellations out of a total of 4 announced cancellations service-wide. This disproportionate impact to W. Seattle certainly appears to be a trend after reviewing all announced cancellations over the past month.

  I’ll be driving until Metro provides a complete explanation, a plan to actually make service reliable, and some actual improvement, rather than just more of the same bulls**t. (Plus,I’ll get more out of my newly $60 extra cost car tabs by driving than from Metro.)

• LauraW September 18, 2015 (7:49 am)

  Alright, people, time to agitate! I sent a link of the WSB story about why all the cancellations–along with a plea that Metro stop treating his neighbors so poorly–to Dow Constantine the week before we got those (sadly hypocritical) postcards on our bus seats. I got a response from metro with that emailed copied in it, so I know he saw it. Of course their response was canned, got another that same day responding to a complaint I left on their site that read exactly the same. But we need to keep making ourselves heard and to people that might be able to do something. Metro’s Twitter feed looks like it has 3 west Seattle cancellations and just one from anywhere else in the city. That’s pretty uneven, Metro

• CMP September 18, 2015 (7:54 am)

  Wow, way to not provide service to the Admiral area Metro! I’m glad to be near 35th & Avalon for more options, those cancellations are really terrible.

• Sue September 18, 2015 (7:55 am)

  Not really helpful when the text for the 55 cancellation goes out 15 min. after the run should have started. And when they cancel that one, an articulated bus, the next one is always a short one, half its size, that’s packed.

• Lindsey September 18, 2015 (8:19 am)

  There was also a missing 120 around 7:35ish, which resulted in the next 120 bus full to capacity. 10-15 people were left on the curb at the last stop before the bridge.

• onion September 18, 2015 (8:23 am)

  Feeling very sorry for people in our community who rely on those bus routes. It’s getting to the point where Metro could send out an announcement when one of these routes actually RECEIVES service! It might be more efficient.

• flimflam September 18, 2015 (8:24 am)

  in no way is this acceptable – even less so that we are giving more money to this feeble agency via car tabs.

  .
  something is clearly wrong…

• MsD September 18, 2015 (8:29 am)

  There are nearly 100 new housing units under construction on my block, which is served by the #55. I feel bad for the people who will be told by the leasing agents/realtors that there’s a bus stop steps away and it’s a quick 15 minute trip downtown.

• Gina September 18, 2015 (8:33 am)

  I think the county would like to eliminate all service in WS, and have the Water Taxi take over.

• Norma September 18, 2015 (8:46 am)

  Why would anyone who lives in the Admiral district ever vote for another transportation package? I’m saving my money for taxi fare!

• West Seattle since 1979 September 18, 2015 (8:51 am)

  We need to talk to our elected officials such as Dow Constantine about this specific problem, not conspiracy theories about why the 21 was expanded to every 15 minutes on Sunday when it was going to be eliminated (though replaced by a changed 50) if Prop. 1 hadn’t passed.

  Canceling of bus runs, mostly in the Admiral District, is a real problem!

• Linga September 18, 2015 (8:55 am)

  What city government genius decided that it would be a good idea to convert 35th Ave. from 2 lanes each way into one lane each way in order to accommodate a left turn lane? Ditto for Roxbury. Do these people ever drive the streets they’re messing with before they implement their brilliant ideas?

• iggy September 18, 2015 (9:01 am)

  I’m an almost daily RR C rider, at various times during the day–not just rush hour. At first I was thrilled when we went to 12 minute instead of 15 minute service, but I’m seeing way too many cancellations and waits downtown midday that are worse than when we had the 15 minute service. Now that school has started and the influx of new people, it’s very concerning that Metro can’t get the schedule to work. More and more I’m seeing seniors and impaired people not getting seats. Bus stops seem more jammed, between increased bus and car traffic and construction, so that often seniors and the impaired have to walk long distances over uneven terrain to get to a bus and try to find a seat before the bus takes off.

• jno September 18, 2015 (9:08 am)

  Metro run cancellations are not a new thing, only the notifications are. Jeers for cancelled runs but cheers for increased transparency.

• DrewJ September 18, 2015 (9:21 am)

  Also, up in Ballard, the last 18X of the morning was canceled. And the 8:46am southbound D Line (turning into the C Line to West Seattle) was also canceled without notice.

• Rick September 18, 2015 (9:30 am)

  We’re being held hostage in an attempt to garner votes as in “if you give us gobs more money we’ll fix it. This time. Trust us. Really.” A scheme in this area from many different agencies I’ve seen many,many times over the years. “Trust me. Really”. They don’t actually say it that way as it would be an admission of incompetence and poor management. Oh well.

• Trickycoolj September 18, 2015 (10:04 am)

  If metro is having consistent staffing issues at the base that serves WS why aren’t they shifting resources from other bases to lessen the disproportionate impact it’s having in our area of critical need for buses. Clearly we don’t have the throughput capacity to get every single rider downtown in their own car so the resources need adjusted ASAP. UW still isn’t in session there must be plenty of North Base drivers available until the September shake up and UW starting school. I thank my lucky stars I don’t commute to downtown every time I read stuff like this. Thankfully the southern commute is really only torched when the First or SP bridges go up or when the traffic girls on the news tell everyone to take 599 into downtown. (Tracy Tailor of King5 looking at you!)

• Chris W September 18, 2015 (10:30 am)

  @rick It’s is a pattern! Damn near impossible to get from downtown tunnel to UW after work during the last few elections involving transportation funding. I stayed noticing 3 years ago…

• flimflam September 18, 2015 (10:41 am)

  huh. “thank you for the car tab $ but its just not enough – now if you would simply vote YES on the Move levy everything will be fixed up in no time!”

• wetone September 18, 2015 (10:55 am)

  Just wait for 2k more people living here in WS from Morgan st. north within 2 years as new builds fill up. Increasing the traffic bottleneck out/in of WS at commute times. From the very limited ingress/egress. WS high & low bridges then 1st and 14th ave. bridges on the south end for accessing Downtown and I-5. WS still has unlimited building with projects (units) growing in size on smaller lot sqft. No parking requirements or unusable (access/tightness) of parking spots.
  Metro, SDOT Kubly (needs to go) and Mostly Mayor Murray keep promising us “pass the levy’s we will make things better”. Their actions and results show much different. Traffic issues, spending/cost overruns and quality of work being allowed in this city are terrible. New road designs for moving traffic and safety are laughable at best in most every case along with making things worse for 97% of Seattle residents. If you keep passing their levy’s your enabling them to continue their very very poor management of this city. Things need to change big time before I vote yes on any levy in this city.
  To the comment on the water taxi being only service for WS. Once again a poorly executed program as it has zero designated parking….. and only goes downtown. One of the biggest subsidized transportation systems in the state… Maybe we just need a levy for hiring more task forces to figure out why Seattle keep’s hiring task’s forces to figure out why the people hired for said job are failing and why there is so many projects with Big cost over runs…….. Starts at the top……… Go Hawks !!!!!!!

• Aghast September 18, 2015 (10:55 am)

  @jno – nobody is saying cancellations are a new thing, and everyone agrees that transparency is a plus. What is new, however, is the frequency and apparent clustering of these recent cancellations. I’ve been riding Metro for 20+ years and can count on one hand the number of non-weather related cancellations I’d experienced before this. This situation is truly different, and is seriously impacting many riders.

• Mike September 18, 2015 (11:04 am)

  good grief Metro KC, what a joke.

• Gene September 18, 2015 (11:24 am)

  A thread from Facebook today
  Seattle Subway
  Riders of packed-rush-hour Link trains rejoice! Six minute (up from 7.5 minute) service is upon us!

  Also: Way more bus service all over the city. Seattle Prop 1 is about to kick in. 76,77 riders, learn first hand why YOU MUST support the U-Link service change.
  Friend response
  Does this mean fewer bus cancellations in West Seattle- this morning at least 3 busses cancelled. How do folks get to work/school/ appointments on time anymore. A 15 min Tweet alert doesn’t seem like much notice to have to make other plans. Maybe just get back into the car.
  Seattle Subway
  Bus cancellations have been largely due to added service and Metro’s operational issues with adding that much service. As they hire up and stabilize these issues should move back to being extremely infrequent.
  Friend Response
  How long might that- hiring up & stabilizing take?
  Seattle Subway
  They will probably stuggle, operationally, with the increased service for the first year.

  Friend Response

• Eileen September 18, 2015 (12:22 pm)

  I don’t get the explanation that increased service is causing cancellations. Service is worse than before the “increases” the only way that would happen is if metro kc if prioritizing some other line

• AmandaKH September 18, 2015 (2:10 pm)

  Metro insists on hiring p/t drivers first. Who wants to work part time? Not that many people! This is not Metro’s first rodeo, and since when is it okay for an agency overseen by the government allowed to become run like the government? Where is the accountability?

  • WSB September 18, 2015 (2:19 pm)

    Having been at an event this morning with a considerable number of county transportation people, I found out a little more about this, but have asked for some more access to insight on why these particular routes seem to be getting hit the most. They are hopeful that within a couple more weeks the hiring will be up to speed.

• Lola September 18, 2015 (2:20 pm)

  Glad I do not ride the bus, all I ever see my friends who do ride the bus post is how this bus does not come and how they are late to work all the time. Way to go Metro, this will surely get rider ship up.

• JanS September 18, 2015 (3:19 pm)

  they really do need to get their act together. The announcement comes 20 minutes after the bus was scheduled to leave? Seriously? So, you’re out there waiting, possibly in the rain, and they can’t announce 10 minutes ahead of departure time? WTF? I am so glad I don’t have to rely on Metro for my transportation, and doubly glad I work at home. I feel bad for those who are stuck, waiting for a bus that isn’t coming.(and then being late for work). A big TFB from Metro to you all :(

• Laura W September 18, 2015 (3:40 pm)

  I’m very much looking forward to hearing more on what you found out, Tracy. I really don’t understand why they continue to let routes that don’t have tons of runs keep getting cancelled when they can move a driver from another route that runs more often. I actually had a 57 bus not show on me earlier this summer and the next day the driver said he was pulled to drive a Rapid Ride line, leaving the 57 without a driver and our next bus was another half an hour. Whereas if that RR bus didn’t run, it would have been just a few minutes.

• jno September 18, 2015 (3:50 pm)

  @Aghast – different strokes for different folks. I’m also a 20+ year rider (10+ in WS) and I’d need more hands to count the cancellations I’ve been subjected to over the years.

• busrider September 18, 2015 (5:57 pm)

  West Seattle isn’t the only neighborhood to get the Metro apology cards. Shoreline bus riders were also given them. My co-worker told me of cancelled runs resulting in packed buses for an hour long commute.

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