30 Replies to "Metro's March 11 service change to add West Seattle trips, change schedules"

• Craig March 1, 2017 (1:23 pm)

  Pretty smart…8:45-9:25 a.m., when the morning rush is pretty much over.  People who run this city are geniuses.

  • WSB March 1, 2017 (1:30 pm)

    Metro is not a city service. It’s a county service.

  • SeattleSunburn March 1, 2017 (1:52 pm)

    Actually, the C Line is full during the morning time that service is being added. I have been left behind at the Avalon stop around 9 am numerous times due to the bus being overcrowded. When the C does stop at Avalon during that time period it is most always standing room only.

    • Eric March 1, 2017 (2:30 pm)

      Agreed.  At that hour by that final stop I routinely see people having to shift around in the doorways to let the doors shut since there literally isn’t room for them to move out of the door entry into the aisles (and it’s not because of people not moving to the back, etc)

  • MIckymse March 1, 2017 (2:40 pm)

    On the contrary, it would seem that morning rush ISN’T over… which is why they are adding an additional bus into the schedule to help off-set overcrowding and improve schedule reliabilty.

  • Moose2 March 2, 2017 (9:41 pm)

    <<Pretty smart…8:45-9:25 a.m., when the morning rush is pretty much over.  People who run this city are geniuses.>>

    Why such negativity, and passive-aggressive hostility? In my experience the C line is very crowed until at least 9:30am, so an additional trip during that time makes a lot of sense.

  • Jenny March 13, 2017 (8:40 am)

    Actually, on days I leave before 8 I always get a seat. Any later than that and I’m always

    standing. Glad to see this addition.

• newnative March 1, 2017 (1:25 pm)

  55, 56, 57 are not on the list of routes that will have changes.  

  • WSB March 1, 2017 (1:29 pm)

    Yes, 55/57 are; the news release sent to us (and other media) is here. As mentioned above, I have a question out to Metro about how to find details on the schedule changes, or whether Trip Planner with a March 11th or later date is the only way, since the service change page does not seem to cross-reference everything.

    • Sue H March 1, 2017 (2:35 pm)

      Even the trip planner is useless right now.  I wanted info on the 55 changes and entered info for a trip between 42nd & Alaska and 3rd & Union at 7:25am on Monday, 3/13, and got a message that said “We could not find any stops with service at the requested time close to the origin (starting point) of your trip.”       

    • newnative March 1, 2017 (2:41 pm)

      Okay, thanks.  I wonder why they omit those routes on their Revised Routes list that is on their website.  http://kingcounty.gov/depts/transportation/metro/schedules-maps/service-change.aspx

      • WSB March 1, 2017 (2:49 pm)

        NN – That is what I wrote to ask when I noticed that while writing the story. No reply yet.

        RB – It’s not mentioned either on the website OR in the news release so that would seem to be a safe assumption. You might recall some buses were added to it last fall –

        https://westseattleblog.com/2012/10/west-seattle-transit-metro-adding-more-buses-to-routes-120-and-55/

        • WSB March 1, 2017 (3:18 pm)

          And now we do have a reply from Metro spokesperson Jeff Switzer: “Those routes were all identified for reliability adds. They likely didn’t have details in the Rider Alert brochure because the changes were reliability only (not added trips) but we encourage riders to consult schedules on any/all routes that had reliability investments because trip times may have shifted.”

  • bus rider March 1, 2017 (6:19 pm)

    I hope this mean no cancel 56/57 runs back to back like last summer.

• Tucker March 1, 2017 (1:53 pm)

  They can’t keep the 21 local or express route running on time with the trips they’ve already got, so I’m not sure adding more is going to help that cause.

  • Mark March 1, 2017 (3:06 pm)

    Agreed on the frequently late & often missing 21X buses in the evening.  I honestly don’t bother even looking at OneBusAway or the schedule before leaving the office, anymore.  The 21 local doesn’t seem to suffer from the same problems, from my experience.

    I’m hopeful that an additional trip will lighten the load on the evening 21X , which can be awfully packed.

    – Mark

    • Tucker March 1, 2017 (4:20 pm)

      The local hits the same issues both in the morning and in the evening in the second half of rush hour.  From 5:30 to just after 7:00, it’s a crap shoot on getting out of downtown reasonably close (with 10-15 minutes) to their schedule.  And it’s usually not a traffic concern like you’d think.

      The frequency I’ve had to wait 20+ minutes for a local to arrive (occasionally seeing two buses stacked up and leapfrogging each other through the route) is pretty mesmerizing.  And it’s not often but I’ve still had far too many times where a bus never showed through three or four separate runs (up to nearly an hour and half wait before) than should be acceptable.

      I know other routes have their capacity issues and violence problems, but 21 has to be one of the poorest managed routes in the system.  And seemingly for no concrete reason.

• Elizabeth March 1, 2017 (2:20 pm)

  Increasing the frequency of the 55 would be very wise. Those buses are always packed during rush hour and it suuuuucks.

  • 42ndMom March 1, 2017 (2:38 pm)

     It would be wonderful!  The 55 is always crazy packed!!!

• Rb March 1, 2017 (2:48 pm)

  since the 120 is not mentioned does that mean there are not changes to it? 

• craig March 1, 2017 (3:23 pm)

  so those of us that catch the C line before 8:45am will still have to pray for a seat, or that the bus even stops. 

  • Mr. J March 1, 2017 (4:16 pm)

    Craig, maybe you should  consider voicing your concerns with metro rather than negative blog comments. The system can’t work unless people put energy into it. There are bigger issues in the world than pre-8:45am standing room on the C-Line. Metro saw a problem with the later buses and fixed it, probably from public outcry. 

    • WSB March 1, 2017 (4:26 pm)

      And also, as we’ve said before, you have an elected representative who has some oversight of Metro via being on the County Council’s Transportation Committee, this area’s County Councilmember Joe McDermott – multiple types of contact info here: http://www.kingcounty.gov/council/mcdermott.aspx

• JKB March 1, 2017 (8:31 pm)

  Maybe the 55 is packed because service on the 56/57 is so poor.  That’s why I ride it, to get home (Admiral) in the evenings.

  • busrider March 1, 2017 (9:14 pm)

    One more 57 bus after 6:00 pm would help a lot.

• anonyme March 2, 2017 (6:27 am)

  Maybe Craig doesn’t realize that people with schedules that differ from his also have to get to work.   There is a world outside of banks and offices.

  This “reliability” thing has me confused.  If there is to be no schedule change, what are they talking about?

  Route 21 has always had terrible service.  Empty buses would often skip the loop, leaving waiting riders stranded.  When many Arbor Heights residents stopped using it for this reason, Metro’s response was to cut service – not improve it.  It would make much more sense to run a few locals the extra 10 minutes around the AH loop rather than have them stacked up at Westwood.

  • AMD March 2, 2017 (9:12 am)

    In my experience, “schedule changes to improve reliability” means making the schedule reflect what time the bus DOES show up or how long it DOES take to get somewhere rather than whatever times are currently in the schedule because their algorithm was wrong, traffic changes, etc.  When I lived in Arbor Heights the bus I took left a few minutes earlier after the change so that it would get downtown at the scheduled time rather than consistently 5 minutes late (for example).

• SB March 2, 2017 (7:34 am)

  I’m happy to see they are adding an additional late run for the 21X.

• Sue H March 2, 2017 (9:37 am)

  I finally got the trip planner to work with a 3/13 date on the 55. I’ll want to see a printed schedule to confirm, but according to what I pulled up, every bus in the afternoon on the 55 will run 2 minutes later (except the first one, which is 1 minute later). In the morning, the buses that currently are scheduled to leave Alaska & California between 7:29 and 8:09 will all be leaving 2 minutes earlier, which is particularly amusing since not one of them can come at the time actually scheduled and they are late every day. (Didn’t check the earlier/later 55s in the morning, since that range is when I usually travel.)

  • WSB March 2, 2017 (9:45 am)

    Thanks for the update! I did tell the Metro media contact with whom I was corresponding yesterday that the Trip Planner was not working for the advised “looking ahead” and he said they were working on it. – TR

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