TRANSIT UPDATES: Reroutes for Chinese president’s visit; rescheduled briefing on Metro cancellations

5:56 PM: Two quick transit-related notes:

REROUTES FOR CHINESE PRESIDENT’S VISIT: As first reported back on Friday night, traffic and transit challenges are expected between tomorrow morning and Thursday morning while the president of China visits the area. He’s flying into and out of Paine Field in Snohomish County and staying in a downtown Seattle hotel. Metro has just published its full list of expected reroutes; no West Seattle-downtown routes appear to be involved, but for those who transfer and/or work in the area, here are the details.

CITY COUNCIL BRIEFING ON METRO CANCELLATIONS: In our followup last week on Metro‘s recent cancellations, which have seemed to be disproportionately affecting West Seattle routes, it was mentioned that Metro GM Kevin Desmond would brief the City Council Transportation Committee tomorrow. That agenda’s gotten busy, including the new West Seattle Bridge-Duwamish Waterway Corridor report (covered here last night), so the briefing/discussion has been postponed until next week – Monday, September 28th, at the Seattle Transportation Benefit District (full council wearing different hats) meeting, which follows the afternoon City Council meeting. No specific time yet – we’ll be tracking it.

ADDED 6:52 PM: Regarding the first item above – Bill asked in comments about the president’s arrival time. Haven’t found an official direct source so far but the Everett Herald, closest major publication to the arrival airport, says 9:30 am tomorrow. We’ll have the newest information in our daily traffic/transit update first thing in the morning.

Bill September 21, 2015 (6:31 pm)

How about seeing if any REAL information on timeframes that I-5 will be SCREWED up between Seattle and Everett! — when is the arrival?

WSB September 21, 2015 (6:46 pm)

Seattle city sources haven’t reported that – no time frames in their latest update – http://spdblotter.seattle.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Safety_and_security_advisory.pdf – but I trust Snohomish County’s major news publication, which says 9:30 am tomorrow: http://www.theheraldbusinessjournal.com/article/20150921/NEWS01/150929808 (and doesn’t have any time frames or locations beyond that) – Tracy

LyndaB September 21, 2015 (7:09 pm)

I heard on KIRO radio they got a Boeing source saying 9:30am as well.

cjboffoli September 21, 2015 (8:15 pm)

By far some of the worst traffic I’ve ever experienced in my life has been in Beijing where you can sit for an hour and not even move two feet. So we should all be proud that our snarled traffic will make President Xi feel right at home here in the People’s Republic of Seattle. ;-)

Mike September 21, 2015 (9:24 pm)

due to the incredible amount of security (basically 100x what any US president has ever had here) they are not announcing times or routes of when they’ll have motorcades stop traffic. Just be ready to be stopped at any moment, even if you’d in an ambulance dying, that’s not even a joke.

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