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Proposed Metro route changes, round 2: West Seattle changes

February 1, 2012 4:15 pm
|      30 COMMENTS
 |   Transportation | West Seattle news

4:15 PM: Metro has just published its revised proposal of route changes for this September, timed with the debut of West Seattle’s RapidRide Line C. The list starts here; we’re reviewing now to add the highlights for West Seattle, but wanted to make sure you knew it was live, so you can do the same. The first public briefing on the changes is scheduled for tonight’s Southwest District Council meeting, South Seattle Community College board room (6000 16th SW), 7 pm. There’s also an online survey, and (as reported here earlier) two West Seattle open houses ahead, as well as some informational tabling (here’s the calendar with all locations and dates).

UPDATED 4:51 PM: Some toplines of what Metro says has changed from what was proposed last fall:
For Route 22:

Change from November 2011 suggestion
Metro is no longer proposing to completely replace Route 22. During public outreach in November 2011, we heard that loss of transit service in Arbor Heights would negatively affect many riders, and the steep slope between California Avenue SW and Fauntleroy Way SW, will make the RapidRide C Line inaccessible to many Gatewood residents.

For Route 37:

Change from November 2011 suggestion
*Keep some service on Route 37.

During public outreach in November 2011, Metro heard that this service is important to riders along Beach Drive SW and Alki Avenue SW because steep grades and distance make it difficult to reach alternative service. Metro will continue to analyze ridership patterns and the overall transit network, and may consider more changes in this area in the future.

For Route 55:

Change from November 2011 suggestion
*Operate trips during peak hours to downtown Seattle in the morning and to the Admiral District in the afternoon to prevent overcrowding on the C Line.

For Routes 56/56X:

Change from November 2011 suggestion
Increase the speed of Route 56 Express by skipping the stops at SW 26th Street and Chelan Avenue SW.

8:27 PM NOTE: We’re currently at the Southwest District Council meeting, where Metro is doing its first community briefing (as previewed earlier). Highlights to come. Outreach continues all month; Metro’s final recommendation has to go to King County Executive Dow Constantine in mid-March, and it will go through the County Council, with an expectation that they would “take action” in May.

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30 Replies to "Proposed Metro route changes, round 2: West Seattle changes"

  • LivesinWS February 1, 2012 (4:28 pm)

    First two links appear to be the same. Are they supposed to be?

    • WSB February 1, 2012 (4:31 pm)

      Yup. I can’t deep-link to the individual routes since it’s on dropdowns that open PDF’s, unfortunately.

  • JEM February 1, 2012 (4:38 pm)

    This looks even worse. Old proposal seemed to only drop Arbor Heights from the 21 during non-peak hours. Now it seems 21 will only go to Westwood? So I get to walk over a mile to catch a bus to work?

  • jno February 1, 2012 (4:55 pm)

    I applaud Metro for the changes they’ve made based on customer feedback. I’m happy to see the 22 isn’t going away completely. I am bummed that the 20(40) won’t run weekends, but I understand a revenue-neutral restructure necessitates tradeoffs.
    .
    JEM, the prior plans also included dropping the Arbor Heights loop from the 21 entirely and having only the 21X serve the Arbor Heights loop. That remains the same (although the 21X will serve a smaller loop), but the 22 shuttle will go to Arbor Heights during non-peak.

  • mightymo February 1, 2012 (5:00 pm)

    The KC Metro formatting on the website is very unhelpful, without new maps, etc. What constitutes “peak times” on the 55, for example, is not defined at all. As someone who lives between the Admiral and Alaska Junctions and already connects from another bus into downtown, I’m hoping for one bus to West Seattle for those times. But when would that be?

  • clark5080 February 1, 2012 (5:31 pm)

    Look at the 21 Express JEM

  • anonyme February 1, 2012 (5:36 pm)

    Route 22 does not serve Arbor Heights. Is this an error?

  • clark5080 February 1, 2012 (6:05 pm)

    Confusing as to what happens to the 54

    • WSB February 1, 2012 (6:17 pm)

      P.S. Any particular questions on this – I still haven’t gone through the whole thing, was covering a meeting when it came out and then the house fire … Am going next to the Metro briefing and if you can’t be there, I can at least put radar up for any particular points noticed by those who know the routes best – the riders! – TR (or e-mail me, editor@westseattleblog.com )

  • metrognome February 1, 2012 (6:34 pm)

    Peak times are the same they have been for ages; basically, trips starting between 6 and 9 am or 3 and 6 pm. It does get a little fuzzy for trips that start but don’t end before off-peak starts; check the shaded areas in your current schedule.
    The other big change for September is that the Ride Free Area will go away.

  • Jake February 1, 2012 (7:47 pm)

    North Delridge had three possibilities for east-west connection on the November list (rerouted 128, rerouted 125, and new route 40). Unfortunately all three of them were scrapped in favor of keeping low-performing, one-seat rides to far-flung neighborhoods. Delridge gets thrown the scraps again. Very disappointing.

  • Paul February 1, 2012 (8:13 pm)

    The 22 will change so it no longer goes downtown or to White Center. It will go between the Junction and Arbor Heights.

    On the Arbor Heights end, it will head south from Westwood to 106th, west to 35th, north to Roxbury, and then head east and complete the loop back to Westwood

  • M February 1, 2012 (8:29 pm)

    We live near 44 SW & SW 100. It was bad enough to take away our mid-day and weekend service on the 21. Now they want to cut us off from the 21X, too. The buses have been making the turn onto SW 100 all of the 21+ years we’ve lived here and now they claim its too difficult??? Every time I’ve ridden the bus it has picked up/dropped off passengers on SW 100. What are these people supposed to do now?

  • mightymo February 1, 2012 (8:38 pm)

    I wish they had the maps again. There was a new West Seattle to Georgetown route but I don’t remember the number. That’s my commute and it’s worth transferring in the Junction if it means no transfer downtown.

    • WSB February 1, 2012 (8:43 pm)

      Hey Mo – I’m getting some of this at the briefing. The WS to Georgetown route is now Route 20.

  • dm February 1, 2012 (9:20 pm)

    It’s difficult to understand what they are proposing, or changing from last Autumn’s decision for a route. I use the 125 from Highland Park. They were initially proposing a transfer on Avalon before downtown which seemed nutty…That would be really bad for folks that work downtown and students that attend the community college.

  • Charles February 1, 2012 (10:00 pm)

    I don’t want to over react, as I don’t quite know all the details. I am frustrated though, because we just gave Metro money so they wouldn’t reduce service. What happened to the money then? I have known for several years that Arbor Heights was difficult to get to on the bus. The icing on the cake was when a metro call center agent referred to the 21 and Arbor Heights as the “red headed step-child” of metro…

  • miws February 1, 2012 (10:20 pm)

    M, if you are going to bring up your point of the length of time that the 21 has been turning on to 100th, from 35th, to serve the Arbor Heights Loop to Metro, or anywhere else, I can attest that the 21 has followed that route for at least 38 years, and probably around 32 years with articulated coaches.

    .

    Mike

  • Margie February 2, 2012 (6:06 am)

    I am glad they are finally coming to their senses on at least having a 55 during commuter hours. The people south of the junction are making out like bandits (except for Arbor Heights) but if you live between Admiral and Alaska, you get the shaft. If I have to change at the junction, it will take me 3 buses to get to work because I work on Eastlake where the bus service really stinks. I am intrigued about the new number 40, though.

  • jiggers February 2, 2012 (8:07 am)

    Time to get car and contribute to the road congestion…:)

  • Happy gal February 2, 2012 (8:36 am)

    Hooray! Thanks Metro

  • W February 2, 2012 (10:08 am)

    I wrote to Joe McDermott about the route #53 being discontinued and how badly it is needed on Alki/Harbor Ave. It’s been 3 weeks and I haven’t heard anything yet.

  • Bruce Nourish February 2, 2012 (11:25 am)

    Tracy: If you’re using Firefox, you can deep link to those maps by downloading a map, then opening Firefox’s Download window (Window->Download) and right clicking on the downloaded PDF and clicking “Copy Download Link”.

    • WSB February 2, 2012 (11:37 am)

      I usually work in Chrome, but thanks. I even tried to open the PDFs in Safari because it will usually open them with a URL but it insisted on saving them as attachments, and by then I was both trying to pay attention to the Viaduct Working Group *and* dealing with a house fire. Will try this for the forthcoming summary of what was said at SW District Council last night … looking ahead to a briefing tonight at the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council re: White Center etc. … TR

  • jno February 2, 2012 (2:43 pm)

    Charles, the $20 congestion reduction charge passed by the county was a stop-gap measure to prevent immediate reduction in service, and was authorized by the legislature only on the condition that Metro follow the guidance of the Regional Transit Task Force. The task force recommended that service be allocated based on the productivity of routes. Tom Rasmussen was on the task force: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2013442238_guest16cooke.html
    .
    Whether or not you agree with their conclusions or Metro’s implementation thereof (personally I agree that the limited resources available to Metro should be used as efficiently as possible), the fact is that this is not a reduction in service, but a revenue-neutral restructuring; and that, without it, Metro would have been forced to reduce service by as much as 20% immediately, which would have been far more painful.

  • Amanda February 2, 2012 (4:05 pm)

    I am very dissappointed that all of the changes to provide better east west connections within West Seattle were scrapped. It seems as though Metro only made those offerings to have something to cut. I am tired of getting close to the carrot just to see it yanked away time and again.

  • jno February 2, 2012 (4:41 pm)

    They weren’t all scrapped – the 40 lives on as the 20 (albeit without weekend service) and the 50 remains (albeit with slightly reduced peak service). (edit: also, the 125.) Unfortunately it’s harder to turn out advocates for new, untested routes than it is for those who stand to lose existing service.

  • ma February 2, 2012 (5:30 pm)

    I’m baffled by the continued plan to discontune weekend service on the 125. No bus service from downtown to SSCC on the weekends? No bus service at all from Puget Ridge on weekends? With the revised 128 scrapped we appear to have lost our connection to Rapid Ride as well. There isn’t even a suggested alternative listed for weekend service.

    • WSB February 2, 2012 (5:40 pm)

      MA – I’m finishing up the Southwest District Council coverage from last night, including a Metro rep’s briefing. SSCC reps present were VERY adamant that they will fight for weekend service.

  • Sue Pedersen February 3, 2012 (11:17 am)

    YAY on the route 37, I sure hope they keep most of it’s route!
    I’m not sure if the 56 should not stop at 26th & Chelan as that is another good bus to downtown if we need to park there when we miss a bus to get to work on time.

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