Those awaiting Metro Transit Route 50‘s debut on its “real” route will have to wait six more weeks. When it launched three months ago as part of a major restructuring tied to the debut of the RapidRide C and D Lines, Metro announced temporary reroutes that it said would be in place until the Genesee/Avalon stoplight was up and running for the westbound trip and turning-radius issues were fixed in Admiral for the eastbound trip. Now that the Genesee/Avalon stoplight is close to its debut, we asked Metro spokesperson Jeff Switzer today if that meant the “real” Route 50 is close too. He tells WSB it’ll be six weeks longer, because they will be changing the bus size:
The Route 50 reroute is scheduled to continue until the Feb. 16 service change, at which time westbound buses will start traveling the original planned route on southbound Delridge Way and westbound on Southwest Genesee Street. The change will happen then because we can switch to a shorter bus that can better make the southbound right turn at that intersection.
At the same time, Route 50 also will shift to the original planned route in the Admiral district, as the shorter buses will be able to make the right turn from Southwest Admiral Way to California Avenue Southwest.
Because of the signal delay – it was at one point expected to be in place before the fall Metro changes – North Delridge has not been served by westbound Route 50, intended as a long-overdue east-west connection in that area.
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