Here’s how Metro bus service will change on September 26th

Metro has just announced details of its next “service change,” scheduled to take effect on September 26th (one week from Saturday). You can see all the changes here; here are the area routes we see listed (please let us know if we’re missing one), plus a big change for holiday service, with several local routes involved:

ROUTE 21

Route 21 daytime and evening service frequency will also improve to every 15 minutes on Sunday as all southbound Route 5 trips will be connected to Route 21 operating to Westwood Village and all northbound Route 21 trips with be connected to Route 5 operating to Shoreline CC.

ROUTE 113

Route 113 to Shorewood will start from the bus stop on 2nd Ave just south of Bell St. It will no longer serve the bus stop eastbound on Blanchard St just east of 1st Ave.

CHANGE IN HOLIDAY SERVICE

Beginning Saturday, Sept 26, reduced weekday schedules will be eliminated on the following routes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 33, 36, 40, 41, 43, 44, 50, 56, 60, 64, 70, 76, 77, 124, 131 and 132. These routes will operate regular weekday service on holidays.

If you’d rather scroll through a text list of all the changes around the region, find it here.

twobottles September 16, 2015 (5:51 pm)

Once again Admiral and Alki get screwed. Still no full day/evening single bus option to/from downtown. I was hoping for restoration of all day service on at least one of either the 55 or 56.

squareeyes September 16, 2015 (7:58 pm)

Still no extension of the C line into SLU. Sigh.

WSB September 16, 2015 (8:28 pm)

Earlier this year, the city said that would be next year. We will follow up.
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https://westseattleblog.com/2015/02/when-will-rapidride-cd-split-and-other-metro-funding-followups/

Lez September 16, 2015 (9:37 pm)

SLU?

ricke September 16, 2015 (10:26 pm)

To lex

South Lake Union. Amazonville

Not Surprised September 17, 2015 (9:32 am)

I seem to recall that Metro was going to restore 55 service during non-peak hours. What happened? Commuting during those hours is a tedious and time-consuming process. Rapid Ride? Not so much.

anonyme September 17, 2015 (12:08 pm)

If you really want to expand route #21 to that extent, restore a partial loop through Arbor Heights. This would beat the heck out of stacking up more buses at Westwood Village, sitting idle while the driver is not on break. They could be providing useful service instead. Arbor Heights is a big area, and is getting busier with all the schools. A single, hourly shuttle during the daytime is insufficient.

Mickymse September 17, 2015 (3:51 pm)

Admiral and Alki do not have sufficient ridership demand to earn further funding in comparison to many other routes around the city.

AMD September 17, 2015 (7:08 pm)

I’m kind of reading between the lines of their comment here, but after their threat to cut the Local 21 last year it seems pretty clear the expansion is only because it’s leashed to the #5, which they have reason to expand.
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I’m trying not to be paranoid, but I feel like some day they’re going to separate the two routes so they can keep improving the #5’s service while finishing off the process of gutting the #21 that they started (and seem to want to finish).

West Seattle since 1979 September 17, 2015 (7:35 pm)

AMD, I think you might be reading too much into this. They were planning on cutting a lot of routes last year when the first proposition failed in April of 2014, not just West Seattle routes. And I ride the 21. It’s probably a route that doesn’t get as many riders as some others, though I’m sure that’ll change as we get more people.

MOVE! Seattle PLEASE! September 17, 2015 (8:14 pm)

“Route 21 daytime and evening service frequency will also improve to every 15 minutes on Sunday” per the above release from Metro.
Thought the 21 route was reduced due to low ridership…Metro is reversing itself. Has there really been a spike in riders on Sundays or does Metro just need to spend those extra tax dollars it is collecting so they can pester us for more money?

Matthew September 24, 2015 (8:54 am)

Once again, 120 riders are left SRO on every rush hour trip. Thanks Metro!

Tony September 26, 2015 (7:29 pm)

twobottles, there are late afternoon buses from Alki to downtown (56’s returning), We at Metro just don’t let anybody hop on board.

Also on Sundays when there is one bus every hour we at Metro make sure the 50 does not wait 5 seconds for the approaching C line with people might want to transfer, so they will have to wait an hour for the next bus,

At SODO bus way we drive down as far as possible so people who want to go downtown have to walk 570 feet to transfer to a bus stopped the furthest away possible that will not wait, ensuring a longer wait for Alki people.

All the above is not in the spirit to save money, as it would not cost anything to do it smarter and better. That’s why we at Metro don’t stand for that. We can only stand for bigger budgets to make us more important … that’s just simply how we work at Government.

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