from District 1 Seattle City Councilmember Lisa Herbold

As part of King County Metro’s biannual service updates, Bus Routes 120 and 50 will be getting additional service starting March 23rd.  Funding is provided by the Seattle Transportation Benefit District approved by Seattle voters; it runs through end of 2020.

Route 120 will now have 10- to 12-minute service all day and improved Sunday service to 15 minutes, including 28 new weekday trips and 43 more trips on Sundays. Here’s the timetable for service beginning March 23rd.  This is part of a ramp-up to converting the 120 to the Rapid Ride H Line. King County Metro and SDOT are collaborating on this project. The Seattle portion includes the Delridge Multimodal Corridor project, presented at the Sustainabilty & Transportation Committee earlier this week.  At the Full Council meeting on Monday I’ll be proposing an amendment to the Delridge Multimodal Corridor funding bill to ensure that SDOT continues to incorporate community recommendations.

The City Council voted last year to change SDOT funding criteria to allow forexpanding service to Route 120, which is one of the 10 busiest routes in the Metro system.

Route 50 will have additional midday trips; here’s the timetable for service beginning March 23rd. My office analyzed SDOT and City plans last year and found that the Admiral Urban Village didn’t meet the standards for Urban Villages, and that it was an area listed as a priority for an upgrade in the City’s Frequent Transit Network.

A few months ago, I requested that SDOT consider a bus lane on 1st Avenue, where buses that used to use the Alaskan Way Viaduct now travel coming into Downtown. SDOT studied this but found that the curb-side lanes were not strong enough to handle buses or large trucks (buses have 2,500 to 8,000 times the impact on pavement of a car). So, buses are using the inside lanes.

I’ve asked SDOT about considering adding a stop in Pioneer Square for these buses, rather than a first stop Downtown at 3rd and Seneca. They are studying this, along with Metro; the issue is the strength of streets on 1st Avenue adjacent to curbs. They hope to have an answer by March 23rd.

Other changes are coming on March 23rd. The last 7 bus routes that use the Downtown Transit Tunnel will leave the tunnel, and run on 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. The buses leaving the tunnel are the 41, 74, 101, 102, 150, 255 and ST 550; you can see which Downtown streets they will be using here.

This is to prepare the tunnel for light rail expansion to Northgate in 2021 (and Bellevue in 2023, and Lynnwood, Federal Way and Redmond in 2024).

Other changes starting March 23rd to adapt to the buses leaving the tunnel include all-door boarding and off-board fare payment at all bus stops Downtown on 3rd Avenue (as for the C Line currently); new transit corridors will be on 5thand 6th, and signal improvements on 2nd and 4th.

For the last few years, SDOT, KC Metro, Sound Transit and the Downtown Seattle association have collaborated on the One Center City program goal of moving people safely and efficiently through Center City, and Seattle, KC and ST have invested $30 million to help make this happen.

Metro’s Service Change website has additional information on service changes.

During the Convention Center debate, I voted in support of an amendment to delay buses coming out of the tunnel onto city streets until September, but it failed by a 5-4 vote. During the council discussions, SDOT estimated they would be able to minimize delays through the changes noted above.

Council required quarterly reporting from SDOT on a downtown-related projects; here’s a link to King County Metro’s announcement.