Without legislative action, nearly all CD bus routes face serious cuts

Screen shot 2013-04-01 at 10.09.15 AMIf the state legislature does not take action to help King County Metro avoid a massive budget shortfall on the horizon, several Central District bus routes could face revisions, reductions and complete cuts, Metro said Monday.

Among those on the chopping block for full deletion: The 27, 211EX and 84 (night owl). Essentially every major route in the CD could face changes and reductions in service, including the 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, and 43. The 48 might be at least partially slit into two routes (north and south of UW), and the north segment would experience cuts.

Officials said Monday that funding shortfalls could mean Metro faces up to 65 routes eliminated and up to 86 routes potentially reduced and revised — about 40% of the system.

The release of the threatened cutbacks comes as legislators in Olympia consider a statewide transportation funding package.

Here’s a list of routes on the chopping block, from Metro:

Metro’s report details the performance of the transit system’s 217 routes and shows at-risk routes.

Routes at risk for deletion (65 routes): 7EX, 19, 21EX, 22, 25, 27, 30, 37, 48NEX, 57, 61, 76, 77EX, 82, 83, 84, 99, 110, 113, 114, 118EX, 119, 119EX, 123EX, 139, 152, 154, 157, 159, 161, 173, 179, 190, 192, 197, 200, 201, 203, 205EX, 210, 211EX, 213, 215, 216, 237, 243, 244EX, 250, 257, 260, 265, 268, 277, 280, 304, 308, 601EX, 907DART, 910DART, 913DART, 914DART, 919DART, 927DART, 930DART and 935DART.

Routes at risk for reductions and revisions (86 routes): 1, 2S, 2N, 3S, 3N, 4S, 4N, 5, 5EX, 7, 8, 9EX, 10, 11, 12, 14S, 16, 21, 24, 26, 26EX, 28, 28EX, 29, 31, 36, 41, 43, 47, 48N, 60, 65, 66EX, 67, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 106, 107, 116EX, 118, 121, 122, 125, 148, 156, 177, 181, 182, 186, 187, 193EX, 202, 204, 209, 214, 221, 224, 226, 232, 234,  235, 236, 238, 241, 245, 246, 248, 249, 255, 269, 271, 309EX, 311, 312EX, 331, 355EX, 372EX, 373EX, 901DART, 903DART, 908DART, 909DART and 931DART.

Routes potentially unchanged (66 routes): 13, 15EX, 17EX, 18EX, 32, 33**, 40, 44, 48S, 49, 50, 55**, 56**, 62, 64EX, 74EX, 75, 101, 102, 105, 111, 120, 124, 128, 131**, 132**, 140, 143EX, 150, 153, 155, 158, 164, 166, 167, 168, 169, 178, 180, 183, 212, 217, 218, 240, 242, 252, 301, 303EX, 306EX, 316, 330, 342, 345, 346, 347, 348, 358EX, A Line, B Line, C Line, D Line, 773, 775, 915DART, 916DART, 917DART (** Routes not reduced because we expect productivity to be above the bottom 25 percent threshold due to changes since spring 2012)

This list of routes shows the potential for cuts and revisions, however considerable additional analysis would follow during the coming year. As work continues, the public will receive additional information and opportunities to give input, both online and in face-to-face forums starting this fall.

Below, we’ve embedded Metro’s annual report to be presented to the King County Council Monday afternoon for an in-depth look at the transit service, the opportunities it provides and the challenges it faces. We’ve also embedded the Central and Southeast Seattle service cuts.

Central Se Seattle s King County

King County Metro Transit 2012

18 thoughts on “Without legislative action, nearly all CD bus routes face serious cuts

  1. I would like to support Metro in getting the funding restored. But, first I want to make sure that they are doing a correct analysis and not is some underhanded way threatened to do major restructures as an excuse to redistribute resources.
    http://metro.kingcounty.gov/planning/pdf/2011-21/2012/MetroTransit_2012_Service_Guidelines_Report_032813.pdf
    I would like
    P. A-6 of the appendix has mixed up the 2n and 2s and 3n and 3s. I have emailed Metro to find out what is what and if the error was carried forth to all the stats. Either way there is one place during peak and night that the #2 should be affected. In other categories it does well.

    • Thanks, Joanna, for your detailed knowledge of this subject and for following through to Metro with questions.

  2. This is much like a story we read when I was a kid…the boy who cried wolf. Metro is losing credibility by not being able to manage their cashflow, can’t keep blaming things on ‘the economy’, which is strong in this area. Wasn’t closing the ride free area supposed to rescue them a few months ago?

    • No, ending the free ride area was never meant to be a cure-all. The last funding patch they got was only authorized for two years. $20 per year on drivers for their car tab renewals, earmarked to Metro. That disappears next year. I.E., the money is gone. You can’t blame that on cash flow problems. Metro is trying to warn that when that funding disappears, it needs to be replaced with something. You can’t expect them to maintain existing service levels when this two-year levy is gone. Something has to take its place, or something has to go.

  3. This is good news. Fewer of these hideous beasts on our streets will leave room for entrepreneurs to get some private busses on the streets. Metro has it all wrong and they stifle common sense.

  4. One last comment is that also if you look at the P. A-6 of the report the 2s is in the top 25% of one measure, the number of riders per hour during peak hour, and is in the bottom during peak hour in passenger miles traveled by .1 of a point. By Metro’s own definition it could have received a B instead of a D during Peak hours. It is performing well and to expectations in off-peak and night time rides. Route 11 is in an even more extreme situation. It has the same pattern to a greater extreme than the 2 during peak hours and the pattern repeats during off-peak and night times. It could have received Bs where it received Ds.

  5. Once again Metro is trying to weasel a few more bucks form the taxpayers to cover their incompetence. They just bought an entire fleet of new busses (Completely crappy busses that are already catching on fire and breaking down consistently), but now they have to cut most of the major routes?

    They should NOT have bought new busses, they did not need them, instead they should have put money into improving service and maiing more people want to ride the bus. Metro leadership is incompetent, and should be replaced.

    I have now logged over 20 miles on foot due to Metro screwing me over by out of date schedules, their tools on the website giving me completely wrong information, and by mysterious bus vanishings that anyone who has ridden metro for more than a year can attest to.

    I rely on public transportation as I do not want to drive nor do I want to own a car. But if this is the way its going to go, then I say disband metro entirely, sell all the busses, and give the money back to the community for road repair and such. Good riddance to bad rubbish I say.

  6. How is all this high density housing supposed to work without good public transportation?

    • Well, we could always go back to the idea of clearing out a chunk of the Arboretum and homes along MLK to build a freeway there. Then maybe instead of constructing a building with housing and commercial space, you could just build a nice, big parking garage!

      • The RH Thompson zombie rises! The old school sdot/wsdot engineers and that fat jackass from Leschi would love it to come back!

  7. Cut cut cut. The buses suck. 11% of King County uses them but they take 68% of the transportation budget.

  8. Pin Cushion, we all pay for roads. How many more roads can we build without taking out the city. Mass transit is a necessity. If you drive the transit riders are doing you a favor by not clogging up your street and making your air quality better. There are states who are working on ways to determine a vehicles road use and charge them accordingly. Taxpayers are subsidizing your drive. The gas tax has been one means of attempting to recoup the cost of roads. However, it does not necessarily reflect road use. We all need roads but do not underestimate the value of mass transit.

  9. What’s the alternative? A state income tax? Making the rich pay their fare share? Wow, they might feel the least bit uncomfortable just having to think about it. Don’t know if I could live with myself. Best just to let the poor and middle class pay for everything through the unprecedented sales tax. We have the most regressive tax code of all the states in the entire union. Do we really want to give up being #1?

  10. At an open house during the last attempt to cut service on the #2 Route, I talked to one of the head planners and found out that he didn’t even use transit as he lived in Maple Valley so he could have horses. As someone who spent twenty years as a service dispatcher, I can tell you that these planners are seriously out of touch and overpaid.