New light-rail stations bring big changes to Seattle-area bus routes

When Sound Transit’s new S-Bahn stations open on Saturday, Bunnee Butterfield expects to cut their travel time by up to an hour.

She uses a car – either drives it herself or is driven by her husband, Bob – to get to doctor’s appointments at UW Medical Center-Roosevelt several times a week.

Soon she will ask her husband to drive her to Ash Way Park & ​​Ride about 15 minutes from her home in Edmonds. From there she takes a Sound Transit Express bus to Northgate, where she changes to the train to go to the new U District Station.

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“What appeals to me most – apart from the fact that I just don’t like driving – is that the new stations give me a lot more flexibility,” says Butterfield, 71. “A lot of my appointments are early in the morning and I-5 is easy terrible, so I have to leave pretty early to overcome the traffic. “

With the light rail line to Northgate opening this weekend, transportation companies are counting on people like Butterfield to adapt and use both buses and light rail to get where they need to go. The agencies are adding bus routes and relocating existing lines to serve the new light rail stations and avoid duplication.

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In total, King County Metro will cancel 18 bus routes and replace them with six new routes. Metro is also redesigning 27 routes to better serve offices in South Lake Union, hospitals in First Hill, and other medical facilities like Seattle Children’s Hospital along Sand Point Way.

Community Transit and Sound Transit will reroute some express buses from Snohomish County to Northgate Station instead of sneaking through the heavy traffic to the University of Washington or downtown. Most drivers traveling to these destinations switch to the light rail to complete their trips.

The new and changed routes start on Saturday. Under the Metro Transit changes, Route 26 through Green Lake, Wallingford, and downtown Seattle will be eliminated and replaced with a new Route 20 that ends at U District Station. Route 303 from Aurora Village will pass Northgate Station on its way along Interstate 5, but Route 304 ends at Northgate Station.

Route 312, which connects Bothell, Kenmore, Lake City, and downtown will be eliminated, but drivers can take the Sound Transit Express 522 bus and transfer to the light rail at Roosevelt Station. A new Route 320 will run directly from Kenmore to South Lake Union.

For Snohomish County drivers, Community Transit’s 800-series buses stop at Northgate instead of dragging through traffic to the UW. Snohomish County’s Sound Transit Express lines 511, 512 and 513 also terminate at Northgate Station. Community Transit’s 400 series buses and Sound Transit’s 510 bus will continue on Interstate 5 into the city center.

Metro’s changes prioritize connections between the northeast and northwest of Seattle and provide more convenient transfers between buses and trains, said David VanderZee, a transit planner for the agency.

But Carol Ravano, who drives Route 74 from the Ravenna / Bryant neighborhood on her downtown job, is concerned about the extra time the transfer adds to her commute.

“It’s just annoying. You can’t just sit there and read your book. You have to get up and get out, ”she said. “Every escalator in every S-Bahn station doesn’t work at some point. It’s these additional little annoyance factors. “

Metro will try to address these concerns with maps at each stop showing the bus routes that serve the stations, “so people know exactly where to take their bus,” VanderZee said. Signs in and around the stations provide updated entry points and arrival times.

“We recognize that there is an adjustment phase for people who may have taken a single seat ride but now may need to take a two seat ride, be it from one bus to the light rail or possibly two buses or whatever that combination could be how to look for them, ”he said.

Metro is also adding buses to some routes to reduce waiting times, VanderZee said.

At Northgate Station, the buses will drop passengers directly under the platform. Signals on First Avenue Northeast are also designed to prioritize buses.

The U District Station will see some of the most dramatic changes in transit.

Several buses, including lines 31 and 32, will stop along Northeast 45th Street next to the station instead of going through the southern portion of the UW campus. Metro advises passengers using these buses to use routes 45, 75 and 372 along Stevens Way Northeast instead.

The Seattle Department of Transportation is building a bus-only lane for buses traveling west on Northeast 43rd Street between 15th Avenue Northeast and University Way, also known as Ave, to give passengers direct access to the south entrance of U District Station enable. During the construction work, the crews discovered additional underground supply lines that will delay this bus connection until mid-November, weeks after the opening of the light rail.

The city is also changing portions of Northeast 45th Street to provide faster service for Route 44, which runs between Ballard, Fremont and Wallingford towards the U District. SDOT is building an eastbound bus lane on 45th Street between Roosevelt Way Northeast and 15th Avenue Northeast and a southbound along 15th Avenue Northeast between Northeast 45th Street and Northeast 40th Street to relieve the buses there.

Not everyone is happy with the changes to the bus route.

Dan Holm, 33, lives in Eastmont, southeast of Everett, and took the 513 Sound Transit Express Bus to work. Unhappy with changes that add new stops at Lynnwood and Ash Way, he expects him to board a train to Westlake Station in Northgate instead of the bus stop on Stewart Street and Ninth Avenue. So he plans to drive into South Lake Union and pay for parking.

“It would take me a lot of time to get to work if I was using public transport so I’m really frustrated,” he said. “You’re trying to use this one-size-fits-all solution that everyone should take on the light rail, but if you don’t work in the heart of downtown you’re kind of left out of this plan.”

Sound Transit spokeswoman Rachelle Cunningham admitted that travel times will increase for 513 passengers boarding Everett, but added that the frequency of the service will also increase as there is a bus for passengers every eight minutes departs downtown Seattle.

“The increase in frequency may mean they won’t have to wait as long for a bus, and getting on the Northgate light rail will often be faster and more reliable than taking the bus on I-5 between Northgate and downtown,” she says said by email.

Bus routes will change again when Sound Transit extends the light rail to Lynnwood, which is slated for 2024.

Tim Ellis, who drives the Sound Transit 510 bus from Everett to downtown Seattle, said he would be helping end its bus route in Lynnwood, where the station will have its own bus exit lane. However, the Northgate exit lacks bus ramps or bus-only lanes, which may slow down travel between Interstate 5 and Northgate Station.

For now, transport companies say they will monitor the changes and adjust them if necessary.

The fall metro change will also restore some routes and rides that were suspended during the coronavirus pandemic.

As part of Metro’s COVID-19 recovery plan, 48 bus routes are being restored or serviced more frequently, such as lines 60, 255, 271 and the RapidRide C line. Eighteen bus routes remain suspended. In addition, 20 routes will experience less frequent journeys as Seattle funding is cut for more buses.