Second round of Metro service reductions detailed in proposal to County Council

September 2, 2014

Summary

The February service proposal was rebalanced to distribute reductions geographically within each stand-alone service change, rather than spread them over four service changes. As a result, proposed service changes are revised for some areas of Seattle, South King County, and East King County.

Story

Acting upon the recommendations of an Ad-Hoc Committee that included three members of the County Council, King County Executive Dow Constantine today sent the Council a proposal for February service changes that would reduce 169,000 hours of Metro Transit service.

"With the Council we worked hard to deliver bus service within the revenues available, and without spending money Metro does not have," said Executive Constantine. "More service reductions are ahead, as we await long-overdue action by the Legislature on a statewide transportation package that can restore sustainable funding for transit."

As recommended Aug. 28 by the Ad-Hoc Committee of County Councilmembers Joe McDermott, Jane Hague, Rod Dembowski, and the Executive, the February service reduction would eliminate 16 bus routes and revise or reduce 32 others.

The Council this summer already approved a first round of 151,000 hours of service reductions to take effect Sept. 27. Taken together, the two rounds would cut 320,000 of the transit agency's 3.5 million annual service hours. Additional service reductions will be examined as part of King County's upcoming biennial budget process.

At the direction of the Council and Ad-Hoc Committee, the February service proposal was rebalanced to distribute reductions geographically within each stand-alone service change, rather than spread them over four service changes. As a result, proposed service changes are revised for some areas of Seattle, South King County, and East King County. Future reductions and revisions will be considered as part of the upcoming biennial budget process.

While the proposed reductions will have broad public impacts, Metro’s analysis indicates they should not fall disproportionately on low-income communities or communities of color.

Metro Transit currently provides about 3.5 million hours of transit service across King County, carrying approximately 400,000 rides each weekday on 214 routes.

If the proposal is adopted by the Council, and if the Seattle transit initiative is approved by voters in November, the February service cuts would be postponed until June 2015 to provide time for Seattle and any other party to submit Community Service Contracts to preserve service. Seattle and others could also contract to restore services slated to be cut Sept. 27.

February 2015 service changes

• 16 routes deleted: 4, 22, 25, 26, 28, 30, 31, 158, 159, 178, 179, 187, 190, 192, 242, and DART 930.
• 32 routes revised or reduced: 1, 2, 3, 8, 9X, 12, 13, 14, 16, 21, 24, 26X, 27, 28X, 29, 32, 33, 60, 65, 106, 107, 116X, 121, 125, 157, 168, 177, 181, 193X, 197, 271 and DART 901.

After the Feb. 2015 service change, more than 40 percent of Metro's current routes would have been changed in some way with 47 total routes eliminated and 43 total routes reduced or revised.

Learn more about the proposed Metro Transit Feb. 2015 service change.