Transit Now: Delivering on the promise
By the end of 2008, Metro will have delivered 110,000 new hours of transit service under Transit Now. In 2006, King County Executive Ron Sims asked voters to approve Transit Now, an initiative to expand transit service with funds from a 0.1-percent sales-tax increase. The measure passed, and Metro Transit delivered the first service additions just three months later—and has been steadily expanding service ever since. Metro has added more than 52,000 hours of service in half of the county’s most heavily used corridors, allowing buses to come more often or keep running longer into the day or evening. Buses are serving growing residential areas that had no bus service a year ago. And Metro has entered into innovative partnerships with 17 cities and businesses to create four new routes, add trips on 26 routes, and make improvements to roadways in two major corridors—one in West Seattle and another on the Eastside—that will improve bus speed and reliability. Metro is also adding new buses to its fleet and replacing aging buses. Twenty-two new hybrid-electric coaches with the latest systems for comfort and safety were delivered in June 2008, and more are coming. Some of these will join Metro’s regular fleet, while others will be painted in the distinctive red and yellow that have been chosen to mark RapidRide, the Transit Now-funded bus rapid transit service that Metro will launch on five busy corridors beginning in 2010. To top Transit Now has also supported enhancements to Metro’s rideshare and Access-van services. Service hours—Metro counts service by the number of hours it takes to operate each route for the year, both carrying passengers and getting to and from a base. If one additional hour of service per day is added to a route that operates seven days a week, the addition is counted as 365 new annual service hours. Learn morePlease follow the links above to learn more about Transit Now. If you have questions or comments about Transit Now, please call the Metro Transit message line at 206-684-1146. To top
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