The Metro service cuts that were approved by Council this summer are set to be followed up by another round of cuts in February next year. Acting upon the recommendations of an Ad-Hoc Committee, King County Executive Dow Constantine sent the Council a proposal for February service changes last week that is set to 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.”
On August 28, the Ad-Hoc Committee of County Councilmembers Joe McDermott, Jane Hague, Rod Dembowski, and the Executive, put forward their recommendations which would eliminate 16 bus routes and revise or reduce 32 others.
The Metro cuts already approved this summer, which are set to take effect on September 27, will spell the end for our local Route 61 (which runs daily between Ballard and North Beach through Sunset Hill and Loyal Heights) and Route 62 (which connects Downtown Seattle to Ballard via South Lake Union, Seattle Pacific University, and Interbay).
In terms of the proposed February cuts, our neighborhood would be set to loose Route 28 (which connects Broadview, Whittier Heights, Ballard, Wallingford and Fremont to Downtown). Routes 26X and 28X would also be revised or reduced. See below for the full list of cuts and reductions:
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.
While Metro acknowledges the broad public impacts that these proposed cuts would have, analysts indicate that the cuts 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 and carries approximately 400,000 riders each weekday on 214 routes.
If February’s proposed cuts are adopted by the Council, and if the Seattle transit initiative is approved by voters in November, the service cuts would be postponed until June 2015 to allow time for Seattle and any other party to submit Community Service Contracts to preserve service.
If the February 2015 service changes are made, 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.
Click here to learn more about the proposed Metro Transit February 2015 service changes.
Why is it that so many people use “loose” when they should use “lose”????
No cuts to the high pay and benefits of Metro employees?
“should not fall disproportionately on low-income communities or communities of color.”
Translated: drive whitey.
And yet our elected City Council still continues to allow developers to skip the building requirements for off-street parking if they’ve got even one bus line to somewhere remaining within 1/4 mile. Logically, the minimum off-street parking requirements should be phased back in as transit capacity is reduced.