Metro to restore or revise several bus routes in Seattle this fall

Meghan Walker Ballard

This October, King County Metro will be revising and restoring a number of bus routes in Seattle.

The change will come Oct. 2, with Metro transit’s service returning to nearly 95 percent of pre-pandemic levels. In all, they’re adding back 200,000 transit hours.

Many Ballard routes will see some changes, including revisions of Routes 40, 44, and 45. Metro plans to partially restore Routes 17 and 18 between Downtown Seattle and North Beach and Loyal Heights.

Here are the routes in Ballard with upcoming revisions:

  • Route 40: Route 40 will begin all southbound trips at the new Northgate Station, and end all northbound trips at the new Northgate Station. The route is otherwise unchanged.
  • Route 44: A majority of this route remains unchanged, but the Westbound route will utilize a new stop along NE 43rd St at Brooklyn Ave NE to allow connection to the U District Station and Link Light Rail.
  • Route 45: Route remains mostly unchanged but now through-routes with the revised Route 75 to connect through UW Campus and has been revised to directly serve the Roosevelt Station along NE 65th Street.

The new and restored routes serving areas around Ballard will include Routes 16, 17, 18, 20.

  • Route 16: This route replaces Route 5X, operating peak-only service between Downtown Seattle and N 145th St via Greenwood Ave N. Adds trips at select stops along with Route 5 Local in peak direction to create more frequency in the peak direction.*
  • Routes 17 & 18: Partially restored routes between Downtown Seattle and Loyal Heights (17X) and North Beach (18X). See proposed times below.
  • Route 20: Creates a new all-day connection between Lake City, Northgate, Green Lake, the University District, U District Station, and UW Medical Center. Provides an alternate route for removed routes 26 and 75.

In other Metro and transit news, the Montlake Bridge will be closed for most of August while state crews replace the grid deck on the 96-year-old bridge and work on the span’s expansion joints. Bikes and pedestrians will still be able to cross the bridge, but it will be closed to traffic during repairs. The closure is planned to start Monday, Aug. 9 and should reopen by Sept. 3.

During the closure, Metro will be rerouting Routes 43 and 48, which travel north through the Montlake neighborhood before crossing the bridge. Here are the planned reroutes, from Metro:

  • Route 48 will take the alternate route it uses during the opening of the Montlake Bridge for the start of boating season, traveling along East Boyer and Furman onto Eastlake and then on the University Bridge onto Campus Parkway.
  • Route 43 will turn onto Broadway from East John Street and travel along Broadway onto Eastlake and then onto Campus Parkway.

All Metro and Sound Transit routes that typically exit SR 520 and cross Montlake Bridge will instead continue across Portage Bay and exit onto East Roanoke Street, taking surface streets into the U-District.

For more info, visit this website about the closure.

*The 16 will replace Route 5X, not Route 5, as Metro previously stated.