Untangling major bus route changes (with corrections)

An updated map from Metro shows bus routes starting September 14

By Oliver Moffat

Metro Transit, Community Transit and Sound Transit are making big changes to bus service in the Shoreline and North King County region starting September 14, 2024. County Councilmember Rod Dembowski sponsored the Metro changes.

A previous article reporting major bus changes coming September 14 missed details that transit riders should be aware of (the author regrets the errors but does not regret the time spent away from his computer).

Specifically, Metro won’t be deleting Route 372 and adding Route 72 until next year; not this week as implied in the previous article. Metro has also decided to not add Route 324. 

The previous article also incorrectly called Route 331 a “new” route when it is in fact an existing route that will get increased early morning and late night service.

Here are summaries of bus changes coming soon to the Shoreline and North King County region.

Starting Saturday, September 14, King County Metro says they will add 3,700 bus trips per week across its entire service area - increasing weekday bus trips by nearly 5% to 11,235 daily trips and increasing weekend trips by 8% to 8,241 on Saturdays and 7,649 on Sundays.

Metro is deleting Route 302 from Richmond Beach but Route 303 will now make a stop in South Lake Union and have one additional trip in the morning.

Metro will delete the 320 from Kenmore but Route 322 will now stop at Northgate and add stops in South Lake Union.

The new route 333 will (finally) provide east/west service along NE 175th St and connect Montlake Terrace station to Shoreline South station.

The new route 365 will run north/south along 5th Ave NE connecting the North City and Ridgecrest light rail stations.

Metro is expanding its Metro Flex on-demand service to parts of Brier, Kenmore, Lake Forest Park, Mountlake Terrace, and Shoreline starting Monday, September 16.

Route 331 from Kenmore to Shoreline Community College will now turn north off of Ballinger Way to connect to the Montlake Terrace station - eliminating stops between 15th Ave NE and 19th Ave NE.

Route 345 will no longer connect to Shoreline Community College and will instead connect to the Shoreline South station.

East/west Route 330 will also be deleted, removing another connection to the campus. But new route 333 and existing Route 5 and Route 331 will continue to serve the college.

Route 346 won’t go south to Northgate and will instead run north/south along Meridian connecting the Aurora Village Transit Center with the Shoreline South station.

 
Route 348 will have increased frequency and will run along 180th instead of 175th in North City with a connection at the Shoreline North station.

Metro says the RapidRide E Line will have more trips, restoring service on Aurora to 2022 levels.

Routes 73, 301, 304, 330 and 347 will be deleted by Metro.

A map from Community Transit’s website shows the new express route 909 to Edmonds and the Blue Line extension to the Shoreline North station

Snohomish County’s Community Transit is also making big service changes on Monday, September 14.

The Swift Blue from Shoreline to Everett will add a stop at the Shoreline North station in addition to Aurora Village.

Route 130 will connect downtown Edmonds to Aurora Village and the Montlake Terrace and Lynnwood stations. The new Express Route 909 will connect Edmonds to the Mountlake Terrace Station - improving car-free access to the Edmonds waterfront, train station and Kingston Ferry.

Route 106 will run through downtown Bothell before stopping at UW Bothell/Cascadia College and Route 120 will extend south to serve the college campus after passing through downtown. New Route 121 will also connect to the campus.

 
New routes will connect riders to the Lynnwood station: Route 901 to Mill Creek, Route 903 to Lake Stevens, Route 904 to Marysville, Route 905 to Stanwood, Route 907 to Arlington and Route 103 will connect to Mukilteo and Everett.

New route 117 will connect the Mukilteo Ferry to the Lynnwood station, opening a car-free trip to Whidbey Island.

Community Transit will delete routes 105, 107, 113, 227, 247, 402, 405, 410, 412, 413, 415, 416, 417, 421, 422, 425, 435, 810, 821, 860, 871, 880.

A map from Sound Transit’s website shows bus routes that will change on September 14

Sound Transit is also making bus route changes.

To mitigate overcrowding on the 1 Line, Sound Transit is adding temporary Downtown Express 515 to give riders a train-free connection from Lynnwood and Seattle. And Route 512 and Route 513 to Everett will now connect to the Lynnwood station instead of Northgate.

 
Everett Transit made only minor service changes on Sunday, September 8.

 
Metro plans a later phase of changes once the East Link Extension tracks on the I-90 bridge are fixed and the 2 Line (hopefully) connects Redmond to Lynnwood in 2025.

In this later phase, Metro plans to re-route the 522 BRT Express from Bothell and Woodinville to connect to the Shoreline South station instead of the Roosevelt station.

Metro plans to delete the 372 possibly in 2025 or 2026, forcing UW staff, faculty and students commuting between the Bothell and Seattle campuses to make a transfer. In its place, Metro would add Route 72 from the Shoreline South station to the UW Seattle campus and would extend Route 331 to connect to the UW Bothell / Cascadia College campus instead of terminating in Kenmore.

Metro’s website has details about all route changes and is available in English, 简体中文 (Simplified Chinese), Русский (Russian), Español (Spanish) and Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese).

 
Metro’s Trip Planner allows riders to set the date of their trip and riders can call Metro’s Customer Information at 206-553-3000 for more help.

The Metro changes were sponsored by King County Councilmember Rod Dembowski and voted on and approved by the King County Council in March. According to Metro, the community-based Lynnwood Link Mobility Board provided input into the changes.

 

Councilmember Dembowski said, “This enhanced system brings new options for transit riders in north King County. We’ve added more east-west routes and additional connections to our new light rail service.

"I am especially excited about the new Metro Flex service I was able to secure for neighborhoods in Lake Forest Park and Kenmore that will provide residents door-to-door, on-demand service.”