In response to ongoing adverse weather conditions, King County Metro is canceling all trips on 20 bus routes starting with the Friday morning commute, due to fleet availability and in preparation for the coming winter storm.
The National Weather Service is forecasting heavy snow as early as Friday afternoon and continuing through the weekend. Metro is actively monitoring changing weather forecasts and road conditions across King County.
Some Metro bus routes are currently operating on snow routes due to existing conditions, and Metro continues to troubleshoot and repair its fleet from the previous weather event and prepare for what’s ahead.
Before you go
We encourage people to make alternate travel plans for Friday. If you must use Metro for your commute, please anticipate delays, cancelations and extremely cold weather.
Friday morning
Commuters Friday morning should confirm their trip is operating by accessing the Puget Sound Trip Planner app or website under “Next Departures.” Known routes where all trips are canceled include 9, 29, 37, 71, 78, 125, 200, 201, 204, 208, 224, 237, 243, 244, 268, 308, 309, 316, 330, ST 540. For routes that remain in service, text your stop ID to 62550 for departure times and individual trip cancelations.
Friday afternoon
At 2 p.m. on Friday, Metro plans to shift all buses to snow routes in preparation for worsening travel conditions expected to hit the region.
For afternoon service, riders should refer to MetroWinter.com to identify their route’s snow route plan and any alternate options.
Looking ahead
Riders will begin to see crews chaining buses in the field as early as 10 a.m. Friday with additional buses to be chained as they come through the bases in the afternoon. The fleet is expected to be fully chained by start of service Saturday morning.
On Friday afternoon, we will evaluate conditions and determine whether further significant service reductions are necessary in the coming days.
Visit MetroWinter.com for details about snow routing, tips for traveling in the winter and to sign up for alerts.
I’m unable to a list of canceled busses. I need the 187, 578,550. They should post all on page a list of canceled busses, a list of reduced busses, a list fully operational busses. All on one page so i don’t have to go trudging through confusing links that dont have the info I’m looking for!
Will the link light rail be affected this weekend? I need to get to work!!
I waited patiently for a 36 bus northbound from south beacon for over an hour starting at 2:20 pm and gave up when none arrived. Ii observed several southbound 36 buses in the same time period. No updates or anything alerting us to this disruption. Gave up and took a 36 bus to Othello. Unacceptable to have no buses running on this route for over an hour.
On Tuesday I needed to get to work downtown from Lake Forest Park. The roads were still very icy and snowy so I decided to be a good person that takes the bus on days such as these. Background info: I used to work work for King County for 8 years, in which time I had an ORCA card to get to and from my home to King Street Center. I had many issues with Metro whenever any amount of snow fell in the greater Seattle area. One time, it took me 3 hours to get from Ballard to Seattle and the same amount of time to return home. Yes, 6 hours to commute to downtown and I literally was told to turn around and leave after an hour of work. Anyways, I digress. Back to Tuesday. I decided to bus it in so I walked ~.75mi to my local 308 stop. Outside of the bus being on Snow Route and the website not stating as much, fortunately the 308 bus driver saw myself and another future rider waiting in the dark, in the cold (17 degrees). He was traveling in the opposite direction and stop as he was driving North instead of South. He told us that no bus was traveling down the road we were on and that he was the correct bus that would be going downtown. We got into the bus, confused but thankful he stopped for us.
After a very long day of working outdoors in the subfreezing elements for my job, I trudged from the waterfront up to 4th Ave and Madison to catch the return bus to the north-end. The 308 is a very limited service that only appears to run during the rush hours to assist the folks working downtown. Knowing as much, there were three runs that returned to the area where I caught the bus earlier in the morning. These times were around 4, 5, and 6pm. I got to the bus stop at 340pm, approximately 20-30min before the arrival of the first bus. I waited, patiently, for 30min, then 45min, then an hour. At this point, I knew that the first bus was obviously not running for whatever reason. By 450pm, I had to make a decision; wait another 15-20 min to see if the 510pm bus would ever come or risk being stuck downtown for another hour to see if the 6pm bus was running. Mind you, all of Seattle’s surface streets were bare and dry, with no precipitation at all. So, after asking multiple passing bus drivers if they knew if the 308 was running, all answered “Umm, yeah I think so”, I decided to take matters into my own hands and decided to catch a bus going north near the city I reside in. After seeing 10-12 route 522 and 312 buses heading to Bothell I found out that they both stop at the Lake Forest Park Town Center. Granted, this stop is a few miles away from my house, but at least I would be in my town and not stuck in downtown Seattle as the day turned to night and the temperatures continued to fall well below freezing. In the matte of 25min I found myself in Lake Forest Park, so close, yet so far away from my house. Fortunately, my father was home and he came and picked me up to give me a lift home so I wouldn’t have to walk a few miles, in the dark, on slick, icy, forested roadways.
Please answer me this one question: Why the HELL does Metro have buses running from areas that aren’t highly trafficked in the morning hours and not provide service back to these more remote areas in the evening hours? Did it ever cross your mind that if people took the bus to downtown in the morning, chances are that they’d need to return to the same area and the bus stop where they caught the same bus in the morning?? Obviously if this is a snow event mishap the least you could do in the future is kindly let folks know before they hop the bus in the morning that there will not be a bus that returns them to their starting location.
So, I realize people from Metro can’t be everywhere, but if a route gets cancelled is it possible to put signs or something at stops? I was able to get the message for the 208 on my phone, but I saw a dude waiting at one of the stops like 20 minutes after the bus normally arrives who didn’t know that the route was cancelled today.
At the time (like 10:50), it hadn’t snowed yet in Snoqualmie and the roads still seemed passable. Suggestion for the future, I guess?
C line bus never arrived. Is it cancelled or what? No updates on it. Just jumps back to an hour when it says arriving.
I had been waiting for the 181 bus to twin lakes since 9:20am it never came I stayed there to 10:50am never got any alert it wasn’t coming
The 76 bus hasn’t run all week. No information from metro about this. How hard is it to tell people when the bus isn’t running?
@artk thanks for your feedback, we’ll share it with our team. Our staff are trying to share out information as quickly as possible.
Odd that Metro can send msgs about one time cancellations via messaging, but when not running a route at all (like the 125 and 19 others), not one peep is said. Time to start cleaning house with your stafff, in the corporate world this media black eye would cost someone his/her job.
Amazing job Metro and drivers. You could not possibly be doing a better job. Thank you!
It would be helpful if you would publish which 56/57 buses WILL be running rather than which ones are not. That list is not accurate. The only bus that came yesterday was at 8:15, and it is too cold to just stand at a stop for an hour, wondering if a bus will arrive. Also, that bus was packed to the gills and had to pass by 3 crowded stops. There is also no explanation as to why this route (and others), which serves the largest neighborhood in the city, has been reduced to nearly nothing when roads are clear and traffic is light.
Could you tell us where this is…in the country?
Is there any way to publish both the snow route map along with the text description of the stops missed and the new stops? Either one alone is confusing, and the map and text together might make it a little easier to figure out where someone needs to go to catch their bus.
I’m subscribed to route 125 alerts and no alert was sent saying the route was cancelled. Also there is no advisory for 125 in the list on the website. Not nice.
It would be helpful if your regular trip planner that is supposed to give advisories gave them for snow route changes. It doesn’t warn people that it doesn’t.