To help riders, improve reliability and speed up service by 10 minutes or more when traffic is congested on Stewart Street, Metro is moving inbound Route 41 trips to Downtown Seattle to travel instead on Union Street starting Saturday, July 27. This revision will be in effect at all times, seven days per week.
The change is intended to let Metro riders avoid significant morning congestion on the Stewart Street I-5 off-ramp and surface street and will assist an estimated 2,100+ morning riders by shortening their trip by 5-10 minutes on average. Riders also will benefit from faster service any time Stewart is congested.
It means inbound Route 41 will no longer serve two stops (Seventh & Stewart and Third & Pine) and will instead serve two new stops (under the Convention Center when the southbound I-5 Express Lanes are open and on Union between Fifth and Sixth Avenues at all times). About 500 riders currently use first two stops daily and will likely exit instead at the two new stop locations.
Metro is making the change after fielding concerns from customers and bus drivers about longer travel times – sometimes making for a very long trip just to reach the first downtown bus stop. Route 41 shifted from the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel to surface streets in March. Analysis shows that median travel times stretched 10-15 minutes longer in the morning peak than during other times of day. The delays are caused by I-5 ramp and downtown street congestion.
By moving Route 41 to Union Street, buses will avoid the worst of the inbound delays.
Metro’s planning and service quality teams surveyed riders and bus drivers and showed them the benefits and tradeoffs of the Union Street routing. A large majority (79 percent of riders surveyed and 94 percent of Route 41 bus drivers) supported having the faster travel times and better reliability with having to potentially travel farther between the new bus stops and their destination.
Online information sources, including Metro’s trip planner, One Bus Away, and others will reflect the new routing beginning July 27. Transit alert details also are posted.
Alternative transit options for those affected – For those traveling between north downtown and Northgate, customers may use the Route 63X to access north downtown and South Lake Union via stops on Fairview (at Denny, Harrison, and Mercer). Customers that currently board Route 41 at the Stewart Street and 7th Avenue stop may use Route 70 to make that connection.
We appreciate the patience of riders and will continue to listen to customer concerns about transit service and monitor performance.
Eh for someone who has mobility issues this stinks as the old route serviced South Lake Union which has very few serviceable stops and now you have reduced it even more. When will you put some more stops in that area which has steep inclines etc. to help your customers with mobility issues.
I can understand the positive feedback from commuters, but not everyone is as jazzed about this change. I also understand that my sole opinion is not the be all and end all, but I want to voice it just the same: I am physically disabled and now I must walk 4 blocks home, toting 40 lbs. of groceries, instead of 2 blocks. Again – not everyone is jazzed about this change. Ok, end of pout, I feel better 😊
Thank you for route change. You have no idea how happy this has made me. When we were still taking Stewart St it would really drain my energy being stuck in that stretch of the road beginning from the exit. So I would feel super stressed and drained early in the am before even reaching to work. You mentioned saving riders 10-15 mins, but really the delayed was up to 40mins for me on tuesdays especially.
is it the same for northbound out of the city? whats the last stop in seattle? thanks
Outbound (aka northbound) is on the same pathway as it is today, here’s the map and info about Route 41. Looks like 5th/Olive northbound is the last northbound stop downtown. https://kingcounty.gov/depts/transportation/metro/schedules-maps/041.aspx
Thanks for the change and this has been long waited for!
Glad to hear this, thank you Metro!
Will the 41 still take the express lanes?
Route 41 will still use the Express lanes when they are available, so inbound in the morning, with an inbound stop under the Convention Center.
This is bs it will literally make me have to catch an even earlier bus so i can now walk the extra 10 blocks to my office this adds. This will not make anything faster except your wait times. Let me guess next your just gonna cancel the whole route. It will still tak an hour to get to get 125th.
Very sorry this will make traveling less convenient. Hopefully the distance isn’t as far as 10 blocks, the map shows the new stop locations about 4 blocks from previous stop locations. The slog through traffic really made bus service unreliable and we hope this change helps more than it hurts.
Will there be rerouting of buses heading south out of downtown (eg: C line, other buses traveling south on 1st)? Right now it is a complete cluster… :/
We know traffic is especially rough heading out on First Ave, and until we shift onto Alaskan Way when that work is done, we don’t have a lot of solutions to make things go better. The path through SODO only worked during the AWV closure because we had police at two intersections and a dearth of traffic for three weeks. Plus we now have more buses on 4th since we cane out of the tunnel. We haven’t given up and know customers and our service is less reliable as it is stuck in traffic, especially on game days.
I hope something will happen about the congestion heading out of downtown (eg: C line, and other buses on 1st) right now it is a complete cluster.. :/
Now how about an outbound stop East of 6th? 9th? Yale? Since no one enforces “bus only” lanes…
we can send that idea to planners. Thanks!
Any chance you guys gonna do the same thing to route 308?
We can send that idea along to planners. Thanks!