Route 50 riders, rejoice! The Lander Street Bridge, built by the Seattle Department of Transportation, opened Oct. 7, 2020 after a two-year closure of South Lander Street. This opening puts an end to lengthy train delays, increases safety, and enhances growth potential in the SODO area. It also means that Metro’s Route 50 will resume its original pathway, providing riders with a streamlined pathway and more reliable travel times to SODO Station.
Since South Lander Street closed in 2018, Route 50 has traveled from First Avenue South up to South Holgate Street and crossed the railroad tracks, which at times affected reliability, then doubled back on the SODO Busway to SODO Station – nearly a mile out of the way in each direction.
Now, Route 50 will travel up First Avenue South and turn right onto South Lander Street before arriving at SODO Station at the Busway on South Lander Street and avoid needing to cross the railroad tracks.
Meanwhile, Metro heard from riders that maintaining frequent, all-day access to First Avenue South was important. Instead of reverting back to its original pathway, Route 21 will remain on First Avenue South to cover destinations north of South Lander Street to Edgar Martinez Drive South. This segment of First Avenue South was not previously served.
You can view the previous routing compared with new routing here (click the map for larger PDF version):
NEW ROUTE MAP (The “After”)
For comparison, the previous map is here.