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King County Metro’s all-day, frequent, regional network continues to welcome more riders to transit. After restoring 36 routes in October 2021, Metro will make further improvements starting March 19, 2022.

Riders will see more City of Seattle-funded bus trips added to Metro’s frequent transit network, as well as better access to hospitals on First Hill, improved connections to schools, and more night service in southeast and central Seattle.

Metro has launched its March 2022 service change web page to help riders plan their future trips. The page also is available in Español (Spanish) and 中文 (Chinese). Schedule updates are expected to be available on Metro’s Trip Planner within the coming week.

Ridership continues to inch up as the region recovers and Metro is charting a path forward to support growing transit demand. The twice-a-year service change scheduled for March 19 will maintain recent trip levels with some minor adjustments.

March service change highlights

  • Routes with schedule changes: 5, 7, 12, 14, 20, 21, 48, 49, 50, 60, 106, 107, 124, 128, 269, 302, 303, 345, 346, 635 and South Lake Union Streetcar.
  • Routes with added service as part of Seattle’s Frequent Transit Network, funded through the Seattle Transit Measure: 5, 12, 14, 20, 21, 60, 106, 124, 345 and 346.
  • Routes with added or adjusted trips to support demand at public school bell times: 48, 50, 107, 128 and 269.
  • UPDATE: Route 125 will resume Saturday service beginning March 19. is temporarily suspended on Saturdays due to workforce shortages.
  • The following routes remain fully suspended: 19, 37, 47, 116, 118X, 119X, 122, 123, 143, 154, 157, 178, 179, 197, 200, 219, 252 and 931.

Room for returning ridership

Metro continues to monitor the pace of returning transit demand and confirms that capacity at current service levels has room to support more riders.

About 96% of Metro’s service and more than 160 bus routes are operating each day, carrying about 180,000 weekday riders in support of travel needs across King County. Minor service reductions are temporarily in place due to ongoing workforce shortages, which Metro is working to address by hiring, training and promoting transit operators.

Instead of riding mostly during peak commutes, analysis shows riders are more consistently riding across Metro’s all-day frequent network. Metro data shows that recent ridership growth is driven by schools, universities and some employers, and that major employers are gradually wading back into hybrid return-to-work approaches.

line graph showing ridership by time of day in 2019, 2020 and 2021

Workforce challenges in King County and nationally

Further service restorations will be revisited once Metro’s workforce levels stabilize. Simultaneously, Metro is preparing for the expansion of Link light rail to the Eastside in 2023, which will require hiring more rail operators, who begin their careers as Metro transit operators.

Metro continues to hire, train, and promote transit operators to provide bus, rail and streetcar service across King County.

Relevant Links

Metro service change web pages