Dear Diary,
This part is still really more or less introductory, so let's get right to it, shall we? I said in the last part that my focus in this page is on bus stops, but this part concentrates the things I really have to say about bus routes instead.
North Seattle routes or parts of routes to be deleted
According to this page, as of, um, today. (That URL will almost certainly contain different contents starting not later than March 2025, and I have no idea where these contents will be from that point on, but the Internet Archive is probably the best bet.)
The ones that'll get their own parts, because they have stops getting closed, are asterisked*.
Route 16
The current route 16, slated for deletion, is not very old; the previous one only went away eight years ago,
after all. This one is an express version of the route 5, and it's a kind of
bus that serves only a single purpose, a commuter bus. That is, all the
trips in the morning are in one direction, and all the trips in the
evening are in the other direction, so the only purpose that can be
accomplished with it is to go somewhere from some particular area and
come back again to that area rather later. Anyway, I know of no bus
stops specific to it, and haven't gone there to look for any. I might
not have found them anyway, because it's been "suspended" for the past
year, and it looks like suspended routes' bus stops might get demolished
too (see route 304 below).
*Route 20
This is the route I live near, and I have more to say about it below, but the route 20 is, as I said, just three years old.
The old routes 16 and
26 were inheritances from the Seattle Transit System, a municipal bus
service that operated 1941-1973. Nearly all of the STS bus routes in North Seattle were
more or less north-south commuter buses; STS bus maps actually reserved
space to explain exactly where downtown each route stopped. In the part
of North Seattle between Green Lake and what's now I-5, the 16 took
Meridian Ave N, the 26 Latona Ave NE. Previously, the local streetcar had split the
difference: it took Meridian north to N/NE 56th St, then moved over to
Latona.
As I said, the 16 died in
March 2016. It was replaced by two buses. The 62 took over most of its
route, but instead of continuing north from NE 65th Street, instead
became also the NE 65th Street bus. So the northernmost part of the 16
route, to North Seattle College and Northgate, got grafted onto the 26
(which had previously ended near Green Lake), until in 2021 Metro
decided to kill the 26 too.
At this point I have to introduce yet another old route, the 41, on which it turns out English Wikipedia has a detailed article. The 41, which started in 1970, was an express between Northgate and downtown, and then a local between Northgate and Lake City. With the opening of light rail to Northgate in 2021, Metro decided there was no further need for the 41 express, but it had to continue running a shuttle between Lake City and Northgate, and since that isn't much of a route all by itself, what they've been doing ever since is trying to find a worthwhile continuation of it.
The actual 41 route through Lake City was taken by the new route 75. But the 20 was apparently further compensation to Lake City for the 41's loss. It takes a different local route from Lake City to Northgate, then the 26 route from Northgate to NE 45th St, and heads from there to UW. What I've observed is that it's reasonably busy with UW students up to about 55th, but pretty deserted the rest of the way to Northgate. (Now that I'm a North Seattle College student, I know one reason why that is: North Seattle College is now overwhelmingly online.) Below I suggest some other reasons the 20 might be unpopular, but anyway, I never felt confident that the route would succeed. And now it hasn't. In the ongoing reduction of usefulness Lake City residents are getting in the counter-balances to their shuttle, the new route 61 will go from the Lake City Fred Meyer to the Greenwood Fred Meyer.
As a result, twenty-eight bus stops are due for demolition, on 1st Ave NE, Woodlawn Ave NE and Latona Ave NE.
*Route 28 north of somewhere around NW 95th St
No, no, dear Diary, please re-assure any reader who's panicking, the route 28 is not being deleted!! Only its northward extension, into that part of the city that's merely belonged to Seattle for seventy years. Only that. And that extension, as far back as I've been able to trace it, has been commuter-only; when I hiked it Saturday morning, I was already too late to catch the last bus, having arrived at 9:30 a.m. (Of course, it doesn't run on Saturdays anyway, but let's not quibble.)
The 28 was another of the inheritances from Seattle Transit System. It's actually the second-strongest surviving inheritance in North Seattle, still running a reasonably full schedule on weekdays (but only hourly on weekends, as I learnt to my sorrow). It was extended to NW 145th St sometime not long before 1973.
Problem
is, because of obstacles like Carkeek Park, the extension runs mostly on
3rd Ave NW, not 8th Ave NW like the main route 28. And that puts it
way too close, as I think Metro sees things, to the strongest
inheritance in North Seattle, the route 5. So the extension is getting
the axe.
I think this is where the
largest single group of bus stops due for demolition is, thirty-one, but
I only got photos of twenty-eight, so I have to go back. I hope to
tell you tonight, dear Diary, about the route 20 stops, but can't yet
about these. These stops are mostly on 3rd Ave NW, of course, but also
on NW 132nd St, 8th Ave NW, NW 125th St, and a few more streets at the
extension's southern end. (How many, I'm not sure. The new schedule
disagrees with the facts on the ground.)
Route 64
Not terribly long ago, dear Diary, there was a profusion of buses running through NE with numbers in the 60s and 70s. I always thought they were mostly University of Washington-directed. But in the oldest route 64 schedule I have, from mid-2021, it instead ran from a corner of Jackson Park, on NE 145th St, down 30th and 35th Aves NE through Lake City and Wedgwood, then made way too many stops for a supposed express on NE 65th St, and caught I-5 to South Lake Union and First Hill. Oh, and it was a commuter bus, though with lots of runs. For some reason the coming of light rail, or more likely the waning of COVID-19, led it to lose its northernmost stops. Then it started getting fewer and fewer runs, and now there won't be any more. But none of its stops in North Seattle, as far as I know, are unique to it.
*Route 73
The route 73 is yet another one that was re-routed in September 2021; I'm beginning to detect a pattern here. It used to run arrow-straight on 15th Ave NE from Ravenna Park to Jackson Park. But when the Roosevelt light rail station opened, it was diverted to meet that. So now it enters and leaves 15th via Lake City Way NE, close to NE 75th St.
But that's only half the story. Most of the 73's runs were actually runs of route 373, a bus between Aurora Village and UW. And the 373 was deleted in October 2021, when other service from Aurora Village was added.
Well, having walked the part of 15th Ave NE that the remainder of route 73 has covered since then, I think I can understand why that remaining route is being deleted. There are lots of restaurants and bars, but I'm pretty sure people thinking of destination restaurants, for example, don't promptly think of 15th Ave NE. I only found two clear destinations of interest to people other than those destinations' residents, and one of those is an artwork, not the kind of thing one visits all that often:
The other is the NW Puppet Center, which might bear more frequent visits.
Still, it's kind of a shame. The STS didn't run buses on a bunch of really important roads, like Roosevelt Way NE, Aurora Ave N, or Leary Way NW, or ran them only on part of the length; the fact that major routes occupy all those streets in full now is to King County Metro's real, and mostly recent, credit. So STS did run its route 7 on 15th Ave NE; in other words, another of the decades-old survivors, albeit under a different number, is biting the dust this year.
Seventeen route 73 stops are being closed, but two of those are also route 322 stops, so there are fifteen I'm going to cover under route 73. And I only got photos of fourteen, so again, later, dear Diary.
Route 301
There's been a route 301 in Shoreline for at least twenty years, but I don't have as much information about Shoreline buses as I do about North Seattle ones; sorry, dear Diary. In mid-2021 it was a commuter bus that ran from Aurora Village to enter I-5 at N 175th St. But then it was re-configured to go to Northgate rather than downtown, which made it just barely a North Seattle bus. It was one of four buses doing more or less similar things. That's something King County Metro did a whole lot of, from the 1980s to the decade of the 2000s, but has been dialing back on, and I guess they decided that the arrival of light rail in Shoreline was the time to simplify this particular complex. Actually, though, route 301 was suspended a year ago.
Route 302
The current route 302 was created in September 2021 like the current route 20, and they're also alike in having been found wanting. It's a commuter bus that runs from Richmond Beach via NW Richmond Beach Road, 3rd Ave NW and N 200th St to Aurora Village, then down Meridian to I-5 at N 175th St. Only a stop at Northgate makes it at all North Seattle. Then it goes to First Hill. Six months later the route 303 was created, which follows the same route but only starting from Aurora Village, and that's the one that's won the competition, and is being rewarded with a bunch of stops in downtown Seattle as well.
Route 304
This is another older Shoreline route. In early 2021 it was a commuter bus, but had the longest local route, from Richmond Beach via Dayton Ave N to N 145th St. It shares the same printed schedule with route 301, and was likewise suspended a year ago. Which gave Metro the chance to do what I found when I walked N 145th St on Saturday very early: A whole bunch of stops proclaiming that they were "new" stops. Now, several of these stops appear in the old route 304 map as transfer points, which obviously means they were stops then. Essentially, King County Metro is trying to even its score by counting the re-opening of stops it closed last year as brand new stops. The shelter at Greenwood Ave N sure doesn't look brand-new; on the other hand, when I visited, its sign pole had been cut off at the ground. ANYWAY, point is, King County Metro is, in fact, taking the best part of route 304 for North Seattle, that it covered half of 145th St, and making that part of the job of a new route 333. So this deleted route, from North Seattle's perspective, is being fully replaced.
Route 320
This commuter bus that took Lake City Way NE across the city limits to Northgate was, like the 302, created in September 2021, and like the 301 and 304, suspended in September 2023. And now it's gone.
*Route 322 south of Northgate
This is another Lake City Way NE commuter bus. It's surviving, but where it used to go to the Roosevelt station, now it's going to the Northgate one. As a result, six bus stops (two of which are shared with the 73) are being abandoned; I only currently have photos of four, so even this small group is delayed. Sound Transit route 522 currently also serves LCW, and all day at that, but has only two stops (one on each side, not counted in my six) in the affected area, which is from NE 75th St to NE Ravenna Ave, where the 372 enters LCW.
The plan is that a new route 77 will be the wonderful LCW bus that the 65, 40, and E are on other busy streets. But it's on hold, because Sound Transit is running the 522, even with few stops. This is analogous to why Fritz Hedges Waterway Park doesn't have restrooms: the University of Washington has promised to build some, some year this century. Sound Transit has said it'll re-route the 522 from Roosevelt station to 130th St station once that station opens, in a year or two, and then Metro intends to dust off the 77 plans and see what it can do. (Source, which may not say exactly what I have.)
Route 330
This route goes from Lake City mostly through Shoreline to Shoreline Community College. It runs all day, but only once per hour for the most part. It isn't in the 2002 transit map but is in the 2003 one, which means it was created too long ago for coverage in some of my sources. Nor do I know the reason it's being deleted, and I think that deletion is especially peculiar because Sound Transit is ballyhooing its devotion to creating east-west routes in this whole change.
None of route 330's stops in North Seattle are unique to it.
Route 347
This is another paired route like the 301/304 and 302/303 (and for that matter, long ago, the 26/28). The 347 and 348 both start from Northgate and go north. They do a complicated dance as far as the Crest Cinema and the Shoreline branch of the King County Library System, but after that the 347 goes north and the 348 goes west. Unfortunately for the 347's longevity, where it has gone north to is the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center, where there's now a brand-spanking-new light rail station, so good-bye 347. Both routes follow the same path in North Seattle (in fact, up 15th Ave NE, providing the northern terminus of the 73's bus stop demolitions), so the 347's deletion doesn't add any stop demolitions of its own.
Whew, it's getting late, dear Diary, and I have a lot of work to do to get the next part written. Until we meet again, happy hours.
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