Bus news from Metro: #12 on 19th to be cut

(Plans for #12 bus: 

Eliminate the part of the route northeast of E Madison Street/15th

Avenue to reduce duplication with routes 10, 11 and 43.

Operate Route 12 as a one-way route during commute hours: 
westbound in the morning and eastbound in the afternoon. )

(Plans for #8 bus: 

• Eliminate the part of the route between E John Street/16th Avenue E and S Jackson Street /23rd Avenue S. )

(and here's the Capitol Hill Seattle take on it: 

If you aren’t the public meeting type and, like CHS, are booked between 12 and 2p, you can provide feedback on the cutbacks to community.relations@kingcounty.gov and via Metro’s service survey. )

Dear Community Partner,

As you may be aware, King County Metro Transit is planning to cut up to 17 percent of its service beginning in fall 2014due to a funding shortage. If no new funding is approved, we’ll have to make cuts throughout the county, with every community bearing a share of the impacts.
We’ve cut costs, raised fares, and created other efficiencies to preserve most service over the past five years. But temporary funding authority from the state expires in June, and unless action is taken on stable funding, Metro will have to move forward with drastic service reductions next year.

·         74 routes would be deleted.

·         107 routes would be changed.

·         33 unchanged routes would likely become more crowded.

How will riders be impacted?

Riders and communities across King County would feel the impacts: fewer travel options, longer waits between buses, more transfers, more-crowded and less-reliable buses, and increased traffic congestion. To find out detailed information about proposed changes to routes, you can visit our website. We invite you to help us understand the affects these cuts will have on you and your constituents.

What Metro is doing to engage the community

We are hosting public meetings and outreach events around the County to help riders learn more about why service must be cut and how they may be affected, and to help us understand the impacts on their lives. Our calendar indicates where you can find us.

How you can help

·         Participate in our outreach effort – attend a public meeting or outreach event or provide feedback through our online survey.

·         Help inform and engage people who aren’t electronically connected – the more riders understand about the proposed cuts, the more they can be prepared. Our website is a great resource for riders to learn more about the proposed reductions. Consider forwarding this email to your network or including a note about this in your upcoming newsletter. Let us know if you’d like some posters to put up in your organization, or download, print, and share our brochure.

·         Help inform and engage people who don’t speak English as a first language – we have information in 11 different languages on our website, including individual phone lines for each language. (See the “choose a language” drop down menu at the right.) Our survey and videos have been translated into Spanish and are also available on the website.

·         Invite our outreach van to a community event or a busy day at your organization – if you have an event planned or a time of day where you are serving many people with limited English proficiency or who are not electronically connected, we’d like to be of service. We know not all populations receive our emails, go online, or attend public meetings. We may not be able to respond to all requests due to limited staff resources.

For more information
Visit our website for additional information about the proposed service reductions, an online survey, and a schedule of other events where you can talk with us directly. On social media channels, riders can use #KCMetroCuts to join the conversation.

All of us at Metro wish we weren’t in the position we are in – planning to cut service up to 17% and greatly impact our riders and our region – especially at a time we need to be growing transit service by 15% around the county. Thanks in advance for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

DeAnna Martin

Community relations planner

King County Department of Transportation

206-263-9770

haveasay@kingcounty.gov