Metro to boost bus service

Seattle would get new bus service at 10-minute intervals on some routes by 2012 as part of a list of Metro transit service expansions to be discussed starting Thursday.

Metro said Wednesday it will seek improvements to expand service on 25 King County bus routes and create four more in a cost-sharing arrangement promised in a 2006 expansion measure.

The agency will present the changes Thursday to the King County Council for approval. If passed, the changes would go into effect in September and would cost about $14.5 million, with Metro paying about two-thirds of it.

The announcement came 10 days before a scheduled Metro fare increase, which the agency said is not tied to the service expansions.

In Seattle, the service changes include expanding 19 individual routes, several of them near South Lake Union, and a Rapid Ride route serving West Seattle with hybrid buses.

The West Seattle corridor has not been determined. The service is one of five Rapid Ride routes planned as part of the Transit Now expansion package approved by King County voters in 2006.

As part of the proposal, Seattle would receive more-frequent trips on Routes 3, 4, 10, 11, 12, 14-S, 26, 28 and 44 in 2008.

Service frequency also would increase in 2009 on routes 2, 13 and 48 and in 2010 on city routes 5, 7, 8, 70, 74 and 75, with costs to be shared by Metro, the city and the South Lake Union Mobility Partnership for Routes 8 and 70. Some trips on Route 60 would be extended in 2010.

The county also has proposed a new route linking the Colman Ferry Dock and King Street Station, the International District and First Hill, financed partly by Harborview, Swedish and Virginia Mason medical centers. The route could be displaced by a streetcar if one is built in that area.

Details of the plan, part of a 10-year bus expansion financed with a sales tax increase, must be approved by County Council members, although they have generally approved sharing costs of route improvements with others, council spokesman Frank Abe said Wednesday.

More than 20 proposals, some involving more than one route, were considered, officials said, before the list was winnowed to 16 projects.

It is expected to be deliberated first by the council's transportation committee, perhaps by next Wednesday.

Other projects are proposed for parts of Auburn, Bellevue, Redmond, Renton, Issaquah and Federal Way and include a new Route 913 connecting areas in the western part of Kent.

Another "Rapid Ride" corridor would be established by 2013 between Bellevue and Redmond, though the exact route hasn't been determined, officials said.

FARE INCREASE

Most of the fare increase, approved by King County Council members in November, will take effect March 1 and raise many fares by 25 cents.