Bus cuts not as deep as King County Metro anticipated

Cuts to buses are coming, but King County Metro Transit says they won’t be as bad as predicted when voters were asked for more money last April.

General Manager Kevin Desmond said in a news conference Wednesday Metro found enough savings to limit the cuts to 400,000 bus service hours a year, rather than 550,000.

He said lower costs for new electric trolleys, more efficient bus scheduling, and job cuts helped produced savings for Metro.

“Revenues have remained stable since March, while we have worked to identify additional savings that would allow us to add back more service,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “It’s welcome relief, but as increased crowding on many buses attests, we need to be adding service just to keep up with rising demand.”

Voters rejected Proposition 1, which would have raised the sales tax a tenth of a cent and approve a $60 car tab fee to pay for buses and road repairs.

Despite the proclaimed reforms and efficiencies in its budget, Metro will make 151,000 hours worth of service reductions on Sept. 27. A second round, at 169,000 service hours slated for February, passed in committee and is awaiting the County Council’s action.

Metro expects ridership to reach 120 million trips by the end of the year, which would break the old record set in 2008 by about one million trips.

The transit agency said it should be growing by 15 percent or more than 500,000 hours of bus service to keep up with current and future demand. It expects a gap of 900,000 hours between the reduced level and service and where it should be to meet demand.

KIRO Radio’s Ursula Reutin contributed to this report.