King County Metro bus service cuts start Saturday

After more than a year of warnings, King County Metro Transit’s first wave of service cuts take effect Saturday.

The agency is eliminating 28 bus routes entirely, reducing service on another 13 routes, and revising service on another five.

Metro GM Kevin Desmond says the agency did all it could to minimize the cuts, but a budget shortfall made it impossible to maintain the current level of service after voters rejected a tax measure to close the gap earlier this year.

“This is the largest package of service reductions Metro has ever done and it’s not something we want to do but we have to do it to balance the budget.”

Metro has deployed ambassadors around the county to inform people of the coming changes.

This weekend’s cuts are just the beginning. Metro will eliminate or reduce service on more routes in February and again in March next year. In all, the agency is reducing 400,000 hours of service in the next year across the county.

You can find a complete list of service cuts and changes here.