Were bus systems ready for the snow?

Commuters who ride the bus to avoid the hassles of driving found little relief during this week's icy blast.

Buses stalled in bumper-to-bumper traffic, dozens got stuck in the ice and many veered on to alternate routes with little warning. To make matters worse, timely information on bus schedules was difficult to come by for many bus riders.

Some King County Council members questioned the preparedness of Metro and Sound Transit after many buses ventured out without chains before Monday's storm.

King County Councilwoman Kathy Lambert, R-Redmond, said she endured a three-hour bus ride home Monday night that ended when her skidded-out bus was evacuated at a Redmond transit center. She was told some buses would have to wait for hours for chains before moving.

"We want people to be using transit. And in order to do that you've got to make sure they're comfortable and are able to rely on getting home," Lambert said. "We knew this snowstorm was coming. It wasn't a freak snowstorm."

King County Councilwoman Julia Patterson, D-SeaTac, said Metro officials will brief the council transportation committee about the agency's snow performance. "After this, we may have to consider the idea of everyone carrying chains," she said.

Metro Transit general manager Kevin Desmond said the agency had a rigorous "snow plan" in place before Monday's storm. But he said the suddenness and severity of the weather still caused unanticipated problems.

About 1,000 Metro Transit buses left transit bases without chains Monday afternoon before snow began falling, said Metro spokeswoman Linda Thielke. Although maintenance crews drove out to assist buses with chaining up on the street, Thielke said, about 150 buses got stuck at some point Monday night, whether for a few minutes or hours.

Sound Transit routes in Snohomish County were cut back because its fleet is made up predominantly of articulated buses, which were prone to jackknifing on the ice, said Martin Munguia, spokesman for Community Transit, which operates Sound Transit's routes in the county.

Both Metro and Community Transit ran reduced service on Tuesday, and some routes were on alternate schedules that confused riders.

Hugh Kelly of Lynnwood said he waited an hour Tuesday morning at the Ash Way park-and-ride. "Finally at a quarter to seven, when my feet were frozen and I started to shake," he switched bus shelters and took another Seattle-bound route.

In the afternoon, his 511 bus back to Lynnwood passed by on Olive Way, while he was waiting at Stewart Street. "Whoa!" he yelled, waving at the driver as he and two other people chased the bus down to board it at a stop it normally uses on Sundays.

Officials said bus passengers should continue to check schedules and be familiar with alternate snow routes if snowy conditions continue this week. Metro's printed schedules tell riders information about those alternate routes.

Desmond said it's too early to know exactly what Metro could have done better, but he said the agency will conduct an "after action" review of its performance.

While buses could have chained up earlier, Desmond said doing so too early creates problems, too. Buses can be damaged by chains and they must run slowly when they are installed.

Desmond said Metro could probably provide more timely information to riders when bus schedules change.

The agency's Web site Tuesday, for example, offered mostly generic advice, such as "plan ahead" and "avoid travel if possible."

"I think that's something we need to probe," Desmond said. "I wasn't particularly satisfied with the messages we had posted."

Metro's rider-information line, 206-553-3000, offers some bus-route information, but the system took 66,000 calls Monday, double the normal volume, causing lengthy delays for callers.

The problem persisted Tuesday, as more than two dozen calls throughout the day from a Seattle Times reporter were met with a busy signal.

Times staff reporters Keith Ervin

and Christopher Schwarzen

contributed to this report.

Jim Brunner: 206-515-5628 or jbrunner@seattletimes.com