Metro has no extra buses to put on roads during I-5 work

Government officials are urging people to use transit during this month's big freeway backups, but there won't be any extra King County Metro buses coming for them.

"We are completely maxed out on the fleet," said Kevin Desmond, Metro's general manager.

Another problem is too few drivers, as summer vacations make staffing a challenge even in normal years, he said. Metro chose not to take buses off other routes around the county to solve what is a 2 ½-week predicament.

Starting at 10 p.m. Friday, the state Department of Transportation will close two to three lanes of northbound Interstate 5, to repair a one-mile stretch between South Spokane Street and Interstate 90. Long traffic jams are expected.

Unlike other transit lines, Metro's bus system won't be boosting service during construction, even though 21 of its routes will be affected enough to require detours in South Seattle.

Pierce Transit will deploy nine extra buses — seven at the Tacoma Dome and two that start from Seattle — to add to the routes it operates for Sound Transit. The Sounder commuter train is adding a fifth round-trip run from South End cities to Seattle. Hundreds of temporary park-and-ride spots will be ready. And Metro's own Elliott Bay Water Taxi, with state funding, will add a 6:10 a.m. crossing from West Seattle to downtown.

Metropolitan King County Councilman Pete von Reichbauer, R-Federal Way, said he's reluctant to criticize the transit agency; he wants a briefing Monday — after the first weekday commute on a constricted freeway — to review how the bus system is coping.

"If it appears traffic is as bad as it could be, we need to look at making proper adjustments within our network. If we fail to move people, we've failed in our basic transportation [duty]," he said.

Von Reichbauer said his sense is that employers and workers are already dropping out of the August commute, if this week's relatively light traffic is an indication.

Metro's existing South End lines have room for new riders, but many of them will have to stand, said spokeswoman Linda Thielke. Figures were not immediately available, but she said none of the 21 routes was among the county's most crowded.

King County taxpayers approved a "Transit Now" sales-tax increase last fall to buy more buses. Metro has ordered new hybrid buses, but they have not been delivered.

By comparison, Pierce Transit recently received a shipment of buses that are not in regular service yet — so they're available for the I-5 mess. As soon as seats fill, a standby bus will pick up more people, said spokesman Lind Simonsen. Trips to Seattle could take an extra hour, so Pierce Transit is trying to avoid having passengers stand, he said.

Pierce Transit got some practice recently, by taking 56,000 people on shuttles to and from the grand opening of the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge on July 15, but Simonsen said, "I don't think anything can prepare us for the I-5 issue."

Seats are mostly full on four Sounder trains that now carry about 800 passengers each between Tacoma and Seattle. They can hold twice that number, in theory, if additional riders stand close together.

The fifth train, from Puyallup to Seattle, will have only four cars, compared to the usual six or seven — but operators can add more cars if needed, said spokeswoman Linda Robson.

The last boarding still leaves Seattle at 5:40 p.m., a source of frustration for some evening commuters.

Dawn McClure of Covington says she often can't get from Capitol Hill down to King Street Station that early. Then, her options are a long bus trip to Kent, or a ride on Metro's Route 174 to Federal Way, where she says passengers often include people using drugs.

"They threw commuters a bone, so we couldn't complain too much," McClure said.

Sounder is unable to offer a later train because BNSF Railway, which owns the tracks, is operating freight trains during that time.

Metro says the water taxi will be able to carry 250 passengers. Recently, the boats were averaging a mere 30 riders per morning trip — so there's ample room for more. That might be an appealing option, because West Seattle's express buses will be at the mercy of traffic on the Alaskan Way Viaduct or in Sodo.

Metro's Desmond said the state didn't press him to operate more buses, nor did it offer funding to do so. He said it would be "extremely expensive" to have mechanics work longer hours, to put some buses now in the maintenance facilities onto the street.

Nonetheless, Desmond left open the possibility of small service boosts.

"We might be able to do some things around the edges," he said. "If there's a particular route, particular time of day that gets completely slammed, and there's people who need to be transported, we'd look for a way to do that."

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com