Metro adds routes, more bus service

New express bus routes will reach Kent's East Hill and the Snoqualmie Valley next week, as part of what King County Metro Transit calls its biggest service increase in seven years.

Meanwhile, Sound Transit is adding trips to its Sounder commuter trains and increasing some bus service, and Community Transit is adding trips on certain bus lines.

Seattle is among the nation's fastest-growing transit markets. Metro alone provides about 400,000 trips per weekday, up 7 percent from a year ago.

"We've listened to riders, cities and businesses, and are pleased to have these improvements hit the road as ridership continues to climb and more service is needed," said King County Executive Ron Sims.

Over the next several months, however, Metro riders are likely to see one and possibly two 25-cent fare increases, to help pay for rising fuel costs and a projected $30 million to $40 million yearly deficit. For the time being, Metro remains on track to deliver promised increases in service, Sims said.

Metro's fall-service change, beginning Saturday, spreads 48,000 more annual bus hours throughout the county. Most are funded by "Transit Now," the sales-tax increase voters approved two years ago.

Several cities and Microsoft also provide money in partnership agreements that cover part of the additional service for certain routes.

Here are changes coming in service from Metro, Sound Transit and Community Transit:

• In Kent, Metro's new Route 157 will operate at peak times from the Lake Meridian Park-and-Ride, East Hill, and across the Green River Valley to Interstate 5 and downtown Seattle.

• Metro's new Route 215 will run at peak times through North Bend, Snoqualmie, Snoqualmie Ridge, the Issaquah Transit Center and the Eastgate Park-and-Ride en route to Seattle.

• More buses will run on Seattle routes 3, 4, 10, 11, 12, 14, 26, 28, 41, 44 and 46; Eastside routes 209, 230, 253, 269 and 929; and South King County routes 143, 153, 164 and 915.

• One round-trip Sounder train will be added between Tacoma and Seattle, and one reverse-commute train, for a total of eight round trips a day for the south line. Sounder's north line will add one round-trip train from Everett to Seattle.

• Sound Transit's new Route 599 will go from Lakewood to Tacoma, to fill a void because Sounder service has been delayed until 2012. Several trips will be added on Route 522 from Woodinville to Seattle and Route 590 from Tacoma to Seattle.

• Community Transit in Snohomish County will add trips on its 200, 201 and 202 lines from Arlington to Everett and Lynnwood.

Metro also announced that as an experiment, cyclists can take bikes on and off the bus in the Westlake, University Street and Pioneer Square stations of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, starting Monday. Previously, bike loading and unloading from the tunnel was limited to the Convention Place and Chinatown International District stations.

The Federal Transit Administration announced Monday it will give Metro $2.2 million to help buy short, 40-foot hybrid buses to replace aging diesel-only models.

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