Rough commute: Metro cuts service by half

More than 100 King County Metro bus lines, mainly in the suburbs or on hills, have been stopped or at least shortened starting this afternoon until weather improves.

The agency says it is scaling back its routes by half to focus on "core" service in the midst of the snowstorm.

"We have these areas that are dangerous to ride, for anybody," said Metro spokeswoman Linda Thielke.

Several remaining lines will have more buses on them, to provide steady service despite slower travel times, she said.

Conditions are better in Snohomish County, where Community Transit expects to cancel only 8 or 9 trips tonight.

The canceled routes include not just isolated routes in the foothills, but some busy commuter lines, such as Sound Transit's service from South Hill (Puyallup) to Overlake, which carries 1,450 people on a good day, or Sound Transit's Bellevue-SeaTac-West Seattle line, which carries 2,365 people on a warm day, as well as cross-lake routes from the University District to Kirkland, and from Northgate to Issaquah.

"The Eastside's particularly treacherous, as far as slick, icy conditions," said Sound Transit spokeswoman Linda Robson. "The bottom line is, these decisions are made to protect the public safety."

Metro has a fleet of 1,329 buses, of which about 1,200 run on a normal day. But fewer will be available Friday because some are stuck, some damaged and some need safety checks, Thielke said.

At Central Base, where Metro's electric coaches are kept, operators planned to fan out tonight and retrieve stalled coaches, said Sherman Alston, a transit chief there.

"We're trying to get these out of the way, so we can provide service tomorrow," he said.

In just one area of Capitol Hill, four trolleybuses got stuck earlier today.

After 6 inches of snow landed in the Seattle area today, the overall situation is bad enough that "commuters should consider an early trip home," the city advises. Several roads and highways were clear this afternoon, though.

This evening's cancellations are a starting point for Friday decisions, Metro says. At around 4 a.m., operators will consider which routes could be reopened, and issue an update.

But there could be even fewer routes operating Friday if streets are closed, Thielke warned.

In the meantime, Metro will operate "chained shuttles," using Access mini-buses or vans to carry people to some hilly areas. These included Finn Hill, the Issaquah Highlands and Mercer Island. A shuttle will also run from West Seattle's Alaska Junction to nearby Genessee Hill and the Admiral District.

In choosing which routes to close, a big consideration was avoiding what happened in past storms, where passengers had to deboard on a hill — or even a freeway — a mile or so from home. "We really wanted to avoid stranding people on stuck buses," Thielke said.

Even though buses are chained, the Metro buses typically had chains only on the rear tires, where the drive train is, leaving the front and center rows of tires unchained. Hybrid buses are heavier than typical diesel buses, but that's actually a disadvantage when trying to maneuver downhill, Thielke said.

"Chains don't do much good for any vehicle on ice, and a lot of these roads have ice under the snow."

The forecast calls for subfreezing temperatures until Sunday.

Metro provides 400,000 rides on a typical weekday, and carries more than a third of the downtown Seattle work force.

Sound Transit express bus service is operated by Metro, Pierce Transit and Community Transit, which decide on any service changes.

Going by train

Sounder commuter trains were on schedule tonight except for the 5:55 p.m. run, and are expected to be on schedule tomorrow morning, said Sound Transit spokeswoman Linda Robson. Trains run from Seattle's King Street Station to and from Everett and Tacoma.

Thursday morning, fewer people than usual drove their cars to the Tacoma park-and-ride station garage, said transit spokeswoman Linda Robson, who took the 8 a.m. train today.

Seattle's South Lake Union streetcar and Sound Transit's downtown Tacoma Link line are also operating normally.

Snohomish County

Community Transit expects Friday morning service to go much like today, said spokesman Martin Munguia. And all runs will operate this evening.

"We are preserving 90 to 95 percent of the service," said Munguia. "It will be slow... "

Buses ran into morning delays of 10 to 30 minutes on some routes, which could happen again, he said. Some routes where buses arrive every 20 minutes were changed to 40 minutes between trips.

"We still have half a dozen reroutes around the steeper hills. Riders are pretty accustomed to them," he said.

Generally, bus operators are able to maneuver fine, but some trips were delayed up to an hour because of abandoned cars or collisions, Munguia said. The Arlington area, with about 2 feet of snow, has been especially hard-hit.

Community Transit ridership was down about one-fifth because people were staying home.

Shuttle vans will likely be used again on some routes, where a transit supervisor takes people where buses cannot go, he said. For instance, the Canyon Park area of Bothell has been especially tough, Munguia said. Vans have taken people from I-405 to nearby neighborhoods and the University of Washington Bothell campus, he said.

Plowing ahead

Seattle has 21 trucks on the streets that can both plow and drop sand. There are two trucks dedicated to the West Seattle Bridge and Alaskan Way Viaduct. The challenge there is to avoid a repeat of this morning, when stalled buses and other vehicles forced traffic to detour down to the low-level bridge from West Seattle.

Several county roads have closed on the periphery, including Novelty Hill Road Northeast in Redmond between 243rd Avenue Northeast and West Snoqualmie Valley Road Northeast.

School closures have helped reduce traffic, and King County government is curtailing hours in some departments.

Information overload

Web sites for Community Transit and Sound Transit failed Thursday under the weight of rider demand. Community Transit reacted by posting a stripped-down home page.

The state Department of Transportation had to break up information into simpler Web sites to cope with record use — for instance, traffic-flow maps and cameras no longer appeared together. The DOT got almost 8 million page views Wednesday and is on pace for higher use today. Besides heavy demand here, Spokane's snowstorms are affecting Eastern Washington.

Metro's Web site worked normally, but the agency warned callers of long waits on the customer hotline, 206-553-3000.

Updates are being issued through the Regional Public Information Network, rpin.org an online message board shared by local governments.

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