News Release

Release date: Oct. 11, 2001

Sports fans, salmon watchers break Metro record

More than 83,000 trips were taken on Metro Special Service buses last weekend -- smashing the old record set during Seafair 2000.

On Oct. 6 and 7, Metro provided hundreds of Special Service buses for the Huskies and Seahawks football games, to the last regular-season Mariners baseball games, and to the Salmon Days Festival in Issaquah.

Collectively, there were 83,628 trips taken using the special buses during those two days.

"We know our Special Service is popular, but those numbers last weekend were amazing," said Metro Transit General Manager Rick Walsh. "It really helps cut the traffic around these big events, and it also gives people who normally don't ride the bus a great introduction to public transit."

Here is last weekend's breakdown:

• Huskies game -- 31,037 trips
• Seahawks game -- 29,894 trips
• two Mariners games -- 5,000 trips
• Salmon Days -- 17,697 trips.

Based on surveys it has conducted among other transit agencies, Metro believes it provides the best-used special service for sports events around the country. Expanding it to serve popular festivals, fairs and entertainment events has also turned out to be a big success for Metro.

For information on Special Service for upcoming events, check out Metro Online at http://transit.metrokc.gov/.

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