Only 2 days until transit tunnel closes;
do you know where your bus will go?

The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel closes for up to two years on Saturday, Sept. 24, and it will affect nearly 100,000 bus riders.

The closure will change the downtown routing for more than 70 Metro and Sound Transit routes. The new service goes into effect Saturday, but many bus riders won’t notice the changes until Monday’s commute.

The 21 routes now in the tunnel will be relocated to surface streets – primarily Second, Third and Fourth avenues. The new routing is different than the patterns previously used by the buses when the tunnel was closed on nights and weekends.

Even if your bus doesn’t currently use the tunnel, your daily commute could be affected by the changes, so check for information about your specific routes. Information and transit agency links are available at the tunnel project webpage.

Changes for your bus trip could include:
·         What street the bus travels on in downtown Seattle;
·         How it enters or leaves downtown;
·         Where it stops downtown; or
·         Arrival or exiting locations may be different from boarding locations in the Central Business District.

Transit employees are reaching out personally to the thousands of bus riders who will be affected by the change. When faced with a major change in bus service, transit employees literally take to the streets to work one-on-one with customers.

The days leading up to tunnel closure – and the week after – is the largest street-teaming effort in Metro’s history. Employees from Metro and Sound Transit are putting more than 3,000 hours into street teaming at dozens of locations in the tunnel and at downtown bus stops.

It involves everyone from the General Manager to the transit planners to even the techies who keep the computers running – when it comes to street teaming, everyone volunteers to keep the customers happy.

Bus passengers can also call Metro’s Rider Information Office at (206) 553-3000 from 5 a.m. to midnight Monday through Friday, or from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. TTY users can call 206-684-1739.

Motorists have already seen changes on Third Avenue, which has become a transit-only corridor between Stewart and Yesler streets on weekdays during the hours of 6-9 a.m. and 3-7 p.m. Police will actually begin ticketing violators on Monday, Sept. 26.

The tunnel is closing to be retrofitted for use by both buses and light rail. It will reopen for buses in 2007 and light rail begins operations in 2009.

Metro, Sound Transit, Community Transit, and the Seattle Department of Transportation are partnering on $16 million in improvements to help keep downtown moving during the tunnel closure. This includes: changing street configurations to keep transit and traffic moving; designating Third Avenue between Stewart and Yesler a transit-priority corridor during the morning and afternoon commute; adding new bus stops and more bus shelters; and providing more incentives to use public transit during the tunnel closure.

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