Downtown Seattle transit tunnel will close to buses in March (Bellevue: live, law)

[CrazyDonkey]

https://komonews.com/news/local/down...-good-in-march

On March 23 the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel will close to buses for good. About 37,000 people board and exit buses in the tunnel daily.

The 830 buses that service seven routes that use the tunnel will begin operating on city streets.

Routes will move to stops on three existing transit corridors; 3rd and 4th Avenues and a newly created corridor on 5th and 6th Avenues.

Buses are moving out of the tunnel because of the Washington State Convention Center expansion and the upcoming Light Link Rail extension, which means more trains.

None of the buses I usually take are directly impacted, but could be indirectly, with 830 added into the mix. Adding "more bus services...to high ridership routes" (on top of the 830) seems subject to the law of diminishing returns, and thus more likely to simply add to the clog than clear it.

My recourse could be to take the #44 from west Ballard to the UW station, then light rail to Downtown, rather than run the "bus gauntlet" through the center of town.

[NW4me]

A sad day for Seattle. I've never lived there, only visited, but the bus tunnel seemed like
a wonderful transit innovation. Even if a downtown street was converted to a transit mall
(something I've not heard suggested), that still wouldn't be as good as the bus tunnel.

[annonymous0381]

Downtown where will the 41,255 and 550 stop??

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by annonymous0381

Downtown where will the 41,255 and 550 stop??

https://kingcounty.gov/depts/transpo...ce-change.aspx

Route 41 will operate to downtown Seattle on Stewart St and 3rd Ave, and to Northgate on 3rd Ave and Olive Way/Howell St.

Route 255 will operate to downtown Seattle on Stewart St and 5th Ave, and to Kingsgate and the Brickyard P&R on 5th Ave, 6th Ave and Olive Way.

Route 550 to downtown Seattle will operate on 4th Ave and Pike St and, to Bellevue on Union St and 2nd Ave.

[Botev1912]

If buses take the steward street exit in the morning, only this will add an additional 30 minutes to the commute. That exit is a mess.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by Botev1912

If buses take the steward street exit in the morning, only this will add an additional 30 minutes to the commute. That exit is a mess.

The #41 is taking the Stewart exit now, so there would be no change there. The change is taking the new bus-only lanes (on 6th and 5th) south of Stewart, instead of the Transit Tunnel.

So, will the once "Bus Tunnel", now the "Transit Tunnell", be henceforth known simply as the "Tunnel"?