Route 40 is one of the busiest bus routes in Seattle, and SDOT and King County Metro have plans to make it more reliable.
The 40 has over 13,000 weekday riders, which puts it in the top 10 most-used routes in the city. “While it’s on time 65% of the time or more during rush hour, we’re tackling the challenge of improving reliability for riders,” SDOT says.
To that end, Metro and the Seattle Department of Transportation are partnering on the Route 40 Transit-Plus Multimodal Corridor Project, which will include opportunities for rider feedback via online surveys and in-person meetings.
Metro staff also asked bus operators for feedback on their challenges as drivers, who explained the challenges of safely navigating through some of the most congested streets in Seattle.
SDOT and Metro are offering a few ways for giving feedback:
- An online survey, which will be open from Feb. 24 to April 3.
- Drop-in information sessions:
- Tuesday, March 17 from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Y at the Cascade People’s Center
- Wednesday March 18 from 5-6:30 p.m. at Leif Erikson Hall
- Thursday, March 19 from 5-6:30 p.m. at Loyal Heights Community Center
- An informational project webpage for the Route 40 Transit-Plus Multimodal Project. Contact Route40@seattle.gov or call 206-775-8731 to get your questions answered.
SDOT says improvements would then be designed, with construction anticipated for completion in 2024.
Photos: SDOT
![](https://www.myballard.com/wp-content/uploads/2024-My-Ballard-Tile-Ad-Troop-100.png")
“While it’s on time 65% of the time or more during rush hour”
…is that an apology?
If you ran a bus with that failure rate in Japan, you’d have to commit seppuku to apologize.
I’d like to see the Haruki Murakami version…
I take the 40 about 15 minutes before 6 AM every weekday from Ballard and back again between 2:15 – 2:30 PM from downtown. On the way in there are usually some folks who might be homeless who create, shall we say, an animated presence (I guess they get bounced from their shelters in the north end and go down to Pioneer Square for services, kibbitzing…) but its mostly norms. At worst it’s usually 5 minutes late in the AM but the afternoons are a PITA. Buses come and go according to my apps and the screen in the window at my stop. But no ACTUAL bus ever appears. And then there’s the driver who always stops 5 feet before the line of people waiting. Makes us all walk to him. He has a place in hell.
bus shelters have become homeless bars and toilets
How does this make you feel? See the Sunday story on KOMO informing us that due to promises and spending, each and every 1 of us “owes the city $4500”? Yet there are “free trees” and some $100K per homeless spent/year. How does THIS make you feel?
Turn off Dori Monson and go actually take a bus.
At the very least TURN OFF Dori Monson!
At least these routes can be altered and or re-routed. Choo choo’s can’t.
Northgate to Westlake Center will take 14 minutes. Good luck doing that on a bus.
Have you ever lived in a city with decent trains?