At the Southwest District Council meeting on Jan. 7, King County Metro Transportation Planner Jack Lattemann said West Seattle could see Rapid Ride service by 2011.

Rapid Ride was first introduced in 2007 and has been designed to improve travel times through King County's most heavily used transit stations. These buses would run every 10 minutes during the busiest travel hours and are designed to let people on and off more quickly.

Implementation of the bus system in West Seattle depends on the success of Rapid Ride's first line, the A-line, which will run between Federal Way and Tukwila on Pacific Highway South.

Currently being installed, the A-line and will be analyzed for its first few months in operation before Rapid Ride's other lines are installed. If it stays on schedule then the B-line, which will run from Bellevue to Redmond, and C-line, which will run from West Seattle to Downtown Seattle, could begin operating around September of 2011.

Metro and the Seattle Department of Transportation will both oversee street improvements needed at various stops, but Lattemann said Metro will directly manage repaving projects in the Alaska Street Junction and Fauntleroy ferry terminal.

Currently, Lattemann said, Metro is determining what kinds of shelter they will use at each Rapid Ride stop. He expects riders will have better protection from wind and rain than current bus shelters provide.

Another major change Lattemann said to expect between Rapid Ride and Metro's existing buses is a new tracking system being developed.

Now, if buses are not on their typical route dispatchers, and riders, are unable to track them. But the new system will operate using a global positioning system (GPS) and could locate buses even when they are forced off their routes.

Lattemann added that Metro has conducted significant community outreach to determine where stops should be located, and added one station near Fauntleroy Way and California Avenue Southwest, at the request of the community.

Members of the Southwest District Council were concerned about Rapid Ride's articulated buses, those with more than one trailer connected by accordion-like joints. Vlad Oustimovitch, a representative of the Fauntleroy Community Association, and other council members suggested that these kinds of buses would be impractical on West Seattle's many hills during poor weather conditions. During the latest snow storm several of these buses were not operational.

"I don't think that this bus is our best solution,"