Press Release:
King County Metro Transit is keeping all buses in all areas on snow routes for Tuesday morning.

Buses will be crowded and significantly delayed, perhaps even worse than Monday, due to road conditions. If those conditions severely deteriorate overnight, Metro may have to cancel entire bus routes in the morning.

Most specific cancelations won't be known until 4:00 a.m. or later. All transit riders are advised to check Metro's Snow & Ice page before they travel.

Bus riders should visit www.kingcounty.gov/metro/snow for the most current status of Metro service before traveling on Tuesday. Online updates will begin at 4 a.m. If you do not have internet access, call Metro’s Customer Information Center at (206) 553-3000. Due to the volume of calls, there could be a wait on the phone lines.

Roads throughout the Metro service area are expected to be extremely icy and hazardous Monday evening and Tuesday morning. There are also many abandoned vehicles blocking the roadways.

Please be patient, and dress warmly for waiting outdoors. Returning to regular service will be evaluated again after the morning commute.

Access transit service is limited to life-sustaining medical trips only through 9 a.m. Tuesday due to deteriorating road conditions on both arterials and local streets.

When buses are on snow routing, some streets and bus stops may be missed and there are often delays due to travel conditions. There is new snow routing in many areas that is different from past years, so be sure to check the snow routes for all the routes you use most often.

Not all routes have snow routes, but many do. Sometimes snow routes have to be added or modified during an event.

Metro has these tips for winter bus travel.

Know the snow routing for your bus route. Check the timetables at www.kingcounty.gov/metro for snow
route maps for each route. Not every bus route has snow routing, but most do.

Metro routes 38 and 45 don’t operate in these conditions.

Special bus service - Route 90 - operates between downtown and First Hill.

Metro is using a new online color-coded map to keep riders informed of the status of its bus service.
Bus routes are assigned into one or more of seven geographic areas within King County.

When there is snow or ice on the roads, the service status of each area is color coded and displayed on an online snow map. Green indicates buses are operating on normal routes; yellow that some – but not all – routes in the area are on snow routes, and red tells you that all bus routes in that area are on
snow routing.

People without online access can call the Customer Information Office at (206) 553-3000.
General information about service will also be sent out via the kcmetrobus Twitter account.

Here are some other snow tips for Metro customers:

• Be patient. Buses are not always on schedule in snowy or icy conditions. Increased ridership
during bad weather can result in crowded buses and a longer-than-usual wait on the phone for
the Customer Information Office. If you get a busy signal, hang up and call back;

• Expect delays. Dress warmly for the walk to the bus stop and wear appropriate footwear for the weather;

• Wait at bus stops on flat portions of main arterials or at major transfer points such as park-and-ride lots, transit centers, or shopping centers;

• Online programs like Bus Tracker and other privately developed apps become less reliable in bad-weather
conditions, as more buses go to snow routing and service is increasingly disrupted. Metro's online Trip Planner does not have real-time information. Check for service disruptions and make necessary adjustments to travel plans.
Metro will provide updates as new information is known.