Well, one thing is set in stone: King County Metro’s RapidRide C and D Lines begins service on Sept. 29, 2012, and the routes are finalized (RapidRide buses promise faster travel with less stops and more frequent pickups).

The rest of the West Seattle’s bus routes are subject to change with an implementation date at the end of September 2012(the same time RapidRide starts up). Of the changes proposed so far community reaction has ranged from elation to disappointment.

Three useful links are included with the story - including links to two transit maps created by Seattle Transit Blog's Oran Viriyincy and King County's official map (suggested_network_south).

On Nov. 9, King County Metro held an open house at Chief Sealth High School, bringing transit planners out to speak directly with the public. Participation was healthy, with tables set up for community brainstorming full of West Seattleites hashing out the pros and cons of Metro’s current proposal.

Concerns and applause
“We are looking at the rest of the system (around the RapidRide lines), seeing if there are opportunities to restructure it to make it more efficient and more cost effective,” Transit Planner Jack Whisner said at the open house. “But there are serious trade-offs when you do that.

“We are trying to make some routes run more frequently and that means not serving some other routes at all, so that is a loss of coverage.”

For example, the current proposal will cut out the Arbor Heights loop for Route 21 during off-peak hours, instead veering to Westwood Village for better connection with other routes. Peak hours are from 6-9 a.m. and 3-6 p.m. on weekdays.

The RapidRide C-Line will replace the 54 and part of the 55, frustrating some Admiral-area riders who lose their transfer-free route to downtown.

Additional concerns include cutting Route 37, leaving Beach Drive residents without service, and Route 22, leaving Gatewood residents without service during off-peak hours.

On the positive side, a change to Route 120, from the Burien Transit Station to downtown through Delridge, has received positive feedback. The route is proposed to swing by Westwood Village, finally providing Delridge residents with a bus route to a full host of services including a grocery store. The lack of a grocery store or a decent way to get to one with mass transit has been a Delridge concern for years.

Bruce Nourish with the Seattle Transit Blog provided additional details on changes for West Seattle in a recent post. Here is what he had to say:

•Alki, Genessee Hill: The little-used neighborhood circulators, 51 and 53, that currently serve these neighborhoods go away. Service to the eastern part of Alki is provided by the DART vans the King County Ferry District operates from Seacrest Dock. The western part of Alki gains many more connections.

•All West Seattle: The proposal calls for not one, but two east-west connections from West Seattle, one on the south to Georgetown via the 1st Ave S bridge, and another to the Rainier Valley via SODO Station, effectively tying together the 56 and 39.

•Delridge: The 120 alignment is unchanged (in Delridge), but 16th Ave SW is reduced to peak-only downtown service, in favor of tying together the 125 and 128, avoiding the 128′s current long backtrack to South Seattle Community College and providing much better connectivity to Alki and Alaska Junction. The south tail of the 120 is extended to Westwood Village, as is the south tail of the 60.

•Arbor Heights, Shorewood: Reduced to peak-only service.

•Vashon, Fauntleroy: The 54X and 116 are consolidated. RapidRide C replaces the 54, but unfortunately, it looks like frequent service isn’t going to extend into the evening.

The best way to investigate how these changes will affect you is to explore Metro’s proposal online or in person. The good news is the conversation and possibility of altering plans is in full swing. Anyone interested in providing input can start online with Metro’s “Have a Say” website, or attend a series of meetings this November. In West Seattle the next informational open house is Nov. 17 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Madison Middle School, 3429 45th Ave S.W.

“We have heard over the years that people want a radical change to West Seattle service,” Whisner said. “They want to make it easier to get around within West Seattle and right now we have a system of three local routes each running every half hour. We want to test the notion of having more frequency but maybe requiring more transfers, and the presence of the (RapidRide) C makes that possible.”

After November’s outreach, Whisner said transit planners go back to the drawing board to draft a revised proposal. Another round of community outreach is expected to start up in January.