Many Bus Routes Cancelled Through Sunday, Possibly Several Days Longer

Have you ever seen Metro's Snow, Ice, and Flood Alerts page turn blue? It did today.

Update 2: STB now has a Snow Info Page, linked on the top bar, providing links to snow service pages for all transit agencies around Puget Sound and most around the state.

Update 1: King County Metro has pushed out an announcement that it will continue on the Emergency Snow Network Sunday, and updated its website with the same information. However a 90% chance of snow is predicted for Sunday evening and Monday.

In case you haven't looked outside since early yesterday, it snowed yesterday, all afternoon, all evening, and all morning so far.

The authorities heeded the meteological scientists' warnings, and took drastic action.

On Thursday, Governor Inslee delared a State of Emergency, limiting what vehicles are allowed to drive on state roads and highways, and begging people to stay home, lest they get frostbitten in the sub-freezing temperatures that will reach as low as 13 degrees Fahrenheit Sunday, and listed safety tips so nobody dies of carbon monoxide poisoning while staying home.

King County Metro has taken a step into the blue-pill abyss, cancelling many snow routes and moving to its Emergency Snow Network. Only 48 Metro routes are running today, including two different versions of route 62, special route 90 connecting a circular swath of First Hill to 3rd Ave via Jackson St, a 252 shuttle, two versions of route 255, two versions of route 348, and two versions of the C Line. The County smartly waited until 4 am to go live with the network, in order to get people home safely last night.

Even if your route is running today, and the map looks like your normal stops are being served, your normal stops might not be served, so check the Alerts for your route.

Sound Transit's difficult-to-navigate new website and alerts page is somewhat less useful for figuring out where your route has been re-routed. I suggest checking out their most recent tweets. The latest tweet says their static snow re-routes page accurately describes the current ST Express bus routing.

All that said, Link Light Rail has been running just fine. Indeed, it came to the rescue yesterday, running more frequently mid-day due to a ridership spike from people smartly going home early. Today, it is merely the only transit running on schedule.

Most paratransit operations are only providing medically-necessary trips today.

Amtrak trains between Portland and Seattle have been scaled back, at least through Sunday. Amtrak buses appear not to be running.

Clallam Transit shows its closures on its front page.

Community Transit has a well-curated list of snow re-routes, updated today. If your stop sign shows a snow flake, your bus is probably not going to serve that stop. Five Blue Swift Line stops are among the stop closures.

C-Tran (Clark County) has a list of routes on snow re-route and other changes

Everett Transit has route 8 on its snow route version B.

Greys Harbor Transit shows its tweets on its front page. One route was shut down today.

Intercity Transit's snow page list routes that have a snow re-route. Its most recent alerts don't show any deviation from that plan.

Island Transit has cancelled service today.

Jefferson Transit shows its alerts on its front page.

Kitsap Transit has an updated snow page listing which routes are on regular routes and which are on snow routes.

Mason Transit cancelled morning service, thought it over, and then threw in the towel for the rest of the day.

The monorail is shut down for the day.

Pierce Transit provides the basic snow re-route info on its front page, and has good freshly-updated modified snow detour maps on each affected route's page.

Those going to SeaTac Airport should check flight status with their airline.

I had no idea whether the Seattle Streetcars are running based on their static webpage. The absence of such routes on Metro's ESN list suggested they are not. But commenters reports they are running!

Skagit Transit conveniently lists its snow alerts on its front page.

Spokane Transit is on regular routing today. Inconceivable.

TriMet has its alterations, including vertical conveyance closures, neatly lined up on an easily-navigable alert page.

Twin Transit (Lewis County) started late, but is operating for most of its service area.

Vancouver Translink has a snow page too, with neat videos. SkyTrain actually gets more ridership in winter weather.

Washington State Ferries is less impacted by the snow, but wants to remind drivers to approach cautiously. Check your specific route for any delays.

Whatcom Transit asks you to check their tweets. They, too, use snowflakes on bus stop signs for stops that won't be served on days like today.

For the most up-to-date information, check out STB's Snow Info Page, linked from the top bar, providing links to snow service information from each of the transit agencies in the Puget Sound region and most of the state.

This is a snow-pen thread.