Metro recovery starts Monday

Metro announced yesterday that it is largely restoring pre-pandemic service levels on Monday:

The result is Metro will operate more than 11,000 weekday bus trips, or 85% of its pre-COVID service level. Saturday service will be 8,200 trips (99%) and Sunday service will be 7,000 trips (99%). Starting Monday, Metro's will increase the number of transit operators providing service from 64% to about 80% of pre-COVID levels.

Ridership is still down about 70%, but King County is likely to enter Phase 2 soon and have activity pick up. Quite a few non-core routes will remain shut down, but many peak expresses will return.

The South Lake Union Streetcar and Trailhead Direct will not operate. Metro promises the Reduced Schedule and Canceled Trips pages will have specific weekday schedule information on Saturday.

As September's service change will cut about 15% off last January's route network, we may be at this service level for quite some time, and worse off on weekends.