South Link Connections Phase 3 Proposal

King County Metro has shared their revised South King County restructure proposal in preparation for Sound Transit's Federal Way Link Extension (FWLE) opening in 2026. Metro is accepting feedback via a survey until August 31. Overall, this plan will introduce three new routes and two new Metro Flex areas, revise eight routes, and remove 13 routes (9 of which are currently suspended). The Blog has previously covered Phase 1 and Phase 2.

Current and Proposed South King County Network Maps

Using feedback from the Phase 2 proposal, Metro has changed a few routes. Routes not mentioned below are unchanged from Phase 2.

• Route 156: Frequency increased to every 15-30 minutes on weekday midday, and to every 30 minutes weekend midday. The route will run later, until 11pm on weekdays and 10pm on weekends.
• Route 162: This route is now deleted.
• Route 164: Frequency increased to every 15 minutes during the day on weekends. The first trips will start earlier, at 4:15am and 4:45am on weekdays and weekends, respectively.
• Route 166: Weekday peak frequency increased to every 15-30 minutes. The first weekend trips will start later, at 5:15am.
• Route 181: Weekend frequency reduced to every 30 minutes. The first weekend trips will start earlier, at 6am.
• Route 182: The planned route revision for this route has been reversed. Route 182 will continue to serve NE Tacoma. Weekday trips will now run later, until 10:15pm. This route will be through-run with Route 187. See the updated map below.
• Route 183: Weekend evening frequency reduced to 30-60 minutes. The last weekend trip will run later, until 9pm.
• Route 186: The previously proposed Route 186 has been removed and replaced by DART 902.
• Route 187: Route 187 will be extended to serve Hoyt Rd SW. This route will be through-run with Route 182. See the updated map below.
• DART 902: This route will follow the proposed path of Route 186, without the Hoyt Rd SW segment. Weekend frequency reduced to 60 minutes and this route will be through-run with DART 903. See the updated map below.
• DART 903: Weekday and weekend trips will run later, ending at 9:30pm and 8:30pm, respectively. This route will now be through-run with DART 902.

South Federal Way Restructure

Between Phases 2 and 3, routes in the north subarea only had frequency changes. In the south subarea, however, several routes were modified.

Routes 182 and 187

Route 182's segment in NE Tacoma has been restored as the route is now through-run with Route 187 on 49th Ave NE. Route 187 was revised to continue serving Hoyt Rd SW. Both routes will run at the same frequency, shown below.

Map of Routes 182 and 187DART Routes 902 and 903

DART Route 902 will replace the current DART 901 and part of the current Route 187. In Phase 2, the proposed Route 186 covered this path. Switching from the fixed-route 186 to DART 902 will preserve the DART access in Mirror Lake and allow through-running with DART 903.

In addition to sharing your thoughts in the comments below, be sure to let Metro know what you think of these changes using their survey before August 31. Metro is also hosting two Virtual Information Sessions on August 6 at noon and on August 20 at 6pm. Registration information can be found on the South Link Connections website.

Tell us in the comments what you think of this proposal. Is it a good balance of frequency and coverage given Metro's limited resources?