King County Metro planning service changes for new Renton Transit Center

Early layout concept for the future Renton Transit Center (image: Sound Transit)

As part of the Stride S1 line, Sound Transit is building a new transit center in Renton, adjacent to the existing South Renton Park and Ride. When it opens in 2028, it will be known as simply Renton Transit Center, and will replace both the existing Renton Transit Center in downtown Renton, and the adjacent South Renton Park and Ride. Commuters need not fret over lack of parking, as the new transit center will include a new garage dedicated for commuter parking that is larger than the parking at both current facilities that are reserved for transit commuters. With the transit center moving, bus service has to move with it, and Metro has made its first service proposal on what that may look like in its Renton Area Mobility Project (RAMP). Details below the jump.

King County Metro is proposing moving every route that serves the current Renton Transit Center in downtown Renton to the future Renton Transit Center. Multiple services (including both RapidRide lines) will continue to downtown Renton, but the relocated transit center will be the new transfer hub for all routes.

To move the connection point, routes 148 and 153 (which already serve the South Renton P&R before continuing to the current transit center) are going to be shortened to the new transit center (and not continue downtown). Routes 105, 240, and 907 are going to be lengthened further south to reach the new transit center. Routes 106 and 107 are going to be redirected away from downtown to the new transit center, and routes 101, 102, RapidRides F and I (current 160) lines are seeing no substantial change in routing.

Additionally, route 153 will move to operate on SW 7th St to Lind Ave in both directions, and the RapidRide F Line will move off of SW 7th, Lind Ave, and SW 16th St to run on SW Grady Way from the new Renton Transit Center to Oaksdale Ave SW. Lastly, the two Metro Flex zones serving the existing transit center will be adjusted to both cover the relocated transit center.

Service levels across most routes are going to be the same, but there are some exceptions. The most welcome change in my opinion is that route 907 will be expanded to start earlier and run later (6am to 6pm). Currently, the 907 doesn't serve peak direction commutes at all, because historically these were covered by route 143 (e.g., northbound trips in the morning peak were all 143 trips, and after the commute is done, route 907 would start running). As a result, the last trip of the night" on route 907 to Black Diamond from Renton TC leaves at 3:45pm (because route 143 would start covering that trip shortly after that). However, route 143 is still suspended, as it has been since 2020. Metro's proposal will finally delete route 143 about 8 years after it was suspended, with the freed up service hours being used to expand service on route 907 and to implement the rest of the plan.

One other change in service is that short route 102 trips (which are ones that go from Seattle to S. Renton P&R, but not to Fairwood) will be converted to route 101. The same number of trips will run from Seattle to both Renton and Fairwood, but service will be simplified so that all 102 trips go to Renton TC and Fairwood, and all 101 trips will go to Renton TC and downtown Renton.

Where the proposal falls short

While the plan does a decent job at connecting current service to the Stride station at the new transit center, it does not provide any connections to the other Stride station in Renton at NE 44th St. I think this is a particularly unfortunate omission because parking at this station was delayed to the mid 2030s in the first realignment plan, meaning that for its first several years, the NE 44th St Station will only be useful for people going to or from walking distance of the station itself. A bus route connecting the station to the frequent route 240 a couple miles east could give local residents a way to access nearby Stride service, but as it stands, Stride service at NE 44th will be completely unusable for many local residents until the parking garage is completed.

I asked King County Metro if they had considered adding connections to NE 44th St, including a concept route that is part of their Metro Connects interim map, and I got this response:

The implementation of a new route to serve this station was not part of the scope of the Renton Area Mobility Project. As a budget-constrained project, the focus is on trying to facilitate the transit center relocation (which would require more operating resources than on the ground today, as more routes need to be extended to the new facility than there are routes that can be truncated at the new facility), without a reduction to current service levels. That task alone was challenging, and there unfortunately isn't remaining project budget to pursue service growth at the scale of implementing a new route like [the route from Metro Connects].

While it is probably the correct decision to keep this particular project narrowly focused on the area around downtown Renton due to how many routes need to be changed in this one area and the limited amount of service hours to work with, I do hope Metro is able to secure more funding for the other station in the near future, and will evaluate potential service options whether or not they can budget additional service hours.

One more idea

When I first got familiar with route 101, it was different than today. Rather than starting at South Renton P&R, then going to Renton TC, then Seattle, it actually did the Renton area backwards", by starting at Renton TC, then going south a bit to South Renton P&R, then going to Seattle. I always thought this was odd, because Renton TC was clearly the dominant transit hub, and also because it was going to the south park and ride before heading back north.

Route 101 before 2018 served Renton TC and S. Renton P&R in the reverse order that it does today.

With south Renton being the transit hub starting in 2028, I think it makes sense to bring back the backwards" route 101. It will save transferring riders about 10 minutes on each trip, which is quite significant!

If you have any thoughts on the proposal, sound off below, and be sure to take Metro's survey by November 30.