Improving Metro bus schedules with Link connections

One feature of some of King County Metro's paper schedules is the inclusion of connections to downtown Seattle as part of the timetable. It is also available on the PDF versions of the schedules, which is the same as the paper ones. This is done on certain routes where a transfer to downtown Seattle is common. Here is an example:

The timetable for route 187 includes connections to routes 577 and 578 (image: King County Metro)

While this example makes it painfully obvious that some connections just don't work very well (such as the 29 minute wait coming from Seattle on the last trip), the fact that this is included does make it easier to use for someone who wants to get to Seattle. They don't need to open up two different schedules to find how their trip will go; they just need this one. What if King County Metro did something similar for connections to Link?

A great candidate for this kind of schedule would be route 255. Having recently been shortened to UW Station, Metro's intention is clearly for most riders to transfer to Link, even going so far as to modify the road configuration and add a bus signal to bring the bus stop closer to the light rail station. Surprisingly though, the PDF schedule for route 255 does not include a Link connection in the way that the schedule for route 187 does, despite the transfer to Link Light Rail being much more common. If it did, then the schedule could look something like this:

A portion of the timetable for route 255 modified to add a Link transfer to downtown Seattle

Not only does this seem to be feasible, but for routes like route 255 and many others (and even more beginning October 2), connecting to Link is a very important feature that deserves special emphasis. Riders of the old 255 who are confused by the recent changes can see how to get to downtown with the new 255. And if Metro is considering truncating other routes to a Link station in order to expand service levels, they can offer the inclusion of a Link connection in the schedule as a way to make the transition easier for existing riders.

And though connection information like this is not available on the web-based non-PDF versions of schedules on their website, it could be added with a bit of effort. In fact, the web version could offer more connections than just Link. For example, there could be a drop-down allowing users to select other potential connections, such as to route 70 for South Lake Union.