When light rail comes to north Seattle, buses will change routes to serve it

Light rail will change how people get around north Seattle when service extends to Northgate next year. That means a lot of bus routes that people have relied on will change.

Cheryl Harrison lives in Lake City. She’s part of a community advisory board that helped Sound Transit redesign bus routes, like the 41, which goes from Lake City to downtown Seattle.

When light rail opens, the 41 won’t go to downtown anymore. It’ll end at Northgate.

“Change is really difficult," Harrison said, "If you’re used to taking something and then it changes, it’s not there anymore, it’s like, 'OK, what am I gonna take now?'”

Starting in 2021, riders on the 41 headed downtown will transfer to light rail at Northgate. Harrison says that’s inconvenient, but it also makes the ride more reliable and faster because light rail doesn’t get stuck in car traffic.

“I think the potential is to be actually better,” she said.

The 41 is just one of many routes redesigned to funnel riders into light rail. It allows Metro to amp up east west connections, letting rail do what rail does best: slipping through congestion like a geoduck through wet sand.

Metro posted all its proposed route changes online, and it’s looking for feedback from riders.