News Release
Release date: August 7, 2000
Metro sets ridership records with
special weekend bus service
More than one-third of the
Seahawks fans attending the pre-season game at Husky Stadium Saturday rode the
bus. King County Metro Transit is expecting that figure to grow during the regular
season - to record-setting amounts.
And the "Endzone Express"
for the Seahawks was only part of popular special bus service Metro provided during
the busy weekend. Other buses carried riders to the hydroplane activities on Lake
Washington and to U.S. Navy ships in Elliott Bay.
Total ridership for all the
special service exceeded 75,000, higher than any previously recorded figure. Metro
is also experiencing additional ridership on regular bus service resulting from
the state-funded free rides over the damaged Evergreen Point Bridge.
"Again this weekend, Metro
showed that it can help reduce congestion, parking problems and frayed nerves,"
said County Executive Ron Sims. "Thousands of people rode our articulated
- bending - buses instead of driving their cars."
On Saturday, 220 Metro buses
carried 15,437 riders to the football game against Indianapolis, which was attended
by about 44,000 fans. Buses carried Seahawks ticket-holders free between the Stadium
Exhibition Center parking garage in downtown Seattle and eight park-and-ride lots
around the county.
Ridership for the service mirrored
proportion of Seahawks fans who rode buses to regular-season games at Husky Stadium
in 1994, when the Kingdome was closed for repairs.
"We expect ridership to
go even higher during the regular season," said Paul Toliver, director of
the King County Department of Transportation. "Amtrak will be carrying 300-900
passengers each game from Portland to downtown Seattle, where they will catch
buses to Husky Stadium."
Based on surveys it's conducted
among transit agencies around the country, Metro believes it provides the best-used
special service to sports events. The Seahawks service is record-setting, followed
by Metro's service for Husky football games. Twenty to 24 percent of Husky fans
ride the bus to and from games.
The Seahawks service Saturday
was so popular that most park-and-ride lots were overflowing their capacity. The
largest lot, in Federal Way, has 894 parking stalls, but more than 1,000 vehicles
in and near the lot carried 3,176 people to the game
Metro's hydroplane service during
the weekend might not have been record setting, but it was close. Metro customers
made more than 44,450 round trips using the free special service Friday, Saturday
and Sunday, compared with more than 45,700 in 1998. The highest use was race day
Sunday, with 24,351 round trips.
Though no figures are yet available,
Metro also ran two articulated buses full of riders who toured U.S. Navy ships
Saturday and Sunday afternoons at the Port of Seattle's Pier 90 and Pier 91. The
buses shuttled tourists between a parking lot and the piers.
"We were pleased to see
that traffic volumes on Saturday and Sunday were lighter than expected,"
said Maureen Sullivan, Seattle/North King area administrator for the state Department
of Transportation. "It was such a busy weekend that we could have easily
seen gridlock, even without the SR-520 lane closure. We were grateful that Governor
Locke provided emergency funds to King County Metro Transit so they could provide
free service to help people get around while the SR-520 bridge was under repair."
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