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Metro Transit rolls out revamped winter-weather plan

The winter of 2006-2007 was not the worst that King County Metro Transit has experienced, but it did present some new challenges.

“Within seven weeks last winter, we experienced two major snowstorms and a disruptive windstorm,” said Metro Transit Deputy General Manager Jim Jacobson. “The severity of the storms, combined with expansion of our bus system over recent years, meant that our crews were challenged to keep service running and respond to weather-related transportation problems.”

Jacobson said over the past year representatives from several different Metro work groups have been meeting to update the winter-response plan. He said the focus continues to be on providing safe, reliable transportation, but Metro also wants to beef up internal and external communication during times of adverse weather.

Some of the new activities include:

• Providing more information on the Metro Online website about bus reroutes due to snow and ice, including area of reroute, service status, and if chained shuttles are in use;

• Chained bus shuttles to serve steep, hilly areas such as Queen Anne Hill in Seattle and the Issaquah Highlands Park-and-Ride on the Sammamish Plateau. When the steep roads connecting to those areas become impassable for large buses, Metro will run 40-foot chained buses between the top of the hill and a transit connection spot at a lower elevation.

• Metro and the King County Road Services Division have worked with local cities to match up snow plowing priority routes with bus routes, so fewer buses will be stuck on unplowed roads;

• Metro has a new towing agreement with the Washington State Department of Transportation to clear immobile buses more quickly from the local freeways;

• A new reroute database for internal use by the different work groups at Metro will provide more up-to-date information to driver supervisors, maintenance workers, the transit sanding and plowing teams, and customer service reps about where bus service is disrupted;

• New phone lines for bus drivers to report stuck coaches and other weather-related issues to both quicken response and free-up Metro radio channels for the most urgent calls;

• Special winter driving training for the Metro crews that respond before the buses hit the road. Recently, the crews that de-ice the trolley wires and plow the transit centers went through training to learn how to best handle their big rigs when the weather gets rough. The crews were put through a slick, wet obstacle course, and taught how to make quick stops and other split-second driving decisions.

Jacobson said these new initiatives are in addition to the regular winter prep and bus driver instruction that Metro does every year.

If the snow begins to fall, Metro will go on adverse weather alert and prepare to chain buses as necessary. The transit agency will also put buses on snow routing in areas where travel becomes dangerous. When buses are on adverse weather routing, Metro revises its service to bypass hazardous and hilly streets.

Because weather and road conditions can change quickly, it is hard to predict in advance of the storm which buses will be rerouted and if schedules will be delayed. If travel in your area is impacted by snow and ice, or is in hilly areas, expect buses to be on snow reroutes. Visit Metro Online for general information and pre-established snow routing.

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Updated: December 03, 2007

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