Representatives from the City of Des Moines and Metro Transit will soon welcome a new transportation option in south King County – Route 635, the Des Moines Community Shuttle. “It’s wonderful to see the results of the Metro Connects partnership between the County and the cities they serve. The new shuttle will provide an important transit connection to the Des Moines area,” said King County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove, whose district includes Des Moines. “I am always happy to see improvements to our transportation infrastructure in South King County.” Metro has been working with the City of Des Moines to increase transportation options within the city’s growing business district, connecting the Des Moines Creek Business Park, the downtown Des Moines Marina District and Sound Transit’s Angle Lake Light Rail Station. Currently there are no connections from the Business Park, where there are several businesses, and which will also house the new regional office for the Federal Aviation Administration, and Angle Lake, reducing the ability for workers to take light rail to work. The Des Moines Community Shuttle, which begins service TODAY – Monday Jan. 29 – will provide a direct connection between the Business Park, the Marina District and Angle Lake Station. The shuttle, a part of Metro’s Community Connections, is a four-year demonstration program and a partnership between Metro, local governments and community partners to develop innovative and cost-efficient transportation solutions in areas of King County that don’t have the infrastructure, density, or land use to support regular, fixed-route bus service. The schedule and maps for Route 635 are available at:
https://kingcounty.gov/depts/transportation/metro/schedules-maps/635.aspx
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I’m not sure that this Metro line from the light rail station is going to turn out to be such a good thing, but let’s hope it is.
I work in the ER in Burien and we’ve seen the negative side of a transit center being located in Burien. A huge increased drug and psychiatric patients in the ER, increased crime and homeless vagrants haunting Burien’s downtown area since the transit center was established there. I believe there where articles about this in the B-Town Blog in the past.
A friend of mine, a Metro driver, states that this is because the drivers can’t make anyone pay before entering the public transportation and therefore people just get on from downtown Seattle and go to outlying areas spreading Seattles problems elsewhere.
I hope this shuttle line does not become something similar for Des Moines. If it does, is our police department up for the task? Are our local politicians strong enough to stand up for the citizens of Des Moines?
I hope this turns out to be a boon and not a bust.
I sense a slight boogeyman tone in that comment, and as a person who has bussed daily on the filthy, but efficient, 132 since the 80’s between 516 in Des Moines and downtown 2nd and Pike, there is no concern to be had more than the problem that has existed fow 30 years. I feel much safer now than I did in the 90’s-00’s taking routes that traveled between tansit hubs. Those who have rode the light rail know that even late nights, the stations and fare enforcement officers are in high visibility. All public transit has issues, and I have been witness to public transit crime more than my fair share but it still does not convince me it is a seedy death capsule riding Metro transit. I guess in my travelling alone in the world to s*holes and a frequent NYT rider, I realize how peaceful our area is in relation to its size. Growth and progression happens, we are not suburbia from the last 5 years ago, even. I am happy Metro made a sensible solution to such a backwards plan to not have easy connections from the light rail station in our neighborhood. Question is, what are the total ride times between here and downtown?
Foreverresident, no boggyman here. Just saying you might want to talk to the Burien City Council and Police Department as to the effect of having a endpoint destination for metro in their city. Not that the new route is anything that big. In the ER we noticed a sharp increase in ER visits for psychiatric issues, intoxication and patients under the influence jump greatly after the opening of the transit center in Burien. At times half the beds in our ER are tied up with these patients that are often there for 72 hours. So next time you come to the ER and have to wait prolonged times, don’t b*tch at me that you had to wait, thank Metro, these wonderful citizens and a broken law and treatment system in Washington!