King County Metro outlines South Link bus restructure, proposes trade-offs to fund all‑day service

King County Metro presented its South Link Connections proposals to the Des Moines City Council on July 24, laying out a cost‑neutral plan that would shift resources from suspended peak‑only service into more frequent all‑day and weekend routes that connect to the Link light rail extension to Federal Way.

The agency said the project area includes 10 cities and parts of unincorporated King County and that the draft network is intended to support three new Link stations and improved east–west travel. "This is a large restructure of bus service in South, Southwest King County ... Our project scope is 10 all day routes as well as 12 peak‑only routes," said Ryan Miller, service planner and network development lead for the South Link Connections mobility project.

Metro told the council it conducted multi‑phase engagement, outreaching to more than 200 organizations, multilingual materials and stop‑level outreach, and that public responses to an initial draft favored the proposed network by roughly 2 to 1 overall and by a similar margin among priority populations. The agency said the current proposal would increase trips in the project area by about 47% on weekdays, 61% on Saturdays and about two‑times on Sundays compared with the prior baseline.

To fund those increases within a cost‑neutral budget, Metro proposes removing nine suspended peak‑only routes plus two in‑service routes (identified as the 162 and 177 in the presentation), and an additional peak‑only route (162) that duplicates other all‑day service and Sounder connections. The change would also split a long, reliability‑challenged route into two routes (the new 164 and an adjusted 166) while preserving one‑seat rides for many current travelers: "Every 166 trip will turn into a 164 trip," Miller said, describing the through‑routing plan.

Metro stressed tradeoffs in two examples Council members raised: adding service to extend RapidRide A to Star Lake would cost an estimated $2–$3 million per year and would force reductions in other all‑day investments, so Metro is not proposing that extension. Similarly, a southward deviation of Route 166 to serve Woodmont/Redondo would cost about $1 million per year and was rejected because prior ridership in that area averaged one or two riders per trip on routes 121/122.

Council members asked about demand building and data. Metro said it tracks comprehensive plans and land‑use changes and runs outreach and marketing campaigns (including free youth passes and ambassador programs) to build ridership. Metro also said it will share stop‑level ridership information with council staff and that its public engagement period for the current proposal runs through Aug. 31, 2025; the agency plans to bring a final recommendation to the King County Council in 2026 with an implementation target in the fall following Council approval.

Council members requested additional local data, such as license‑plate or stop‑level studies, to better identify latent demand around park‑and‑rides and transit access. Metro said some license‑plate studies have been done in the past and acknowledged limits to that dataset.

Metro staff asked the council to encourage residents to take a short, multilingual survey at southlinkconnections.com and to notify Metro of local events where staff can tabling outreach.

The presentation and the council’s questions focused on preserving peak‑period connections where possible while shifting limited resources to all‑day and weekend frequency that Metro said community responders prioritized.