Contrary to the implications expressed in that article, there are no
current plans to eliminate Route 216. Although Metro faces
unprecedented revenue shortfalls and balancing the budget as required by
law will be extremely difficult to do without reducing the amount of
service on the road, it is unlikely that Route 216 will be discontinued
in its entirety. It is more likely that select trips will be eliminated
and spans of service reduced from a number of routes over the next few
years. Metro is hopeful that additional revenues will be found and cost
savings implemented that will help avoid more drastic service impacts.
Decisions regarding how and when service reductions may occur will be
made following the adoption of Metro’s biennial budget by the King
County Council in late November. Despite the uncertainty, it is likely
that trips with the lowest ridership will be targeted first for
reduction. Most trips on Route 216 have good ridership levels, thus
making it an unlikely candidate for elimination.

Thank you for your suggestion to extend some Route 218 trips to start
and end at the South Sammamish park-and-ride. In the event that the
Route 216 were to be eliminated, this concept would be considered.
Factors that would cause the Route 216 to be deleted would also make it
difficult to incur the added cost of such an extension, especially if
trips were to be extended all the way north along 228th Avenue SE.
Additionally, there are no good places to turn buses around north of the
park-and-ride, and there would be little if any savings if Route 218
simply replaced route 216 north of Issaquah-Pine Lake Road.

Thank you again for your email. If you have further questions or
comments, please contact Victor Obeso, Service Development Manager, at
206-263-3109, or via email, at victor.obeso@kingcounty.gov
.

Sincerely,

Kevin Desmond
General Manager
Metro Transit Division

Why not have the #218 extended and run the route up to 228th. They have the 554 route doing that after 7:00pm.

I believe that the less transfers you have to take will continue to keep the ridership #’s up. That way you can still
utilize the current P&R and not add more cars on the road.

There are probably (5) #218 bus for every (1) #216 that run, we already have to wait 30 minutes for each one as it is.
The # 550 use to or may be still currently run by both Metro and Sound Transit, so why not reduce the amount of buses on that (metro)route and let Sound Transit handle it, plus with both Metro and ST they run every 5-10 minutes. It’s unfortunate that they would consider cutting the #216 service because of lack of ridership – there are many students who participate in the Running Start program from Skyline that could just as easily take the #216 to BCC if they ran more frequently.

As the cost for gas rose so did the ridership. I noticed that most new riders jumped onto the bus
when it reach the $4 mark, and soon decreased as the prices went back down.

The 216 is awesome, we also are the most patient riders when it comes to bus delays or they don’t show up due to mechanical or driver mishaps. The City of Sammamish also did an awesome job clearing 228th during the snow storms, that made it possible to continue to ride the #216 even though it was not running regularly… for people like me who HAVE TO go to work because of the nature of my job I really appreciated Metro and the City doing their best. THANKS!

Attention: Metro and your budget crunch.

Quit moving around bus stop locations every time there’s a schedule shakeup. Quit moving around bus shelters, too. In other words, you need to make up your mind and stick to it. Bus stops and bus shelters are not moving targets. Changes like these are unnecessary and add no value, only expenses and confusion to bus riders. (Do bus bays at South Sammamish P&R really have to be changed from 2 to 3? Come on, Metro!)

To those of you who make these changes – Try riding the routes you’re changing to know whether you’re doing the right thing or not. Get out of your office and face the real world.

More thoughts – Quit printing bus schedules every shakeup. Quit tweaking run times, too. (Do changing time points by 1 or 2 minutes really matter? Give me a break!) Go green, go paperless. Riders can use the internet if they want to know. The excellent transit system in Vancouver, BC, prints no bus schedules, so why can’t Metro do the same to save money?

I say: make it run every hour, not every 30 minutes, and less stops.

I live up by NE 8th and drive to Issaquah or Eastgate to ride the bus. I rarely catch the 216 anymore. In addition to the ridiculous amount of stops, it used to be standing room only when it got to South Sammamish PR. I suspect it’s thinned out a bit. In the evenings coming home, the bus has no A/C. And since it takes 50~60 minutes to get back, it’s not pleasant at all. Then there is the situation that the 5:20 bus coming home is almost always late, and the previous bus 4:50 (can be early)– that’s a winning combo. Then there are all the riders that use the 216 going home to take to Mercer Island or Eastgate. There are other buses that provide the same and more frequent service (at least to eastgate).

What kind of deal with the devil did transit authorities make with M.I. They get their own multiple ramps. They can be SOV in the express lanes with everyone else required to be carpool. Ball fields and a park on the lid.

Suggestions I’ve made in the past to Metro seem to fall on deaf ears. But I’ll serve them up again for your consumption.

Reduce 216 stops on the Plateau to P&R only.

Use busses with A/C for evening trips from Seattle back to Sammamish

Move the Eastgate and M.I. Stops to 214 and 218, (i.e. split them up). If someone needs to go to Eastgate, they can catch the 218 already. And the 214 could easily absorb the M.I. Stop.

These are no-brainers yet seem to not be of choice.

I would also say, increase the 269 frequency.