Zahilay Rolls Out Updated Transit Plan, as Budget Woes Cloud Metro's Future

When King County Executive Girmay Zahilay took the stage in Federal Way last week for a State of the County speech to mark his first six months in office, he had a slate of policy announcements in tow. Among the proposals to increase funding for gun violence prevention, expand access to child care, and increase government responsiveness was a new long-range plan for Metro, being dubbed "Metro's Next Stop."

Metro's Next Stop updates the Metro Connects framework currently on the books, last amended in 2021. While Metro Connects called for Metro to scale up to 5.5 million service hours by the mid-2030s – one million more than its 2019 baseline, or a 22% increase – Metro's Next Stop scales that back to a 12% bump compared to around 4 million service hours today.

Proposals for dozens of new bus routes would be pared down to just nine, on top of the plan for four more RapidRide enhanced bus lines that had been the Metro Connects minimum.

Zahilay touted the plan as being part of his administration's "Four B's" agenda that also includes the goal of building for affordability in King County, breaking the cycles of addition, homelessness, and incarceration, being in community, and creating better government.

https://www.theurbanist.org/zahilay-metro-bus-plan/