Puget Sound transit and riders navigate post-pandemic commutes

“When Amazon employees returned to in-office work, it caused notable traffic changes and ridership changes that have influenced that route,” Chalmers said. “It’s going to take a strong partnership to be able to continue to work through some of that.”

The 8 currently has an overall on-time rate of about 75 percent – but the rate varies significantly depending on when and which direction you’re traveling. During peak travel times eastbound on weekday afternoons, the on-time rate for the 8 dipped to a low of just 30 percent last June.

“It’s very congested here,” Schultheis said of her homeward commute.

In general, on-time performance at Metro is around 80 percent, which has remained fairly consistent over the past five years, according to Metro’s rider data dashboard. The number of passengers riding Metro each weekday has climbed steadily since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020 – in February 2024, 291,000 people on average rode Metro’s buses each weekday, up from 267,000 one year earlier. That’s still well below pre-pandemic levels from February 2020, when the system averaged 510,000 weekday riders.

While many businesses have returned to at least partial in-office work, changes in commuters’ travel habits have definitely had an impact on how Metro schedules its routes, during both traditional weekday morning and afternoon commutes and at other times.

“We’re seeing a long-term shift towards providing frequent service all day and on weekends,” Chalmer said. “That’s a direction that Metro had envisioned even before the pandemic. What we’ve seen is an acceleration of trends that point in the direction of an all-day frequent network as the goal.”

In 2023, Metro reduced scheduled bus service by about 4 percent across the county to balance ridership decreases and difficulties hiring and retaining drivers and bus mechanics. As reported last year, in spring 2023 Metro faced a shortage of 120 full-time drivers and 40 bus maintenance and repair staff.

Last August, Metro and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587 agreed to a new three-year labor contract covering about 4,000 transit employees, raising wages a total of 17 percent, offering current drivers a retention bonus of $2,000 and giving new drivers and mechanics a $3,000 signing bonus.

That contract, in tandem with more vigorous recruiting efforts, has made a dent in Metro’s deficit of drivers, Chalmers said. “Since January, we’ve had seven classes and 65 new folks coming into operator training,” she said, up from a previous average of about 25 per month. “We’ve basically increased the pipeline of people coming into Metro for bus operator training.”

Boosting service and opening new lines

If Metro continues to see improvement in the availability of drivers and mechanics, Chalmers said, the agency is hoping to announce service increases in August. That timing is important because three new major transit infrastructure projects in the region are coming this year: the opening of Sound Transit’s Eastside Link light-rail line in April; the extension of the Link 1 Line from Northgate to Lynnwood; and the unveiling of Metro’s long-awaited Rapid Ride G Line on Madison this fall.