King County Metro - Seattle, Washington

[LDCY]

On 12/23/2024 at 2:28 PM, edit said:

https://kingcountymetro.blog/2024/12/23/king-county-metro-signs-landmark-deal-to-welcome-new-bus-manufacturer-to-north-america-expand-zero-emission-fleets/

Metro is buying two 60-foot and two 40-foot from Solaris with an option is expand the order to 12 additional buses. King county metro is the first in the US to bring in these buses which will be delivered in 2026.

I wonder if there was any talk between KCM and Solaris regarding possible trolleybus order in the future.

There is such little competition in this industry, if there were more potential bidders, G Line would have run by trolleybus.

[Express691]

Section seems to be dead: The bus funeral procession for late operator Shawn Yim took place Friday Morning with over 60 buses participating. 4th avenue was a sight to behold, it was XDE60 after XDE60 after XDE60. Pierce, Grays Harbor, Everett, Intercity, Mason, Community (Lynnwood), Spokane were among those that made an appearance. TransLink could not send a bus per USDOT and insurance difficulties; instead, a CANTRAIL bus drove BC representatives down for the memorial service at Lumen Field.

Attached below is a picture on Reddit of the north parking lot. 

 

[jay8g]

I spotted coach 1000, the pilot (as the decal near the front labels it) Gillig battery bus, at South Base today. Hopefully these will start showing up in service soon, and hopefully they'll be more successful than the Proterras or New Flyer XE series. The new livery looks pretty nice, even if the Low Floor Plus series is the ugliest bus on the market today.

[Kennys bus drawings]

Definitely agree with that last part, I'll always wish that they could just offer the battery Gillig in a BRT or literally anything else besides the super tall kind, and any other headlight configuration besides the LF Plus kind. Thats why I like the XE40s, they still at least look like normal buses.

[edit]

Woah that is cool, can't wait to see them out on the road!

[edit]

KCM confirmed they will be installing the partitions on all the new gillig buses. Along with that I think they will be making a tour of all the bases in the coming days.

[Kennys bus drawings]

According to the March 2025 service change, the E line and route 40 will be completely North Base, (so no more Central Base rapidride operations at all?) and some routes (like the 8, 36, and 70) are becoming more frequent on the weekends.

Metro is anticipating to be able to have Federal Way routes serve the light rail station facility instead of the transit center, before the light rail itself opens(?) And I'm not sure of the status on the new Montlake Freeway station opening soon but the new infastructure itself looks ready enough when seen from the bus to be able to start being officialy served either at the beginning of the march service change, or in the middle of it. 

[edit]

The new electric gillig! Also is that white signs I see?? 

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGzFqutN--T/?igsh=MWI5YnI2a2hweGFiZA==

[Flippy1205]

Seeing white head signs on Metro routes is going to feel cursed for a while.

But then again, people probably felt the same way on the switch from rollsigns to flipdot, and from flipdot to dot matrix.

[118 Vashon via EXPRESS]

MEHVA is back this year.

https://mehva.org/news/mehva-is-back

[Jupiter Casper]

I'm started a retirement watch page for Metro's Orion VII's and DE60LFR's:

Link is below for anyone who wants to check it out,

 

[aznichiro115]

330 is the highest I've seen in this bunch. 

[UpLift Vancouver]

From the Northwest Bus Fans Facebook group: 8270 was renumbered 6270 & has a RapidRide wrap.

[edit]

3704 from SB now has the new barrier on the bus (sorry I could not get a photo) 

[Express691]

On 4/4/2025 at 11:56 PM, UpLift Vancouver said:

From the Northwest Bus Fans Facebook group: 8270 was renumbered 6270 & has a RapidRide wrap.

Another has been renumbered (6289 from 8289)

I’m sorry this is just strange, the maintenance department wasting money bootlicking the marketing department

[Flippy1205]

On 4/12/2025 at 11:59 AM, Express691 said:

Another has been renumbered (6289 from 8289)

I’m sorry this is just strange, the maintenance department wasting money bootlicking the marketing department

The plausible theory some of us have come up with off-forum is that Metro has enough local Xcelsiors kicking around that they can easily wrap and transfer them to offset the LFAs being retired, while not losing buses for its local routes when the Gilligs come in

[118 Vashon via EXPRESS]

According to the post over at Northwest Bus Fans:

22 buses have been renumbered and wrapped/repainted

No artics on order (some test artics from Solaris and New Flyer (hydrogen powered, unknown timeline) will be coming, but that seems to be it for now).

 

[edit]

1001 and 1000 were put on display today. They look really cool in the inside of the bus. I guess these buses are doing a throw back to the LFR seating arrangement with the side facing seats near the rear door? The news reporter asked a good question but I don't think they know that KCM also had the same issues with the proterras and retired them too. 

 

[Janos97]

I found the former 1908, Startrans President LF had started a new life in the Houston area, with a small animals taxi business called Doobie Dogs. 

https://www.facebook.com/doobiedogsus/photos/pb.100064184610758.-2207520000/191020019172236/?type=3

https://www.facebook.com/doobiedogsus/photos/pb.100064184610758.-2207520000/237908217816749/?type=3

https://houstondogmom.com/duberdogs-pet-taxi-houston/

[Jaykob Walson]

Any updates on the Solaris buses? Will they be in the current Blue/Green livery? I predict they'll be numbered in the 5000s. You guys?

[RandyG2689]

On 5/29/2025 at 7:42 PM, Jaykob Walson said:

Any updates on the Solaris buses? Will they be in the current Blue/Green livery? I predict they'll be numbered in the 5000s. You guys?

I was going to ask the same thing tbh.. seems like any info on them has gone radio silent 

[roamer]

14 minutes ago, RandyG2689 said:

I was going to ask the same thing tbh.. seems like any info on them has gone radio silent 

 

On 5/29/2025 at 5:42 PM, Jaykob Walson said:

Any updates on the Solaris buses? Will they be in the current Blue/Green livery? I predict they'll be numbered in the 5000s. You guys?

 

I don't know if there's really anything to update yet.  Their delivery date is still more than a year out.  I'm guessing that they will give a news splash on livery, routes, etc. when it gets closer.

I asked another retired former co-worker who keeps closer tabs on this stuff than I do and he said that all he knows is what the initial news release stated:  two 40-footers and two artics ...with an option for 12 more.  The delivery date for the first one is still scheduled for sometime late in 2026 but we all know how that goes.  

[Trimetbusfan]

On 4/15/2025 at 10:39 PM, Flippy1205 said:

The plausible theory some of us have come up with off-forum is that Metro has enough local Xcelsiors kicking around that they can easily wrap and transfer them to offset the LFAs being retired, while not losing buses for its local routes when the Gilligs come in

They were not wrapped they were painted at the CB paint shop

[Kennys bus drawings]

A fun reroute that the 545 completed over the weekend due to the non express lanes on I5 being closed.

 

[EvergreenRailfan]

Saw a rumor on Reddit and a Facebook group thatvtge fare is going up, but haven’t heard on Metro’s site or the news. Although said increase would only align Metro with the LINK fare.