Metro Bus Emergency Snow Plan Continues Tuesday In Bellevue

BELLEVUE, WA - King County Metro will continue running buses on the emergency snow network (ESN) through at least Tuesday. County Executive Dow Constantine will decide Tuesday morning whether to keep the ESN going into Wednesday and beyond.

The ESN reduces King County Metro's bus routes down to a core 67, which means that some commuters might have to travel farther to catch a bus. The 67 routes generally run along major roads that avoid steep hills.

The ESN has left Bellevue with just one bus route (the 550) crossing I-90 to Seattle, but there are three routes (554, 271, 255) serving the city that cross SR 520. The RapidRide B line between Bellevue and Redmond is also still running.

Snow falling on Puget Sound Monday afternoon should turn to rain by the evening hours - and that could be good news for returning routes to normal. But Constantine said Metro needs time to repair buses that were damaged over the weekend. Some 300 buses were damaged during weekend storms, Constantine said at a press conference Monday.

The ESN went into effect Saturday morning and is the first time Metro has used it.

Clarification: The previous headline on the story referred to a return to "full service" for Metro. We have clarified it to refer to the end of the ESN.

Patch file photo/Neal McNamara