Amid King County Metro’s efforts to determine which transit alternatives can be brought to Vashon, the department has reinstated Sunday bus service 16 years after it was discontinued.

Buses on Vashon’s 118 route will begin Sunday rides on Sept. 11, and the Sunday schedule will be identical to the Saturday schedule.

For the past year, King County Metro’s Alternative Services department has been meeting with a group of a dozen islanders to figure out what the transportation needs are on Vashon and what can be done mitigate those needs. Two surverys have also been made available to islanders: One was conducted last fall and another this past spring. Department of Transportation (DOT) spokesman Jeff Switzer said that from Metro’s meetings with the group of islanders, the surveys and feedback collected from before the current alternative transportation effort, it was clear that Sunday bus service was something the island wanted.

“We heard from islanders that there is a need for more bus service during the evenings and on weekends,” he said Monday. “Residents and local businesses shared with Metro the difficulty of getting around on Sundays without bus service, as well as the challenges for off-island visitors accessing local tourist destinations on the weekends.”

He said Metro’s transportation planners listened and adjusted the current bus schedules to allow for service on Sundays.

Metro planning officials said that, in the past, Metro has brought an additional bus out to the island on weekdays to run the 118 and 119 routes during the middle of the day. By doing away with that bus, and the time eaten up by the bus’ ferry rides to get to and from the island, Sunday service was made possible.

“We found that rather than bringing a separate bus out, we could use the buses that are already on the island in the peak periods and extend those through the midday period,” Switzer said. “We can therefore provide the same number of trips, but save the time that the midday bus used to ride the ferry over and back to travel (empty) to and from the Metro base.”

Some of the trip times on the 118 and 119 routes are shifting by five to 10 minutes because of this change, and two lightly-used trips are being reduced, but Switzer said the overall number of trips is similar and most riders will not experience a change.

“There is no change to the routing for a majority of trips and riders,” he said.

One route 118 morning trip will be shortened to end in Burton rather than Tahlequah and one route 119 afternoon trip will be shortened to end at Valley Center Park and Ride, just north of SW 204th Street. Metro officials said their data showed that portions of these trips being reduced had no riders on an average weekday. Making these adjustments allowed Metro to free up the resources needed to add Sunday service.

Vashon-Maury Island Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jim Marsh said that Sunday bus service is a win for the island.

“It came from us constantly pushing for it,” he said.

Food bank Executive Director Robbie Rohr, who is one of the dozen islanders in the alternative transportation group, said earlier this year that not having Sunday bus service is unconscionable, as it was seemingly disregarding the population that relies on buses for transportation.

Reached Monday, she said that the restoration of Sunday service is “really wonderful.”

“The county obviously put a lot of person power into this (alternative transportation services) committee, and it seems like the county is really open to hearing about why Vashon is so different and what will and won’t work well here,” she said.

Calling it “a move in the right direction,” she said that it will be critical that the county do enough work to ensure that islanders know there is Sunday service.

“The county has to give enough time to have people realize there is service again,” she said. “People have gotten used to not having it.”

Switzer said that, according to Metro’s archives, the county did away with weekend bus service on Vashon in February of 2000. Saturday service was reinstated in September of 2001.

With buses now running seven days a week, Switzer said that work with the Vashon Alternative Service Community Advisory Group to implement other forms of transportation is continuing.

Metro held an open house in early April to discuss four transportation possibilities ranging from ridesharing to expanded use of the county’s Access vans. Currently, the county’s Access vans are only available to registered riders with disabilities and provide 13,000 trips a year on Vashon, county officials said before the April meeting. Under the proposed plan, the service would be opened up to other riders as well, with pickup and delivery scheduled in advance as space and schedules permit.

A second option: county-owned community vans that would be driven by volunteers, could be used for special, pre-scheduled trips, with the trips being determined by demand.

The third transit possibility, informal carpooling through the use of a free smartphone app, is currently being piloted in Redmond.

The last option is a community transportation hub, either online or in a physical location, such as the ferry terminals and the public library that could provide a space for islanders to find out about local transportation options and would be staffed by a part-time transportation coordinator, with the county paying a stipend to fund the position.

A survey was distributed at that meeting, and islanders could comment through late April. On Monday, Switzer said that Metro met with the alternative services group in July to share the results of that survey.

“The advisory group provided good guidance to staff about which concepts Metro should pursue to implement. Staff are currently working to determine specific solutions and a program for implementing them,” he said.

Metro officials are scheduled to reach out to islanders before the end of the year with details on what services may be possible to implement next year.

Bus schedules can be found online at kingcounty.gov/depts/transportation/metro/schedules-maps.aspx.