A new and significantly different weekday schedule for the 118 and 119 Metro bus routes on Vashon is set to go into effect on Monday, April 1.

The new schedule includes more midday trips, with fewer gaps between services, designed to meet departing and arriving ferries — including four additional weekday King County Water Taxi runs to be added this summer.

The tradeoff? The new weekday schedule eliminates several early morning and evening runs.

The new weekday schedules, to be published this week, will increase the total number of bus trips operating on Vashon to 51 trips each weekday — up from Metro’s current 45 trips on weekdays.

“We’ve heard for years that riders want additional bus service on Vashon in the middle of the day, which serves as the basis for this change,” said Jeff Switzer, spokesperson for King County Metro. “We expect ridership to grow thanks to these changes and encourage riders to let us know how the changes work in serving their travel needs.”

There will be no notable trip changes from the current weekend bus schedules, aside from 1-2 minute trip time adjustments, said Switzer.

Under the revised weekday schedule, Route 118 will operate 38 trips, with 20 southbound trips and 18 northbound trips — a boost from the current schedule of 30 trips, with 14 southbound and 16 northbound.

Route 119 will operate 13 weekday trips under the new schedule, with six southbound trips and seven northbound trips. Currently, the route has a schedule of 15 trips, with eight southbound and seven northbound.

According to Switzer, some early morning and evening trips were eliminated in the new schedule to accommodate the increased efficiencies in midday service. No staffing reduction in terms of bus operators is expected since Metro will have net growth in service hours, he added.

Northbound service on the 118 bus will now start from the Tahlequah terminal at 5:37 a.m., arriving at the north end terminal at 6:04, Switzer said.

Current weekday runs that will be eliminated in the new schedule include 118 bus service beginning at 4:03 a.m. in Burton and arriving at the north end ferry terminal at 4:22 a.m.; 118 service beginning at 4:23 a.m. at Tahlequah and arriving at the north end terminal at 4:50 a.m.; and 119 service beginning at 5:06 a.m. in Dockton and arriving at the north end terminal at 5:35 a.m.

Southbound buses leaving the north-end terminal at 4:30 a.m., 4:50 a.m. and 5:52 a.m. have also been eliminated in the new schedule.

Under the new schedule, the last southbound 119 bus in the evening will leave the north-end terminal at 6:58 p.m. and arrive in Dockton at 7:31 p.m. The last northbound bus departing Dockton, also scheduled for 7:31 p.m. will arrive at the north end terminal at 8:05 p.m.

From Tahlequah, the last northbound bus will depart at 6:01 p.m. and arrive at the north-end dock at 6:30 p.m. The last northbound bus from Burton will depart at 6:21 p.m., arriving at the north-end terminal at 6:41 p.m.

Switzer cited ridership statistics to help explain why early morning and later evening runs had been eliminated under the new schedule. Early morning and later evening bus runs cut from the new schedule had zero to 3 average daily boardings, he said.

Not everyone is happy about the changes for early and late riders.

“They’ve eliminated trips and people are going to suffer,” said Eric Perlman, an islander who has worked as a Metro bus driver for almost seven years, both on Vashon and in Seattle.

Perlman said that the people on his island bus routes are not just riders — they are neighbors and islanders he has come to know and become deeply concerned about.

“We don’t have Uber here, or resources the mainland has,” he said, adding that low-income people on Vashon will suffer most without early morning and later evening service. (See “Letters to the editor,” page 6.)

Beachcomber rides the bus

On Wednesday, March 6, a Beachcomber reporter hopped on the 118 bus at the north-end ferry terminal at 7:48 p.m., riding to Tahlequah and then north again to arrive back at the north-end dock around 9:10 p.m.

On the bus’s final southbound trip, the reporter hopped off at 210th Street.

Three passengers joined her on the bus during those night runs — all set to be eliminated in the new schedule — up and down the island.

One was 16-year-old Bailey Naifeh, headed home after a shift working at Island Queen.

Another worker in their 20s, Rozen Raymond, was also going home after a shift at a local eatery. The third, who did not give their name, was traveling northbound into town to work an overnight shift at a local business.

All three workers said they did not have any other transportation options to get to and from their places of employment.

Bailey Naifeh’s mother, Melody Naifeh, who does not drive at night because she has low vision, also hopped on the bus, after hearing from her daughter that she had been interviewed by a Beachcomber reporter on her ride home.

Melody said that she was excited for additional Metro Water Taxi service to Vashon, but passionately advocated for Metro bus service to continue in the later evening.

Vashon’s bus-riding demographic in those hours, and indeed throughout the day, included not only commuters but also youth, the disenfranchised, environmentalists, tourists, disabled people, and the elderly, she said.

During the island’s summer tourist season, she added, more weekend buses were needed to address environmental issues by reducing car traffic to and from the island.

She urged Metro to launch a ridership campaign to encourage workers, tourists, and islanders who enjoyed Vashon’s nightlife to take the bus.

“This needs a lot more thought and consideration,” she said, saying there were no other workable transportation options on the island for those who did not drive.

“Plus, it’s really fun to ride the bus,” she said. “You meet so many interesting people on the bus.”

See route changes, effective March 31, here. To give feedback to Metro, call 206-553-3000 or submit a comment here.

Need an ORCA card for you or your teenager? Visit info.myorca.com.

More transportation options include:

Community Van

Metro’s King County Community Van is a reservation-based rideshare service driven by community volunteers. Trips are available 24/7 depending on driver availability, and trip requests must be submitted at least two business days in advance. Find out more at tinyurl.com/ybzh8hsp. To use the van or sign up to be a driver, call Bong Sto. Domingo, at 206-773-7003. The vans are parked at the Vashon Chamber of Commerce.

Access Transportation

For anyone whose disability prevents them from riding traditional buses, Metro’s Access Transportation program operates a network of accessible vans, including on Vashon, through one of its partners, Solid Ground Transportation. There are currently 44 registered Access riders on Vashon who took 3,755 trips in 2023. Find out more at tinyurl.com/yhsmkwbb.

Hopelink Medicaid

Hopelink is a transportation provider that brokers non-emergency medical transportation in King and Snohomish counties for medical services covered by Medicaid. Find out more at hopelink.org/programs/medicaid-transportation