Sound Transit recently announed the opening of the new Northgate Link Extension would be October 2nd, opening up the new University District, Roosevelt, and Northgate Stations along with 4.3 miles of new track. Link riders will be able to travel from Northgate to downtown in 14 minutes.
In response to the opening of the Northgate Link Extension, King County Metro is making service changes to bus routes in North Seattle to improve connections with Link. One of the changes Wedgwood will see is the permanent elimination of Routes 71 and 76, which were suspended in September 2020.
A new route, Route 79, will provide weekday service between the new Roosevelt Station and University District station from 6:25AM – 9:15PM via NE 75th Street and NE 55th Street. A benefit of this new Route 79 is that Seattle Children’s will now have direct service between their main campus and the new University District station, a change that elicited the hospital’s support.
Finally, Metro has recently posted signs along some of the Route 65/64X bus stops, as well as other bus routes in NE Seattle, notifying riders that those stops may be eliminated as part of the bus stop rebalancing program. According to Metro’s informational poster for the program, this again is intended to help align bus service with the new Link stations. We’ve reached out to Metro to learn more about this program and will share more as we learn it. You can reach out regarding this “stop rebalance” at bus.stopNE@kingcounty.gov.