Want better access to light rail? You might want to head down to next week's King County Council hearing and ask them to reinstate the eliminated Route 50, which would have (finally) connected Southeast Seattle to Georgetown and West Seattle, and increase service on the Route 39 back to current levels. Metro got rid of the new route under pressure from the Veterans Administration, which opposed creating the new route when it meant eliminating the Route 39, the only route that goes directly to the VA entrance. However, as transit advocate Dick Burkhart points out in an email, getting rid of the 50 and cutting service on the 39 is "a huge problem" because the 39, which will run only once every 45 minutes for most of the day, "will provide the only east-west service to the Columbia City Station and the only service to the east of the Othello Station." The whole point of the bus changes was supposed to be improving access to light rail for Southeast Seattle residents; cutting these two important routes means that folks who ride the 7 bus, for example—the most heavily used route in Southeast Seattle—won't have adequate bus access to light rail.

The public hearing is at the King County Courthouse, 516 Third Ave., Room 1001, on Tuesday, April 28 at 6:30 p.m.