Starting March 30, Community Transit is making significant changes to several local routes and adding more service with a new bus rapid transit (BRT) line, the Swift Orange Line and three new local bus routes. The expanded service will offer riders more frequent trips. Schedule changes on most routes will improve reliability, ensuring people make their connections so they can transfer to regional transit.
“Introducing the Swift Orange Line greatly expands the number of bus routes where service is frequent enough that riders don’t need to worry about tracking schedules,” Community Transit CEO Ric Ilgenfritz said in a news release. “Both now and when light rail opens later this year, riders will have some bus route changes, schedule adjustments and other improvements to learn about.”
What do riders need to know about the March 30 Service Change?
On March 30, riders will experience major changes to bus service. Riders will need to check their new bus schedules.
Changes include:
– New local bus routes 102, 114 and 166 create a more seamless way to get around the community.
– New Swift Orange Line, the agency’s third BRT line, opens. It will provide frequent east-west travel between Mill Creek and Lynnwood. Key destinations include McCollum Park, 164th Street Southwest, Alderwood Mall and Edmonds College.
– Routes 115, 116, and 196 are being replaced by new routes.
– Routes 120 and 202 have changes to some stops.
– Minor changes have been made to schedules on most routes. Community Transit said these changes make bus service more reliable and help make connections.
Details of the changes, including videos on each of the above routes, are at communitytransit.org/servicechange.
Online trip planning tools
Riders can plan a bus trip and view schedules by going to communitytransit.org and clicking on:
Maps & Schedules – View March 2024 preview schedules for changes to route(s).
Plan My Trip – Enter a start and end location and get schedules, fares and other trip information. Set the departure or arrival time to March 30 or later to see new schedules.
Rider Alerts – Subscribe and get email updates about route changes.
Riders can also get help with personalized trip planning or request a printed schedule for any route by calling Customer Care at 425-353-7433 (RIDE) or emailing riders@commtrans.org.
About Swift Orange Line
The Swift Orange Line, Community Transit’s third BRT line, will connect to the existing Swift Blue Line and Swift Green Line to provide a network of fast, frequent bus service along major corridors, Community Transit said. The Swift Orange Line will travel between Edmonds College and Mill Creek. Notably, it will make a stop at Lynnwood Transit Center, allowing people to connect to Link light rail this fall. The Orange Line will also connect to the Swift Blue and Green lines. In addition, people will be able to connect to rideshare services from the Swift Orange Line, including Zip Alderwood Shuttle and Vanpool. The project is on time and under budget, Community Transit said.
Swift BRT service begins at 4:15 a.m. weekdays, 6 a.m. Saturdays, and 7 a.m. Sundays. Buses run every 10 minutes on weekdays, and every 15-20 minutes on early mornings, evenings, and weekends.
Future changes designed to meet light rail, boost in-county service
There will be more improvements in Community Transit’s service area when light rail opens later this year, and Community Transit said this means there will be better local bus service in Snohomish County. That is possible because Community Transit will no longer serve Seattle and will reinvest that savings into more local service in Snohomish County. This includes new express bus connections to light rail from most parts of the county, and higher frequency in local service, with buses running more often throughout the day and evening. After the 2024 bus system redesign is complete, Community Transit said it will triple its routes with 20 minutes or better frequency and more than double routes with 30 minutes or better frequency.
While the new orange line is welcome, we need to talk about the shortened 115, 116 routes (soon to be 102 and 114). Both of these routes now end at the Lynnwood Transit center. Unless you’re downtown at the bowl or along 196th, you will now have to transfer at either Edmonds college or Lynnwood Transit to continue on to Alderwood Mall.
Many people along 212th rely on the direct routes to Alderwood, or could be encouraged to use transit now that there’s higher bus frequency. But if there’s a transfer involved, or you have to drive to the closest direct line, people are going to choose to use their cars instead.
Kind of strange that the new Orange Line stops at Edmonds College instead of continuing on the relatively short distance to the ferry terminal where connections to the ferry and Amtrak would seem like a logical fit.
I’ve suggested this a couple of times now, agree 100%. Having the orange line connect to the ferry/Amtrak would really help enable using those modes of transit. Hopefully they will add an extension to the orange line in the future.