The Swift Blue Line is a bus rapid transit route operated by Community Transit in Snohomish County, Washington, as part of the Swift system. The Blue Line is long and runs on the State Route 99 and Evergreen Way corridor between Everett Station and Shoreline North/185th station. It has 36 stations in the cities of Everett, Lynnwood, Edmonds, and Shoreline.
The Blue Line has the highest ridership of any Community Transit route, carrying over 1.6 million total passengers in 2015. It also has the highest frequency out of all Community Transit routes, running at headways of 10 to 15 minutes on weekdays from 4:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and mid-day on weekends, and 20-minute headways during early mornings and late nights.
The line opened with 28 stations on November 29, 2009 as "Swift", becoming the first bus rapid transit system in the state of Washington and costing $29 million to construct. Four infill stations in Everett were opened in 2011, and a southbound infill station serving Edmonds College opened in 2016. It gained the "Blue Line" moniker in August 2016, with the announcement of a second line, the Green Line, that opened in March 2019. The Blue Line was extended south from Aurora Village to Shoreline North/185th station in September 2024 following the opening of the Lynnwood Link light rail project.
Route
The Blue Line, designated internally as Community Transit Route 701, begins at Bays G and H at the south end of Everett Station. Buses travel north on Smith Avenue, passing the station building and parking lots, and turn west onto Pacific Avenue towards Downtown Everett. The line continues west on Pacific, stopping at a station split between Wetmore and Colby avenues near the Snohomish County Government Campus, before turning south onto Rucker Avenue. The next station pair, split between 40th and 41st streets, serves The Everett Clinic and the Everett Memorial Stadium complex, as well as the northern terminus of the Interurban Trail. Buses travel south in general purpose lanes on Evergreen Way, passing over State Route 526 north of Casino Road Station. The road continues southwest as State Route 99 into the unincorporated community of Lake Stickney, where the Blue Line stops at Airport Road Station, a transfer with the Green Line to the Boeing Everett Factory and Mill Creek, and Lincoln Way Station north of an interchange with State Route 525. The line enters the city of Lynnwood and moves into business access and transit (BAT) lanes at 148th Street Station, where a queue jump signal for northbound buses was installed in 2012. The Blue Line continues south on State Route 99 through Lynnwood, serving the Lynnwood Crossroads area at 196th and 200th streets and the Edmonds College with a southbound-only stop at 204th Street, and continues into Edmonds to stop at the Edmonds Swedish Medical Center. The line crosses over State Route 104 and enters the city of Shoreline in King County, before it turns east onto North 200th Street and reaches its southern terminus at Aurora Village Transit Center Bay 9.
Stations
The Blue Line serves 34 stations, grouped into 16 pairs spaced approximately apart from each other, on its route. Swift stations consist of a , covered shelter on a , platform that allows for level boarding onto buses. The platform and shelter also include a roadside beacon that is lit at night, graffiti-resistant weather barriers, two Parkeon ticket vending machines, two ORCA card readers, and a next bus arrival sign. Buses stop at all stations, are allowed a dwell time of 10 seconds, and use curb bumpers to guide them closer to the platform.
Transfers from the Blue Line to other bus routes are possible at every station, served by shadow service running on the State Route 99 and Evergreen Way corridor between Blue Line stations and frequently-spaced stops. Community Transit route 101 runs from Aurora Village Transit Center to the Everett city limits at Airport Road Station, and Everett Transit routes 7 and 8 run on the Swift corridor within Everett. There are several intersecting routes that connect Blue Line to Sound Transit Express service on Interstate 5 in Lynnwood: three routes on 200th Street near Crossroads and Heron stations travel east to Lynnwood Transit Center; and two routes on 148th Street travel to Ash Way Park and Ride. At Aurora Village Transit Center, the Blue Line provides a connection to the RapidRide E Line, a bus rapid transit route on Aurora Avenue that runs through Shoreline to Downtown Seattle. The Blue Line's terminals also provide a connection to regional services that run south to Seattle: Everett Station has Sounder commuter rail and Sound Transit Express bus routes to Seattle, and Shoreline North/185th Station is a station on the 1 Line.
List of stations StationIDLocationCityConnectionsOpenedReferencesEverett Station2837, 28383201 Smith AvenueEverettAmtrak, Sounder commuter rail, ST Express, Community Transit, Everett TransitColby Avenue/Wetmore Avenue2835, 2836Pacific Avenue & Colby/Wetmore avenuesEverettCommunity Transit, Everett Transit40th Street/41st Street2819, 2820Evergreen Way & 40th/41st streetsEverettEverett Transit50th Street2815, 2816Evergreen Way & 50th StreetEverettEverett Transit route 7Madison Street/Pecks Drive2807, 2810Evergreen Way & Madison Street/Pecks DriveEverettEverett Transit (northbound) (southbound)Casino Road2795, 2796Evergreen Way & Casino RoadEverettEverett Transit4th Avenue2787, 2788Evergreen Way & 4th AvenueEverettEverett Transit112th Street2783, 2784State Route 99 & 112th StreetEverettEverett Transit (northbound) (southbound)Airport Road2781, 2782State Route 99 & Airport RoadEverettSwift Green LineCommunity Transit, Everett TransitLincoln Way2779, 2780State Route 99 & Lincoln WayLynnwoodCommunity Transit148th Street2777, 2778State Route 99 & 148th StreetLynnwoodCommunity TransitInternational/Cherry Hill2767, 2770State Route 99 & 174th/176th streetsLynnwoodCommunity TransitHeron2761State Route 99 & 200th StreetLynnwoodCommunity TransitCrossroads/196th Street2764, 3247State Route 99 & 196th StreetLynnwoodSwift Orange LineCommunity Transit (southbound) (northbound)College2760State Route 99 & 204th StreetLynnwoodCommunity TransitGateway/216th Street2753, 2754State Route 99 & 216th StreetEdmondsCommunity Transit238th Street2747, 2748State Route 99 & 238th StreetEdmondsCommunity TransitAurora Village Transit Center2742, 33131524 N 200th StreetShorelineRapidRide E Line, Community Transit, King County MetroShoreline North/185th Station3267, 3382710 NE 185th StreetShoreline1 Line, King County Metro Timepoint or terminus
Notes
Service + Swift frequency Type Frequency Span of service Days Times Mornings 15 minutes Monday–Friday 4 a.m. – 6 am Weekdays 10 minutes Monday–Friday 6 a.m. – 7 p.m. Evenings 20 minutes Monday–Friday 7 p.m. – 11 p.m. Saturday 15 minutes Saturday 6 a.m. – 7 p.m. Saturday evenings 20 minutes Saturday 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. Sunday mornings 20 minutes Sunday 7 a.m. – 11 am Sunday 15 minutes Sunday 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Sunday evenings 20 minutes Sunday 5 p.m. – 9 p.m.
The Blue Line runs at a headway of 10 minutes from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, its highest level of service with five buses per hour per direction. Weekday service begins with a headway of 15 minutes during the early mornings and ends with 20-minute frequencies from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. On Saturdays, buses run every 15 minutes from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. and every 20 minutes from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Blue Line buses run every 20 minutes during the morning and evening hours on Sundays and every 15 minutes during the midday hours between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Swift initially ran at a 10-minute headway, and had evening service end at midnight, until a major system-wide service reduction in February 2012 reduced its weekday headway to 12 minutes. Sunday service was suspended entirely from 2010 until 2015 due to budget cuts. The 10-minute weekday frequency was restored in September 2018, and Saturday frequency was bumped from 20 minutes to 15 minutes in September 2019. Service on the Blue Line was reduced to every 12 minutes on weekdays in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fare collection was also suspended until June 1 to increase physical distancing between passengers, drivers, and fare ambassadors. Full service was restored in September 2020.
The Blue Line carried a total of 1,621,838 riders in 2015, making it the most popular route operated by Community Transit, and accounting for 16.2% of the agency's total ridership.
History
Former services
Blue Line bus rapid transit service on the State Route 99 corridor was preceded by decades of transit services traveling through southwestern Snohomish County, which ranged from an interurban railway to local buses. The Seattle–Everett Interurban Railway ran interurban service from 1910 to 1939 along the Pacific Highway, later U.S. Route 99 and State Route 99. During its heyday, the interurban ran at 30-minute headways throughout the day, and only made automatic stops at its terminals in Everett and Seattle. The railway was dismantled and later used as right of way for overhead power lines, until it was converted into a rail trail in the 1990s and 2000s, named the Interurban Trail.
Community Transit was founded in 1976 as the public transit agency for Snohomish County, and introduced local service from Everett to Aurora Village via State Route 99 on route 750. By 1991, the State Route 99 corridor had the highest ridership on both Community Transit and Everett Transit. Route 750 was later renumbered to route 610, which was later upgraded to 15-minute headways in the 1990s, and itself split into two routes, 100 and 101, in 2003. Community Transit route 100 ran during peak hours along the full length of the corridor from Aurora Village to Everett, while route 101 only ran the southern portion of the route to South Everett, with all-day service that required a transfer to Everett Transit to complete trips to downtown Everett.
BAT lanes and BRT studies
Planning for limited-stop bus service, which later evolved into bus rapid transit, began in the 1990s, with proposals to build bus lanes on State Route 99 between 145th Street NE in Shoreline and Casino Road (near State Route 526) in Everett. Sound Transit was established in 1996 as a regional transit authority, and selected the State Route 99 corridor as a route for its express bus system, but later replaced it, before service began, with an express route on Interstate 5 from Everett to Northgate, while leaving SR 99 to Community Transit. Sound Transit funded the construction of business access and transit lanes on State Route 99 through Lynnwood from 244th Street to 148th Street in 2002, converting former parking lanes, and widening the highway in some areas, improving existing bus service, and laying the ground for a future bus rapid transit line.
Community Transit's Strategic Planning Group published a recommendation in 2004, calling for bus rapid transit service on the State Route 99 corridor between Everett Station and Aurora Village Transit Center, featuring off-board fare collection, limited stops, and transit signal priority. The route alternatives proposed included express service from Aurora Village to Downtown Seattle via Aurora Avenue North or Interstate 5, as well as express service on Interstate 5 in Everett, if a partnership to share costs with Everett Transit for the Evergreen Way segment was not viable. In December 2005, the CT Board of Directors approved an accelerated planning schedule for a bus rapid transit project, to cost an estimated $15–20 million, and to begin service as the first such system in the Puget Sound region in 2008.
Planning, design and construction