Getting around Seattle with Community Transit
Community Transit is here to get you where you want to go. We are proud to be a part of the Seattle community — we live here, ride here, and drive here. Wherever you need to go in Seattle, feel good about how you get there.
About Seattle
Seattle is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. It is home to many regional destinations. The Seattle metropolitan area's population is 4.02 million, making it the 15th-largest in the United States.
King County Metro provides frequent bus service within the city and surrounding county, as well as the South Lake Union Streetcar line and the First Hill Streetcar line. Sound Transit provides an express bus service within the metropolitan area, two Sounder commuter rail lines between the suburbs and downtown, and its 1 Line light rail line between the University of Washington and Angle Lake. Further Link light rail extensions are planned to reach Lynnwood to the north, Federal Way to the south, and Bellevue and Redmond to the east by 2024.
Washington State Ferries, which manages the largest network of ferries in the United States and third largest in the world, connects Seattle to Bainbridge and Vashon Islands in Puget Sound and to Bremerton and Southworth on the Kitsap Peninsula. King Street Station in Pioneer Square serves Amtrak intercity trains and Sounder commuter trains, and is located adjacent to the International District/Chinatown light rail station. ( Source: Wikipedia)
Community Transit provides several commuter bus routes to Seattle from its service area as well as DART paratransit service and Vanpool to riders venturing to Seattle from our service area.
Popular Destinations
Community Transit ridership increased 23% in 2023
If you rode the bus, took a vanpool, or took a DART paratransit ride in 2023, you are part of the nearly 7.1 million boardings that increased Community Transit ridership by 23% over the previous year. As Community Transit actively works on expanding services across Snohomish County in 2024, it is exciting to see our community members choosing transit to get where they need to be.
Swift Bus Rapid Transit accounted for 34.6% of total boardings
A large part of this ridership increase is from boardings on our Swift Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service, which accounted for almost 2.5 million, or 34.6%, of our total boardings in 2023. These rides took place on the Swift Blue Line (Aurora Village – Everett Station) and Swift Green Line (Seaway – Canyon Park).
Fixed-Route boardings went up
In 2023, fixed-route bus boardings went up 22.9% over the previous year. Fixed-route means all our regularly scheduled bus service. In 2024 and beyond, Community Transit is expanding bus service in Snohomish County and you can learn more about these changes.
DART paratransit boardings went up
In 2023, Dial-A-Ride Transportation (DART) paratransit boardings increased 14.9% over the previous year. DART is an on-demand ride-sharing service that provides transportation for eligible Snohomish County residents who can’t access or use Community Transit’s fixed-route bus service due to a disability or condition.
Vanpool boardings went up
In 2023, Vanpool boardings increased 35.4% over the previous year. Vanpool is a shared-ride service where you and a group of coworkers, or others heading in your direction, share your workday commute in a van that Community Transit provides and maintains for you. Vanpools are designed to help you save time, money, and reduce your climate impact when you share your ride to work.
Zip Alderwood Shuttle
The Zip Alderwood Shuttle is an on-demand shared-ride service for travel anywhere within a defined area in Alderwood, for the same price as local bus fare. Zip had a successful pilot testing program, and it officially went into regular service in October 2023. While there has not yet been enough data collected to do a year-over-year analysis, Zip ridership has been about 4,000 boardings per month.
Pictured above: A look at the data showing an increase in Community Transit ridership from 2021-2023.
Looking ahead
It’s exciting to see more people choosing to ride public transit in the post pandemic era. Travel and work habits have changed, so Community Transit is continuing to expand services in Snohomish County to meet the needs of riders. Find out more on the Service Changes webpage.
The expansion of bus service in Snohomish County includes the launch of the new Swift Orange Line on March 30. The Swift Orange Line will run between Edmonds College and McCollum Park and will bring even more people on board with Community Transit. If you haven't tried Swift BRT yet, hop on any of the Swift BRT lines and find out why this is our most popular service!
