On Friday, Sound Transit and King County Metro carried over 500,000 passengers on trains, buses, and boats throughout Puget Sound. Both Link and the King County Water Taxi set a new one-day ridership records of 280,000 and 9,483 boardings, respectively.

Friday was a busy day in Seattle. Communities around the City hosted Juneteenth celebrations. The USA vs Australia World Cup match drew crowds in Pioneer Square, at the Waterfront, and at the various other Fan Celebrations. In the evening, the Seattle Mariners played the Boston Red Sox.

Leaders from King County and Seattle met at Golden Gardens Park Monday morning to inaugurate a new shuttle service direct to Golden Gardens Park. “Golden Gardens Direct” will provide a direct connection between Market Street in central Ballard to the park on Seaview Ave NW. Buses will run every 30 minutes every day from 11 AM to 9 PM, with service starting this Saturday, June 27, and ending on August 30. Passengers can transfer to the Golden Gardens Direct from routes 17, 40, 44, and the D Line. The shuttle will have stops at 34th Ave NW and every few blocks along Seaview Ave NW.

Rides will cost the same as a King County Metro bus: $3, free for riders aged 18 and under, discounted for those eligible for reduced fares, and transfers will be accepted. Tap to pay is not available on the route. When reached for comment, Elaine Porterfield of King Count Metro provided the following statement:

“Metro is in the process of installing equipment on the Hopelink and DART fleet to enable tap-to-pay, which could allow Metro to collect tap-to-pay fares on the Golden Gardens Direct shuttles later this summer. We don’t have an exact date yet when that will take place. We recognize that after just a few months of launching, tap to pay features have made it quick and easy to pay fares and ride transit. We’re eager to offer this feature on the balance of our services as soon as possible.”

The Golden Gardens Direct shuttle is funded by the Seattle Transit Measure for this year only. Service in future summers would require additional funding which could come from the STM renewal Mayor Wilson proposed earlier this month. With this service, SDOT and Metro aim to improve park access and reduce traffic congestion during peak summer season.

Earlier this week, Sound Transit shared the per-station breakdown of Link’s record-breaking ridership in April 2026. The two new stations, Judkins Park and Mercer Island had 2,130 and 1,723 average weekday boardings, respectively. Ridership at these stations will increase over the next year as travel patterns change. Additionally, Metro and Sound Transit will restructure their bus networks in August, further boosting Link ridership.

For the existing stations, these new data show how Link usage has changed over the past month and the past year. The chart below shows the average weekday ridership for April 2025 (light blue, left column), March 2026 (blue, center column), and April 2026 (dark blue, right column). System-wide Link boardings increased 52% year-over-year (YoY) and 35% month-over-month (MoM).

Community Transit has transformed its network over the past few years. Since its founding in 1976, Community Transit (CT) has operated a mix of local routes in Snohomish County and commuter routes to Seattle and other significant employment centers. Following Sound Transit’s Link extension to Lynnwood in August 2024, CT deleted all but one of the Commuter routes to Seattle. The last Commuter route ended service on June 12, 2026.

Commuter routes were replaced with Link, improved local service, a new Swift route, and Express routes. Most Express routes provide peak-only service between a community and Link. In exchange for a required transfer to get to Seattle, Express routes run more trips and have improved reliability than their Commuter route predecessors.

Overall ridership on Commuter/Express routes decreased between October 2023 and October 2025 from 4,254 to 1,085 average weekday passengers. This is due to a few factors: