Community Transit has begun construction of the Seaway Transit Center in Everett, the northern terminus of the planned Swift Green Line bus rapid transit project. The $11 million transit center, funded primarily by WSDOT grants and federal funds, will serve the massive Boeing Everett plant and part of the Paine Field industrial area.
The transit center will be laid out on a triangular plot of land on the southeastern side of Seaway Boulevard and 75th Street SW, at the main entrance to the Boeing plant. It is also near Community Transit’s Merrill Creek operating base and headquarters, as well as other major employers like the Fluke Corporation, though the area isn’t exactly the most walkable or bikeable. Initially, Seaway Transit Center will be built with two bus bays for Swift and five for other buses; the site plan allows for up to a total of thirteen bus bays. After Link light rail is extended to Everett in 2036, Seaway Transit Center could become a major connection between feeder buses to Mukilteo and southern Everett.
Beginning in September of this year, Route 105 will be extended to the Paine Field area from Mariner Park and Ride during peak hours. This will form the basis of a future local, frequent-stopping route that will “shadow” the Green Line much like Route 101 and the Blue Line today. Route 107 will also begin service between Lynnwood Transit Center and the Boeing plant in the same service change, restoring a more convenient link to the South County area.
When the new transit center opens in the summer of 2018, it will be served by Route 105, in addition to other Community Transit, Everett Transit and King County Metro routes that already head to the Boeing plant. The site plan also has spaces for private shuttles, and may become a hub for Boeing’s internal shuttle system much like how Microsoft uses Overlake Transit Center in Redmond.
The rest of the Green Line, which will travel through southern Everett and Mill Creek, won’t begin construction for a few more months. Service is scheduled to begin in early 2019.
ST is also implementing color names for routes starting in 2023.
I think that the local transit agencies need to coordinate better. Specifically, they need to come up with some standards about identification/naming to keep from having massive rider confusion because of the duplicate color routes. Since CT and ST are operating in the same area, this issue is particularly notable.
Does anyone else see a problem with this?
I would imagine the agencies do coordinate, which is how we have the numbering system right now. Buses that go from Snohomish County to King County are either in the 400s (Metro) or 500s (ST). So while there are two 101 routes in our system, they are nowhere near each other. I didn’t realize ST was gong to start naming their buses after colors now — you are right, that could be confusing. I realize they want the specific “BRT” brand to stand out, but I would just stick with the numbers. I think they should only name their train routes after colors — that isn’t confusing at all (hard to confuse a train with a bus).
When ST started the 500 block was empty except for the 594 which ST was taking over from PT, and the 501 and 502 to Federal Way. So ST simply took the number range 510-599.
Is ST really switching to colors for ST Express and BRT?
I think ST is only switching to colors for Link at this point. Even so, there will be a CT Green Line bus to the ST Blue Line or Red Line light rail.
There has been no discussion of branding for the new 522 or 405 corridors that I’ve seen.
Had CT picked letters like Rapidride, it would have established some consistency across mode concepts — but CT went to colors instead.
The Green Line will go a lot further than Mill Creek; it will go to Canyon Park, which is straight east of Mountlake Terrace. And a Bothell extension may come in a later phase when funding is found.
Canyon Park is Bothell.
Not downtown Bothell or UW Bothell or anywhere near where you can transfer to a 522 or 372.
That will require funding from Metro. CT wants it to happen because they understand the extension makes the rest of the route better, but they are waiting on funding from Metro before adding stops in King Coint
CT can do it itself if it thinks it will benefit Snohomish residents sufficiently. It already has a route to UW Bothell but it’s peak only, which is far less than what those six-story apartment buildings and office parks and retail plazas need.
So in terms of road improvements, only right-turn lanes are being added at I-5/128th and SR 527/164th. Kinda wish they would add a queue jump to those right-turn lanes (like at SR 99/Airport Rd) and at other intersections, especially the SR 527/SR 524 intersection.
It doesn’t look like there are any places for someone to wait to pick up a bus passenger at this transit center, judging from the rendering. It also looks like anyone who transfers in the rain will be wet.
It would be nice Transit Centers could be more than a collection of off street bus shelters and layover space, such as integrate with development, be a “place”, a location for transit riders to run errands, etc
Normally I would agree, but the Seaway location can’t really be a “place” and integrated with development, considering it’s located next to Boeing, the PUD Operations Center, industrial parks and wetlands: https://goo.gl/maps/DPQAogqCNsT2
Can we assume this will more or less be the location for the future Link station?
I agree with my namesake, the land use here is very unique. The goal is to facilitate bus transfers for people getting to/from jobs in the industrial district. Making it walkable may not be achievable for several reasons, including industrial safety and security, and the sheer scale of the facilities here.
(Continued) Take a look at the link for the Boeing shuttle. That doesn’t look like something that can be tackled by a pedestrian
How is Paine Field Station expected to connect to Mukilteo? Will there be a bus that option that doesn’t involve riding a circuitous milk run all the way to Lynnwood?
Also, the way things stand today, you can’t even ride a bike from Paine Field Station to Mukilteo without taking a several-mile detour, because the direct route is a freeway. Somehow, somebody needs to find the money to build a bike trail alongside the freeway.
It would be great if Paine Field Station could be used as a launching point for bike trips to Whidbey Island, but unless conditions improve, that won’t be able to happen.
It wouldn’t be pleasant, but technically you can ride a bike on most freeways. Exceptions listed here – https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/bike/closed.htm
In some long-term concepts, Mukilteo will have a local route connecting it to Seaway. Everett Transit route 70 will roughly do the same, during peak hours.
There was a plan to build a trail in Japanese Gulch (where the Boeing rail line is), but it’s been on hold for a while. The corridor would be decent enough for a bike trail, given the excess right-of-way and lack of intersections.
When I went to an event at the Future of Flight last November, it looked like there were sidewalks or a parallel bike path along the speedway. I may be remembering wrong.
That connects Mukilteo to the south, not the east. SR-526 is a freeway, with no sidewalks. Between the airport and the forests, it’s a long detour.
Mike and asdf2;
There’s a bike path along SR-526 from the big Boeing Parking Lot. Sidewalks up 84th St & the Speedway.
asdf2, the City of Mukilteo is considering a transportation benefit district to fund a bike path.
It will be interesting to see what bus runs are added in the near future. In a few years we will have light rail service to Lynnwood, as well as a couple of Swift lines. The blue line (SR 99) will curve around and connect to Link in King County. But that still leaves the north end (where the two Swift lines cross) with a long ride to Link.
I think you could justify a fairly frequent express bus from the Lynnwood TC to the area.The first stop north of Lynnwood would be 4th, followed by Gibson and SR99. At that point, the bus could just turn around somewhere. That is a very fast bus. Google has the travel time as 11 minutes. With only a handful of stops along with car pool lanes for almost the entire stretch, it won’t take that many drivers to serve it.
I could see a bus like that running every 15 minutes or so. Such a bus would provide the most densely populated* part of Snohomish County with good express service to Lynnwood and thus Seattle. It would connect up the Swift lines with Link. You would also double up service along 128th (and triple it if you count the 101) . This means someone close to 4th (Mariner) would have a very frequent connection to SR 99.
* The cluster of density on 128th between SR 99 and I-5 is visible on the census maps (https://arcg.is/1TaGWT) as well as a satellite view, where you can see the apartments (https://arcg.is/1TaGWT).
There’s Swift 3 from Edmonds to Silver Firs stopping at Lynnwood Station and Mill Creek. The three lines will form an A shape, so you can take Swift 3 from Lynnwood Station to either of the other lines.