King County Metro’s RapidRide C Line travels inbound from Westwood Village to South Lake Union. It passes through Roxhill, Fauntleroy, Gatewood, Seaview, Fairmount Park, Genesee, SODO, Pioneer Square, downtown Seattle, Belltown, and Denny Triangle. Outbound trips travel in the reverse direction. In August 2024, the C Line was the 7th busiest bus route in King County with 7,541 average weekday boardings.
Average Ridership Per Trip
The plots below shows the average weekday ridership by stop in each direction, color-coded by time of day. For a more detailed breakdown of how the plots are set up, please refer to the How to Read the Plots section of the article discussing Route 70.
The overall ridership pattern shows a route that is dominated by trips between Alaska Junction, downtown Seattle, and South Lake Union. Some observations:
- There is strong ridership generated by the route’s southern terminus near Westwood Village throughout the day. This is likely from the shops and other amenities in the area, as well as transfers from routes 60, 125, 560, and the H Line.
- The Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal (Fauntleroy & Barton) generates a small number of transfers. This is the only RapidRide/Ferry connection outside of downtown and it has pretty weak ridership.
- Ridership between the ferry terminal and Alaska Junction is minimal. Peak direction ridership starts to pick up on California Ave.
- Alaska Junction is a significant source of ridership. The increases are primarily in peak directions but are decent throughout the day.
- The inbound morning spike in boardings at Alaska & Columbia are likely commuters transferring from ferries or water taxis. There is a similar spike in outbound afternoon alightings.
- The outbound morning boardings at 3rd & Columbia and 3rd & Seneca suggest some reverse commuting to West Seattle.
- Along 3rd Ave, there are decent inbound boarding and outbound departures. These riders are likely traveling to/from SLU. This pattern matches the ridership pattern observed for Route 70.
- Ridership to/from SLU is fairly strong during peak and lower at other times of the day.
- There are minimal trips that both start and end in SLU. The C Line mirrors the South Lake Union Streetcar and the low ridership for intra-SLU trips is also reflected in the streetcar’s ridership of about 500 passengers per day.
Daily Totals per Stop
The average daily total boarding and alighting counts show a similar pattern to the per trip data. Most C Line riders are traveling between Alaska Junction and downtown Seattle or South Lake Union.
West Seattle Link Extension
The West Seattle Link Extension (WSLE) is currently in development and will replace some of the C Line route. Once it starts service in 2032, it will travel between Alaska Junction and an expanded SODO Station. Additional stops are planned along Avalon Way and in North Delridge. At a West Seattle Transit Town Hall in July 2024, King County Transportation Policy Advisor Chris Arkills confirmed West Seattle bus routes will not be restructured until the Ballard Link Extension is complete in 2039. While the exact restructuring plans are far from finalized, the King County Metro Long-Range Plan (Figure 14) shows a potential Rapid Ride route that follows the current C Line south of Alaska Junction and extends to Burien along 1st Ave S (currently served by Route 131).
Looking Ahead
As mentioned above, Sound Transit is currently in the environmental review phase of the West Seattle Link Extension. Full details of the project have been previously covered on the Blog. In the more immediate future, Amazon recently announced all Seattle employees will be required to work from the office 5 days a week starting in January 2025. This policy change will increase the C Line’s ridership, especially between downtown and South Lake Union.
Edit, October 15, 5:07 pm: The section regarding the West Seattle Link Extension has been updated to reflect revisions which didn’t make it into the final article. We apologize for any confusion.
Unfortunately, we don’t know much about bus transfer volumes at these stops. I would be curious how many people are transferring to or from a bus at the Junction or when traveling between SLU and Link or Sounder Downtown. It would be interesting to see how many are ferry riders at either Fauntleroy or Colman Dock.
I know the C well. One of the reasons I’m a big proponent of the West Seattle Link Extension is because the C is so slow and crowded. Coming from downtown to the Alaska Junction on the C during the afternoon peak, about 8-10 people will transfer to the 128 or 50, whichever comes first. I estimate 2/3 of the passengers get off the bus at the Alaska Junction.
@Psycho Train
I’m curious what makes the C so slow between downtown and Alaska Junction? Is it highway traffic, long dwell times at stops, or something else?
Michael, it’s kind of all the above for the C. For peak outbound from DT, 3rd Avenue is a big culprit, which is weird it’s so slow considering it’s buses only. But they do hit the traffic lights and each stop takes 1-2 minutes. Going down the hill Columbia is slow and we seem to hit all the lights. 2nd Avenue is the longest light because it’s a car sewer (and cars take priority over bus riders of course). Next is congested Alaskan Way where I believe we eventually get a bus lane but we’ve got the popular Jackson stop as well. After that it generally moves fast on Highway 99 and the West Seattle Bridge. It moves slower again on Avalon, with a stop on that street and a traffic light. The C always seems to hit a long red light on 35th and Avalon. Once again the car sewer (35th) gets priority while we wait. Next stop is 35th/Avalon, which has the most people getting off between downtown and Alaska Junction. Maybe people are also transferring to the 21? I’ve never paid attention to what people do once they get off the bus. At that point it’s the home stretch and just one more long light (Fauntleroy) and we’re at the Junction.
The problem is the current plan requires that from SLU to West Seattle, you’d go down quite a substantial distance, transfer to the existing line at Westlake by traversing 11,floors worth of escalators (though some will be combined into several long stretches, so it will only be 9), then another deep station at the Junction.
I don’t know this really makes a trip from SLU to the Junction that much faster than the C.
It seems like if the goal is “Make the C faster” and you threw $7 billion at the C, there are an awful lot of other things that could be done to make the C and H faster that would result in better time savings.
The main culprit for delay is the bridge. Specifically the ramp to NB 99. The bus only lane helps on the bridge but nobody escapes the one-lane ramp. If anything happens on 99 from the bridge back…. You’re stuck. Not to mention just regular peak period traffic
The main culprit for delay is the bridge. Specifically the ramp to NB 99.
I assume you are talking about the ramp from the (eastbound) West Seattle Bridge to (northbound) SR 99. It is a 3/4 loop and there are no bus lanes there.
That is my understanding as well (in talking to people and just looking at the map). I see two possible solutions:
1) Add a lane for the turn with the new lane being bus-only. This wouldn’t be trivial. It is essentially a curving viaduct. But it also wouldn’t cost a fortune either.
2) Add ramps from the Spokane Street Viaduct to the SoDo busway. I think this would be a similar cost but offer a key advantage — faster connection to Link. Just to back up here, consider the people in West Seattle who are taking transit off the peninsula. Only a handful of people live close to the three future West Seattle stations. That will likely be true for a very long time. That means the vast majority of transit riders will be arriving at the stations from somewhere else in West Seattle. Those who are headed downtown or transferring downtown are better off with the express bus. This includes places like First Hill, Bellevue or Uptown. Thus the vast majority of people would be better off with the same buses they are running now (let alone faster ones). But not everyone. People headed to Link locations to the north would be better off with West Seattle Link. It makes sense to transfer to Link in West Seattle rather than wait until the bus gets downtown. But if the bus goes to SoDo then you might as well transfer there. Furthermore if you want to go to Link locations south of downtown (SoDo, Beacon Hill, Rainier Valley, SeaTac, etc.) then sending the buses to downtown via the SoDo busway saves quite a bit of time over the current routing and West Seattle Link. You save a transfer and avoid backtracking as much.
This is why I now lean heavily towards sending the buses to the SoDo busway. Every change has a trade-off. But if you compare West Seattle Link versus SoDo Busway it is clear that the latter is better for almost everyone. Consider these riders:
1) People who walk to one of the three stations: Better off with West Seattle Link.
2) People who don’t live near a station headed downtown or making a transfer downtown: Better off with SoDo busway buses.
3) People who don’t live near a station headed to a north end Link locations (e. g. UW): About the same. You just transfer at a different place.
4) People who don’t live near a station headed to a south end Link locations (e. g. SeaTac): Better off with SoDo busway buses.
There are way more people in the second and fourth group than the first. It isn’t even close. It is just bizarre that we continue to propose a transit option that is more expensive and worse for the vast majority of riders.
No, we don’t have that data. But we can still make some assumptions:
1) There aren’t that many people living close to the ferry dock. The area is similar to the next inbound stop, Fauntleroy & Rose. That means roughly 60 people a day are getting off the ferry and taking the C. Most of them in the middle of the day. This is on top of the express ferry buses (116, 118 and 119) all being suspended. Very few people are commuting from Southworth or Vashon via the bus. Some are probably taking the passenger ferry directly to downtown while others are working from home. The bus likely helps (as people have another way home).
2) A lot of people get on the bus 26th & Barton. There is a Target (and a few other shops) but my guess is a lot of these riders are transferring from the H. There are plenty of people who get off the bus before it gets to downtown and this is where you would transfer.
3) I think it is tough to make assessments for the other transfers. The Junction is a popular area but it is hard to tell how much of that is simply because it is the biggest destination in West Seattle on the C Line or because of the transfers. There doesn’t appear to be many people transferring from the 21 to the C but it is hard to tell. I’ve looked at some other routes and there doesn’t appear to be anything big enough to stand out in terms of transfers.
The mid-day peak from the Fauntleroy Ferry stop would plausibly relate to the times formerly not covered by the Vashon Water taxi. It would be interesting to see if that hump diminished with the introduction of the all-day Water Taxi schedule this summer. The Southworth passenger ferry has pretty big mid-day gap, but not as big as the Vashon route had before this summer. Between Vashon and downtown, the Water Taxi is way nicer and more predictable than WSF+C. Not my commute, but expect an even bigger convenience and predictability difference between passenger ferry and WSF+C for Southworth/downtown trips.
Also curious about weekend use of the Fauntleroy Ferry stop, as there is no Water Taxi service on weekends.
The mid-day peak from the Fauntleroy Ferry stop would plausibly relate to the times formerly not covered by the Vashon Water taxi.
Yes, definitely. I doubt the 116, 118 or 119 are ever coming back. The pedestrian ferry makes way more sense for most of those riders. There just aren’t enough riders to justify an express once you do that. Riders can take the C when the passenger ferry isn’t running.
Also curious about weekend use of the Fauntleroy Ferry stop, as there is no Water Taxi service on weekends.
Good point. I’m pretty sure all the stop data we have is for weekdays. Metro’s main data page only seems to list weekday information. I’m not sure how to get weekend numbers. They would be interesting (on this and many other routes).
I have a copy of the numbers (from the most recent time period) and found some interesting things. For simplicity’s sake I’ll consider an inbound bus:
People riding within West Seattle: 882
People riding within Downtown Seattle: 995
People riding between West Seattle and Downtown: 2127
As folks above have mentioned, it isn’t clear how many people are transferring from other buses to get to the C, but I would assume it is substantial (based on previous comments). Even with that, there aren’t that many people take the bus downtown.
Note: the section on the West Seattle Link Extension and potential associated changes to RapidRide C has been updated in line with late revisions which were intended for the original article, but apparently weren’t preserved prior to publication.
Is it “on topic” to note that the C is the current version of WSLE, and it gets 7,500 riders per day or 420 per hour assuming eighteen hour service [yes, this is a “swag”]. That’s for a bus running every ten minutes, which means that each run gets an average of forty-two boardings. That of course includes the riders who only ride in the SLU stub.
Now that’s not bad for a bus line, but Whooeeey! it is going to be EM. BAR. ASS. ING. to Sound Transit if WSLE is similar. It’ll be six billion, give or take, and THAT number has to be divided by 7500.
“How much would that be??????” If you mean “capital investment per new daily rider”, you don’t even want to think about it for more than a nanosecond……
Your brain would be at risk of overheating and “melting down”.
No. Dumb math. Not forty-two boardings. “Seventy boardings”
The several times I’ve taken the C to Lincoln Park, I was the only rider after The Junction. Even The Junction only got about 3 riders.
Huge contrast to the E.
Tom, it’s not just the C. Metro also plans to eventually force a transfer from the 21 and the H so that they can get a few more riders, but far from filling a light rail train.
Glenn in Portland – The C feels like a completely different route south of the Alaska Junction. It goes through some pretty wealthy areas and there’s not very many riders.
south of the Alaska Junction … there’s not very many riders.
It is split almost 50-50 in West Seattle, with about half of the riders coming from south of the Junction. Here are the boarding numbers for an inbound bus:
Westwood Village to Alaska Junction: 1,502
Alaska Junction to West Seattle Bridge: 1,408
Downtown: 995
A lot of the riders who board south of the Junction get off the bus before going downtown (somewhere between 600 to 800). If the C Line just went from the Junction to downtown (and nobody got on downtown) it wouldn’t carry many riders (about three thousand a day).
Is it “on topic” to note that the C is the current version of WSLE
Not really. There is the C and H. But we should also include the 21. Likewise might as well throw in the 56 and 57. These are all potential riders. But not all the trips would be replaced by West Seattle Link. Trips within West Seattle or within downtown don’t count. As noted up above, this particular bus has 2,127 riders going from West Seattle to downtown. The H has about 2,000 riders doing the same. The 21, 56 and 57 have a bit more than 1,000. These numbers are for one way and only the trips from West Seattle to downtown (e. g. the 21 picks up plenty of people on First Avenue headed north).
So that is less than 6,000 riders a day (one-way). This is essentially the baseline for ridership at the West Seattle stations (assuming we truncated the buses). I would expect the numbers to go up because ridership in general is going up. Other than that I wouldn’t expect a big increase. The C gets a fairly high percentage of its West-Seattle-to-Downtown ridership from riders close to the future station. But that is not the case with the C, 21, 56 and 57. Thus it isn’t clear if there would be an overall increase in ridership due to the train being faster. Some riders would have a faster trip, while other riders would be forced to transfer. I think somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000 (weekday) sounds about right. Even if greatly exceeded that (and got 10,000) that is an enormous amount of money to spend per rider.
I would add that it’s the station locations and track profiles that greatly determine the value of a rail extension.
The depth of the Junction station will deter anyone from wanting to use the station unless they are going Downtown. It’s a long way down.
That was not taken into account with the SF Central Subway. The deep platforms have resulted in lots fewer riders than their forecasts anticipated.
Plus deep subway stations for four-car trains are expensive to dig. While a TBM can bore for tracks between stations, the stations still need some major excavation. Jts expensive and disruptive to the surrounding blocks — for at least 4-5 years and maybe more.
Yeah station depth (or height) is a big part of station placement. It effects every rider. For example consider the UW Station. It is in the wrong location for the majority of riders. But some riders — those going to the area next to the stadium — come out ahead. But no one comes out ahead with a really deep (or tall) platform. Same goes for frequency. Even if is substantially faster a lot of riders come out behind.
Are station depths really a deal breaker? They’re not for me. I’ve ridden on the SF Central Subway, I really wish they had it when I lived there. If you’re in Chinatown and take the subway south you will already be at the Moscone Center while the 30 Stockton Muni bus won’t even be south of Market Street with all the lights and bus stops. The same principle applies to Link vs the C Line.
“Dealbreaker” is a strong word, but deep stations are known to suppress ridership due to the increased time it takes to reach the station platform.
How do they count riders? If it’s from paid fares then the numbers are vastly under counted unless they raise the numbers appropriately to account for that. Or do they count physical bodies on the bus at various times and extrapolate?
These data are collected using Automated Passenger Counters (APCs) that are installed on almost all busses. APCs are sensors above each door that count the number of passengers that get on or off the bus.