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:
- Passengers at Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace switched to Link
- Some commuter routes were replaced with improved local service (eg: 417 -> 117 + Link)
- New park & ride spaces at Link stations in Snohomish County and Shoreline
- Transfer penalty to infrequent Express routes
All four factors are supported by the relatively strong Link ridership in Snohomish County. In October 2025, Lynnwood City Center and Mountlake Terrace stations had 2,758 and 2,565 average weekday boardings, respectively. Combined, this is more passengers than previously used all Commuter routes. Additionally, ridership on CT’s local routes increased almost 30% from 2023 to 2025. An upcoming article will discuss the ridership patterns for local routes in Snohomish County.
Factors 3 and 4 are related and likely the biggest cause for decreased Commuter/Express ridership. Prior to 2024, someone could drive to a local park & ride for a Commuter bus to Seattle. While the route was infrequent, the passenger timed their journey to match the route’s schedule. Now, this same passenger has two options. They can drive to the same P&R to catch a bus to Link, or just drive to Link directly. Given the infrequent nature of the Express routes, most people in this position will prefer the slightly longer drive to a Link station. This will result in a shorter trip time and gives them more flexibility without risking a long transfer penalty on their return trip.
Unlike feeder bus route capacity, parking near Link stations is quite limited. Lynnwood City Center has 1,896 parking spaces and Mountlake Terrace has an additional 870 spots. Anecdotally, these garages fill up early most weekdays. As parking garages are not scalable, this strong demand emphasizes the need for Community Transit to improve the frequency and coverage of its local and Express routes.
Ridership Charts per Route
The charts below show 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.
Route 901
Route 901 connects Silver Firs and McCollum Park Park & Ride with Lynnwood City Center station. The route runs every half hour to Lynnwood in the morning and from Lynnwood in the afternoon. Passengers can transfer to the Swift Green Line at 132nd St & 16th Ave and to the Green and Orange Lines at McCollumn Park P&R. Ridership is moderate with an average 179 passengers across the route’s 20 trips (9 inbound, 11 outbound) each weekday. Route 901 replaced Route 412 in 2024. Route 412 served the same stops but traveled to downtown Seattle instead of the Link station in Lynnwood. In October 2023, Route 412 carried an average 236 passengers each weekday on 10 trips (5 each direction).
Route 903
Route 903 travels between Lake Stevens and Lynnwood City Center station. Lake Stevens Transit center is the primary source of ridership in Lake Stevens with 20-25 passengers per day. The other stops in the Lake Stevens have minimal ridership (1-2 people per day). This peak direction route carries about 106 passengers each weekday on 16 trips (7 inbound, 9 outbound). Route 903 was preceded by Route 425. In October 2023, Route 425 had 143 passengers each weekday on 7 trips (4 inbound, 3 outbound).
Route 904
Route 904 provides express service between Marysville and Lynnwood. The route only has seven stops in each direction, but still has about 145 passengers each weekday. Like most other Express routes, Route 904 only carries passengers in the peak direction with 10 inbound trips in the morning and 11 outbound trips in the afternoon. Almost all passengers travel between one of the P&Rs in Marysville and South Everett Fwy Station and Lynnwood City Center station. Before the Lynnwood Link Extension opened, Marysville was served by two Commuter routes: 421 and 821. Route 421 carried 241 passengers to/from downtown Seattle each weekday while Route 821 was used by 158 passengers. About half of the passengers on routes 421 and 821 traveled between Seattle and Lynnwood.
Route 905
Route 905 is Community Transit’s longest and busiest Express route. The 40-mile long route runs every hour in each direction throughout the day, transporting 281 passengers each weekday between Stanwood, Smokey Point TC, Marysville, and Lynnwood. All-day service is a significant upgrade from the 4 daily trips provided by Route 905’s predecessor, Route 422. Route 422 was only used by 66 passengers each day in October 2023.
Route 907
Route 907 is the only Express route that does not stop at a Link station. Instead, it provides a quick route between Stanwood, Arlington, Marysville, Everett, Seaway Transit Center, and Paine Field. The route has 8 daily trips, 4 to Paine Field in the morning and 4 return trips in the afternoon. Across these trips, Route 907 has 43 passengers each weekday. Most of these passengers traveled to/from Seaway Transit Center. Less than one passenger per day uses Route 907 to commute to the Everett Boeing Plant at Paine Field. Route 907 was proceeded by routes 227 and 247. These routes each had 4 daily trips and a weekday ridership of 21 and 23 passengers, respectively.
Route 909
Route 909 is Community Transit’s only Express route connecting ferry passengers with Link. As a result, the route is timed with the Edmonds/Kingston WSF route. About 219 passengers board a Route 909 trip each weekday, making it the second busiest Express route. Ridership is fairly even throughout the day. Prior to August 2024, passengers traveling between downtown Edmonds and Seattle during peak hours used one of the 8 daily trips on Route 416. In October 2023, Route 416 saw 103 passengers each weekday.
Route 424
Route 424 was the only remaining Commuter route after the the Lynnwood Link Extension opened. The route was finally retired on June 12, 2026 and replaced by Express Route 908. The route’s 4 daily trips (2 per direction) carried 112 passengers each weekday in October 2025. Most of these passengers traveled between Monroe P&R or Totem Lake and downtown Seattle. This is an increase from the 79 passengers who used the route each day in October 2023.
Final Thoughts
Community Transit’s Express routes fill a crucial role in the County’s transit network and are a better use of the agency’s limited resources than their Seattle-bound predecessors. However, many passengers are deterred from using Express routes due to the limited service span, low frequency, and required transfers. Additional investments to boost frequencies and lower transfer penalties will go a long way to making these routes accessible and appealing to as many passengers as possible.
It looks like good number of people use 424 as a substitute to 256 between Totem Lake and Downtown Seattle.
Typo: “Roue 909”. (If only we were contracting with France to plan our transit!)
I’d be interested to compare the current express route ridership with previous ridership subtracting Lynnwood and Montlake Terrace, and to compare overall Community Transit ridership before and after Link with those stops subtracted. How many riders are actually switching?
I would add locations served and single direction service as limiting ridership potential.
Eg:,Nobody commutes to Stanwood Park and Ride, and there’s only 2 houses within walking distance.
Obviously it would cost more, but extending the route into actual Stanwood would give it more destinations.
Agreed. Route 905 would be more useful if it:
1) served downtown Stanwood al the way to the water. Currently it awkwardly stops short at the edge of downtown… like Metro route 106.
2) If the route served more of Smokey Point Blvd/State Ave or made a detour to the Tulalip Premium Outlets. Right now, it takes two buses to reach the LTC and three modes to reach anywhere beyond. The outlets & casino is a regional destination and CT has never understood this. They make it a pain in the a## to get there.
I agree with both of you on this.
Premium Outlets and the casino are such attractions.
The Premium Outlet also has a stop for QuickShuttle that travelers to/from Canada use. 905 would be the perfect express bus transfer.
I think ST512+CT905 are what Link would be, if it extended today beyond Lynnwood.
Extending all the way through Stanwood would be awesome!
The 901 replaced the 412 which went all the way to downtown Seattle. I think there were only 4 busses each way on that rout.
Now there are 9 in the morning and 11 in the evening on the 901 so I’d say that’s an improvement.
Unfortunately, ridership has decreased. 179 riders vs. 236 on the 412. Making more trips through low density housing hasn’t boosted ridership. I’m going to guess (only a shot in the dark) that these residents are either 1) opting to drive 2) work on the Eastside and not Seattle or 3) work remote too much. Based on my experience with this area, there are a lot of people who work on the Eastside in Bothell, Redmond and Bellevue. CT has done an extremely poor job at serving its constituents in this area. Driving is way better than making multiple transfers between buses that run every 30 minutes.
I think the Puget Park loop of the route should be eliminated and keep the bus on 132nd/134th only. This would essentially make it a peak-hour leg of the 109. Ridership is highest along this segment as people are using the bus to get on/off at Bothell-Everett Hwy and McCollum-LTC.
I see your point.
While the 901 and its predecessor the 412 run/ran through my neighborhood, I haven’t had much use for either route.
I think I’ve taken the 412 on two separate occasions. Once when I did jury duty in Federal Court in Seattle which only lasted a day. The other time was for the Seahawks Superbowl victory parade in 2014.
I’ve gotten more use from the Green line and Orange line BRTs, the ST 512 and the Everett Transit route 29.
May I offer another breakdown?
As a former CT rider and former Snohomish county resident, these numbers are both dismal and encouraging. Dismal in the fact that CT is running mostly empty buses on each commuter run. Averaging 9 riders per trip on route 901; 5 riders on route 907..another 5 on the 909. The majority of these buses are burning through long labor hours, travel miles and schedule cushioning to make lengthy freeway trips. And the most we can squeeze out of this restructured service is a measly 5 riders?? There needs to be a serious lookover at how CT moves Snohomish county residents around and reinvesting these resources into more efficient service.
At the same time, the encouraging aspect of these numbers is that some of the routes have seen a ridership boost in comparison to their predecessor routes.
The 905 has seen a ridership boost because CT has created an express link between North County and Lynnwood AND opened up connections in South Everett. North county riders needing to go south no longer having to stop-n-go on the 201/202. They can now bypass a bazillion stops and proceed straight to South Everett or Lynnwood.
The 909 proves there has been a demand for all-day service in the “Westgate” neighborhood along Edmonds Way. People are using the bus for intra-Edmonds trips between downtown Edmonds, Westgate, Hwy 99 and Lake Ballinger. Before 909, the only way to reach Edmonds Way was to walk from Hwy 99 or take the 130 to Edmonds Way & 100th Ave… and walk from there. It doesn’t help that the bus runs every 45 minutes. If it ran every 30 minutes, then I feel ridership would increase.
As for the 905, CT needs to take a page from Metro’s book and create semi-express routes like the 101 and 150. The 905 could see higher ridership if it ran along Smokey Point Blvd/State Ave and then as an express to the LTC.
CT serves fewer residents, with worse/longer routes, and an extremely bloated budget. The only corridor they seem to care about is funneling people to the link. Need to go somewhere else? That’s tough.
They need a complete overhaul.
Starting with a reduction in the amount they take of sales tax (such a progressive organization, run on such a regressive system). The virtue signaling alone makes me ill.
In addition, stop with the expanded marketing budget. We all know what buses are and what they do!
Also, their attitude towards merging (hostile takeover, really) with Everett Transit shows their true colors.
Hopefully citizens realize that all the money that has been poured into this transit system is a farce.
A well paying one if you work for them though!
Would you support an income tax? or would you prefer an equally regressive property tax levy? We’re stuck with regressive taxes until the State’s Millionaire’s Tax survives legal challenge and the legislature allows transportation benefit districts to use more progressive revenue sources.
I expect Community Transit would be able serve Snohomish County as you seem to want it to if it were allowed more revenue, not less.
Hopefully, CT will reconsider its express bus routes that used to run from South County to Boeing/Everett, as not all commuters are going to Seattle! For those who weren’t around then, in the spring of 2003, CT ended their express bus routes from Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace, Bothell to/from Boeing/Everett. More recently, they dropped a short-lived express bus route from Lynnwood Link to Boeing/Everett via the Mukilteo Speedway. IMO, it would have succeeded if that route had started at Mountlake Terrace and extended to the Paine Field Terminal, as that would have covered Boeing Gate 68 as well as Gate 75 on a single-seat ride as well as folks bound for the airport who would consider that route. I suppose that with Sound Transit finally implementing bi-directional service on its 513 by dropping its stop at the lightly-used Eastmont Park & Ride in southeast Everett that CT won’t consider this anymore, but it would be a PR win if they did.
I work in Seattle and commute from Lake Stevens daily. You hit my point why I don’t ride the 903. I tried it but for me the headways would leave me at times waiting 25 minutes at Lynnwood. I find it more reliable and more availability for me to drive the roughly 15 minutes to Everett Station and catch the 510 into Seattle. During Revive I-5, I would transfer though at MLT to Link to avoid the back up, in the afternoon I’ll take the 510 all the way through. If for some reason I can’t take a 510, I can still do Link to a 512.
905 has so much potential but falls short because of frequency and service hours.
Someone said ST 512 is owned by CT. Why merge 905 and 512 into 1 bus – say getting 512 to extend all the way to stanwood?
Have it go up smokey point blvd – and add a stop at the church parking lot that serves as a park n ride, so riders don’t need to walk the distance to smokey point transit center.
I’d like to not drive and get to the city on the weekends. The service hours and frequency is just horrible. 201/202 takes an hour to get between Lynnwood TC and Smokey Point TC.
Or why not make Smokey Point TC a park n ride?
The 905 is really awesome for the distance and trip durations. Really just wish there’s a lot more of it.