At 9:59am last Friday, I boarded Everett Transit Route 29 at Everett Transit Mall Station. While the six other passengers on the bus were traveling to work, home, or somewhere else, for me this trip was the first segment of my region-wide ORCA speedrun. Transit speedrunning is the process of visiting every station in a transit system as fast as possible. In cities/regions with complex rail transit networks, such as San Francisco or New York, competitors look for new routes to beat the previous record. While the Link light rail system now has 3 lines across Puget Sound, the speedrun route is fairly straightforward. Our rail network is not complex enough to provide other potential routes that are faster. However, the broader ORCA network is quite complex.
One Regional Card for All (ORCA) powers transit fares for nine transit agencies across four counties in Washington. Visiting every stop in the ORCA network would take months, so the ORCA speedrun has a simpler goal: ride every mode of fixed-route transit offered by each agency in the ORCA pod, as fast as possible. This includes every type bus service, rail service, and ferry service from each of the nine agencies. For example, King County Metro offers three types of bus service: local, express, and RapidRide. Likewise, Kitsap Transit has both Fast Ferries and Foot Ferries. In total, there are 21 different modes across the nine agencies. Paratransit, dial-a-ride-transit, or other on-demand services are not included. City Beautiful and The Transit Bandit have completed similar speedruns using seven of the transit modes in Seattle.
My Route
Centered around downtown Seattle, ORCA is supported by agencies to the north, south, and west. For my speedrun, I started in the north (Everett) and planned to finish in the south (Tacoma). I shared updates in real-time on Bluesky and a full map of the run is available here.
Snohomish County
Snohomish County has two dedicated transit agencies: Everett Transit (ET) and Community Transit (CT). ET is one of the smaller agencies on the list, it just runs local bus service. CT, meanwhile, has local bus routes, Express bus routes and Swift routes.
My trip on Route 29 checked the Everett Transit box. I got off the bus at the South Everett Freeway Station and transferred to an inbound Community Transit Express Route 905. Route 905 returned to I-5 and traveled directly to Lynnwood Transit Center. As I would need to return back to Lynnwood TC to board Link to get to Seattle, this next segment required an out-and-back using both Swift and a local route. I boarded the next Orange Line bus towards Edmonds College and took it one stop to Hwy 99. Thankfully, the traffic signal at Hwy 99 & 196th St was in my favor so I could catch the Lynnwood-bound Route 166 across the street with seconds to spare.
King County
Link is the best option for traveling between Lynnwood and Seattle. The 40 minute ride was a nice opportunity to relax after a few very close transfers in Snohomish County. In Seattle, I had about an hour to ride five different modes: Metro bus, Metro Express bus, Seattle Streetcar, ST Express bus, and the Seattle Center Monorail. While I had planned most of the day, this hour was improvised. At Westlake station, I got off the 1 Line and walked over to the waiting South Lake Union streetcar. I hopped aboard and we departed a few minutes later. After two stops, I alighted the streetcar at Denny Way and boarded an eastbound Route 8 bus. As we sped down the new bus lane on Denny, I noticed a ST Express Route 577 bus was about to start its trip to Federal Way. I got off Route 8 after just one stop and ran to the bus stop at Boren Ave & Virginia St. The Route 577 bus arrived a few moments later, exactly on time.
I now had just two modes left for downtown Seattle: the Seattle Center Monorail and a Metro Express bus. Most Metro Express buses run during peak hours so my only option was Route 28X. I rode Route 577 a few stops to Stewart St & 7th Ave. After a short walk to Westlake Center Mall, I boarded a well timed monorail train and made my way to Seattle Center. I sat near the front of the train as I needed to make a quick exit to catch the next bus. A southbound Route 28X bus was scheduled to depart from 7th & Thomas at 11:52am, four minutes after the monorail arrived at Seattle Center. A four minute transfer is usually fine, but this bus stop was a 7 minute walk from the monorail station.
After a short jog I made it to the bus stop 2 minutes early (the bus was 1 minute late). I boarded the 28X bus to check off the last mode needed in downtown Seattle. My next scheduled ride was the 12:30pm West Seattle Water Taxi operated by King County Metro. With 25 minutes to spare I decided to ride Metro’s Waterfront Shuttle.
I arrived back at Pier 50 at 12:19 and joined the queue to board my first boat of the day. Metro’s West Seattle Water Taxi took just 10 minutes to reach Seacrest Dock. I boarded on DART Route 773 for a quick ride to Avalon Ave & Bradford, just south of the West Seattle Bridge. After crossing the street, I caught an inbound C Line bus back to downtown Seattle. This RapidRide bus was the fourth and final mode of the day from King County Metro.
Kitsap County
The C Line bus sailed across the West Seattle Bridge and dropped me off across the street from the Seattle Ferry Terminal. After enjoying some of the ferry terminal amenities, we (my wife joined me for this section) boarded the Seattle – Bremerton Washington State Ferries route. The hour-long trip sailed by and we arrived in Bremerton at 2:39pm, just 9 minutes behind schedule. Despite the delay we had a few minutes for a delicious lunch at Mezcalitos. At 3:30p, we walked back over to the ferry terminal to catch the smallest boat of the day: a Kitsap Transit Foot Ferry to Annapolis. The Admiral Pete was packed to standing-room-only as we made the short trip to Annapolis. We alighted the vessel with everyone else and started to walk down the surprisingly long dock. When we were halfway to land, the boat’s engines roared to life and it sailed away. This was not the plan. We were supposed to take that same boat back to Bremerton. The 15-minute wait for the next sailing put the most important transfer of the day in jeopardy.
The next boat back to Bremerton was scheduled to get us back to Bremerton at 4:07pm. That would leave just four minutes to catch the 4:11pm Worker/Driver bus from the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS). Worker/Driver buses run just once per day in each direction, so missing it would end this speed run attempt. After enjoying a private boat experience on the Foot Ferry trip back to Bremerton, I left the backpack with my wife and sprinted to PSNS. About a minute later, the retractable bollards descended and the Route 613 (Chico) bus rolled through the gate.
Kitsap Transit’s Worker/Driver routes are unique in Puget Sound. They travel from across Kitsap County to downtown Bremerton and PSNS. While they are designed for PSNS employees (and only PSNS employees can ride them within the facility), their one stop outside the PSNS gate makes them available to the public. I did confirm that these routes are open to the public with Kitsap Transit staff a few weeks ago. As the Worker/Driver routes travel long distances, they have far stop spacing. I rode Route 631 one stop (2.5 miles), to Kitsap Way & Marine Dr. Here, I had a lofty 10 minute transfer to Kitsap Route 212 back to the ferry terminal.
As luck would have it, Route 212 was running 17 minutes behind schedule and was scheduled to arrive at the Bremerton Terminal at 4:57pm. I needed to catch the 5:00pm Fast Ferry back to Seattle. As the Fast Ferry requires all passengers to be on board 2 minutes before departure, this would cut it way to close. Fortunately, there was a Route 226 bus from the same stop that was scheduled to arrive at the terminal at 4:55pm. Still too close for comfort, but I didn’t have another option. Route 226 arrived on time and I was finally heading back to the ferry terminal. While on board, I noticed the Route 226 had a slight detour in downtown Bremerton. Still worried about catching the Fast Ferry, I decided to get off the bus at Pacific and MLK Way and run the rest of the way. I met back up with my wife and we joined the line to board the Fast Ferry at 4:56pm.
The Fast Ferry was busy! Nearly every seat was occupied as we made the 30-minute trip back to Seattle. We got off the boat at 5:33pm, leaving just 12 minutes to catch the 5:45pm Sounder train to Tacoma. After saying goodbye to my wife, I ran through Pioneer Square to King Street Station.
Pierce County
At King Street Station, I boarded the 5:45pm S Line train bound for Lakewood. Unlike Link trains that afternoon, the Sounder train stayed on schedule and we pulled into Tacoma around 6:40pm. I crossed the street to board the T Line, the final Sound Transit service of the day. This left just two more transit modes: Pierce Transit local bus service and the Stream Community Line. Both local buses and the Stream Community Line serve the Pacific Ave corridor, so I exited the T Line train at Convention Center station and walked over to Pacific Ave & S 14th St. A Route 1 bus showed up first so I hopped aboard and rode it two stops to Pacific & 19th. After a few other buses came and went, the last southbound Stream Community Line bus for the day stopped at Pacific & 19th.
I boarded the final bus of the speedrun and took it one stop to Tacoma Dome station. After alighting the bus I stopped the timer to record the first ever ORCA speedrun time: 9 hours, 12 minutes, and 40 seconds.
Observations
I really enjoyed spending the day exploring cities across Puget Sound and observing how different transit services are used. The passengers and drivers I spoke with were extremely kind and helpful. I was most surprised by the Kitsap Transit ferries. Every ferry trip I observed was on-time and busy (except for the return trip from Annapolis). Given the geography, the ferries offer a shortcut across the water. These smaller (and cheaper) vessels can provide better service than WSF at a fraction of the cost. More cities and counties should be allowed to operate a fleet of passenger-only ferries. The 35% service reduction in the Seattle – Bremerton Fast Ferry route is incredibly disappointing.
Another highlight of the trip was seeing how an agency’s various transit services benefit the various types of trips. No transit mode is one-size-fits-all so agencies need to adapt the vehicle types (train, bus, boat) to fit their needs. One example of this was in Lynnwood, where Route 166 and the Orange Line cover the same route between Hwy 99 and Lynnwood Transit Center. Despite sharing the same road, the Orange Line only has one stop while Route 166 has four. The Route 166 bus I was on let passengers on/off at three of the four stops. These passengers would have been overlooked with only Orange Line service and Orange Line trips would be much slower with many more stops. The overlapping local and Swift service complement each other nicely. Pierce Transit uses a similar strategy on Pacific Ave with Route 1 and the Stream Community Line.
Technical Details
Here is the complete list of transit services included in the ORCA speedrun:
- Community Transit
- Bus
- Express bus
- Swift
- Everett Transit bus
- King County Metro
- Bus
- Express Bus
- RapidRide bus
- Water Taxi
- Kitsap Transit
- Bus
- Worker/Driver bus
- Fast Ferry
- Foot Ferry
- Pierce Transit
- Bus
- Stream Community Line
- Seattle Center Monorail
- Seattle Streetcar
- Sound Transit
- ST Express bus
- Link (1 Line/2 Line)
- Link (T Line)
- Sounder
- Washington State Ferries
While most transit agencies in the ORCA pod offer more flexible transit options, the ORCA speedrun only includes fixed route transit. This is primarily to minimize the impact on other transit riders. Flexible services, such as Metro Flex, CT’s Zip Shuttle, or PT’s Runner service, have limited resources. Someone using those services for a speedrun could cause a longer wait for someone else. Fixed route options are acceptable because the impact of one extra rider is negligible.
While planning this adventure I went back and forth on including King County Metro shuttle routes. Metro operates four shuttle routes, but only one (Valley Shuttle) operates year-round. The other three (Waterfront, Golden Gardens, and the snow shuttle) are seasonal or weather dependent. To add another wrinkle, this is an ORCA speedrun and the Waterfront Shuttle is completely free. Ultimately, I decided to make shuttle routes optional.
Also, I chose to separate the T Line from the 1 Line and 2 Line. While they are all technically part of Link, the T Line has little in common with the 1 Line and 2 Line. Another reason to separate the Link lines: Sound Transit reports T Line ridership data to the FTA separate from the 1 Line and 2 Line.
If you plan on attempting this challenge, I hope you can beat my time. Here are a few other rules I followed:
- No cars allowed. This includes taxis, ride hailing services, and personal vehicles. Car services offered by transit agencies (eg: Metro Flex) are allowed, but not required.
- Bikes/scooters can be used between routes.
- Other transit services are allowed but not required.
- Each speedrunner must pay for every ride with an ORCA card. This entire journey cost me $26.35.
I hope my successful speedrun inspires other Seattle transit enthusiasts to try it as well. While Link receives more of our collective attention than any other mode, trains, buses, and boats throughout Puget Sound play a critical role in getting people where they need to go. Riding each mode is a great way to understand the value it provides to its passengers and to the overall network.