This year, Seattle and King County Metro Transit will start building the overdue RapidRide J route east of Lake Union, after the federal government awarded the project $64.2 million.
The new line will replace Metro Route 70 and will be the first RapidRide route to operate as a trolley bus, drawing electricity from overhead wires. The line goes from Sound Transit’s U District Station over the University Bridge, through Eastlake Avenue East and Fairview Avenue North. From there, it bends down Stewart Street to Third Avenue, finishing in Pioneer Square.
The street rebuild and conversion to RapidRide are scheduled to be finished in 2027.
Buses will stop at fewer blocks but still serve eight stops in each direction in the primary corridor north of Denny Way. Metro and the city expect to provide 24-hour service, ranging from every 7 ½ minutes at peak times to 60 minutes overnight.
Riders could save 12 minutes during afternoon peak hours, and less at other times, compared to existing conditions, according to city environmental reports.
“When RapidRide J launches, that workhorse is going to be a little more of a racehorse,” said County Executive Dow Constantine.
Planned improvements include 3 miles of sidewalk repairs, almost 4 miles of bike lanes, 2 miles of street repaving, 2 miles of bus lanes and 190 trees, according to the Seattle Department of Transportation. At the chokepoint entering South Lake Union, crews will widen Fairview Avenue North to build a bus bypass lane at Valley Street traffic lights.
During the street rebuilds, Seattle Public Utilities will replace 8,900 feet of old water pipes, for a separate $28 million budget covered by ratepayers, while some $5 million in streetlight replacement is also planned.
Daily ridership is forecast at 10,500 passengers by 2030, said Metro staff. That’s below an estimate of 14,700 trips the Federal Transit Administration previously published, based on rapid growth in the 2010s. By comparison, Route 70 carried 4,500 daily riders as of last October but served as many as 9,700 in the past, when Amazon interns filled the aisles.
Metro ridership is recovering but still subpar as people work from home, many downtown offices and shops go vacant and some travelers shift to light rail. Countywide bus use last October was only 61% of the pre-pandemic record of 433,000 per day in October 2018.
The J line was originally designed to reach Roosevelt Station, a mile north, but Seattle shortened it to control rising costs.
Another challenge is that small businesses risk losing some customers as curbside parking is removed. After years of outreach, SDOT designed loading zones on and adjoining Eastlake.
RapidRide J is one of six upgrades promised and partly funded by the Move Seattle levy of 2015, published without firm bus project schedules and budgets. Construction on RapidRide G, which climbs Madison Street, should be complete this year. The J Line will be at least three years late, and the G Line two years later than SDOT targets set in 2018.
FTA Administrator Nuria Fernandez announced the grant Friday in Seattle, standing with U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Mayor Bruce Harrell and other dignitaries in a parking lot next to Lake Union. FTA will cover half the $128.5 million budget.
Another $9.6 million comes from the Federal Highway Administration along with $43 million in Seattle property-tax levy funds, $10 million for stations by Metro and $6 million each from the University of Washington and the Washington State Department of Transportation.
“This region is one of the greatest regions. It has been a champion of public transit in all of its forms, and somehow we seem to be able to find additional projects to support you all with, and I’m so glad you have a road map,” said Fernandez, who has family in the Seattle area.
This marks the seventh RapidRide project where FTA contributed money since 2009, she said. Those began with the A Line along International Boulevard South, from Tukwila to Federal Way.
“I continue to work every year, year after year, to give people what they want, and to secure as much funding in the [FTA’s] Capital Investment Grant fund as I am able to,” Murray said.
Nationwide, $4.5 billion will be distributed in 2024. Washington perennially snags a huge share of this fund, including $2 billion for Lynnwood and Federal Way light rail extensions to open in coming years.
