Rapid Ride C & D Ridership Way Up

SDOT Photo

Late last week Metro released initial ridership data for the newly-split Rapid Ride C and D lines. Though ridership had already been seeing Link-like growth rates hovering around 10%, Metro says that in the month since ULink opened and the restructure split the lines and added 50,000 new service hours, C-Line ridership is up a whopping 26% and D-Line ridership is up 21%.

Extrapolating from 2015 weekday ridership numbers, this means C-Line ridership has grown from 8,300 to 10,500, while D-Line ridership is up from 11,700 to 14,200. The two lines now combine for 25,000 riders per day, roughly what Central Link generated back in 2012.

Much of this can be attributed to the additional destinations now able to be served. No longer tied to the Viaduct, D-Line riders have a much better connection to South Downtown, the stadiums, and Pioneer Square. And of course, the C-Line now serves South Lake Union on the successful Westlake bus lanes, giving riders in the corridor a frequency dividend, enabling them to take whatever comes first between the streetcar, Route 40, and the C-Line.