Community Transit Ridership Jumped 24% After Lynnwood Link Restructure

The Swift Orange Line has played a key role in boosting Community Transit's ridership over the past two years. (Michael Smith)

Since the Lynnwood Link Extension opened in August 2024, Community Transit has overhauled its network. The two Link stations in Snohomish County have allowed the agency to invest more service hours in local routes than ever before. This investment comes at the cost the Commuter routes, which the agency has truncated and rebranded as Express. Community Transit has also grown its bus rapid transit network with the opening of the Orange Line in March 2024.

Overall Ridership Trends

Ridership on the agency's services has shifted in response to the changes in the network. In October 2023, Community Transit had 23,701 average weekday trips. About 47% of these trips were on one of the 26 local routes and 18% were on a Commuter route to or from Seattle. The two Swift lines, Blue and Green, had 24% and 10% of all boardings, respectively.

Jumping ahead two years to October 2025, Community Transit's ridership looks a bit different. Overall boardings have increased to 24% to 29,277 each weekday. This increase is primarily due to higher ridership on local routes and the Swift Orange Line. Ridership on Commuter/Express routes has shrunk by nearly 75% to just 1,085 average weekday passengers. The Swift Blue and Green lines each see about 1,000 more passengers per day than they did in 2023.

Overall Community Transit ridership broken down by local routes, Express/Commuter routes (4__, 8__, 9__) and Swift routes.Ridership Data per Route

Each of Community Transit's 34 routes plays a key role in the overall network. The following section will look at the overall October 2025 ridership for each route and share a deeper breakdown for a few select routes. Detailed ridership charts for all Community Transit routes are now available on the Seattle Transit Ridership dashboard.

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.

Swift and Future Swift Routes

Community Transit's bus rapid transit routes, branded as Swift, are the busiest routes in the network. The Blue Line continues to stand out with 6,868 passengers every day. The Orange Line recently clinched the number 2 spot with 3,481 boardings vs the Green Line's 3,301 weekday passengers. Routes 202 and 201 are the 4th and 5th busiest routes with 1,941 and 1,766 average weekday boardings, respectively. A section of routes 201 and 202 will be upgraded to the Swift Gold Line in 2031.

The Swift Blue Line is far and away the busiest route in Community Transit's network. The region's first bus rapid transit line, it connects thousands of passengers to destinations along SR-99. Following the Lynnwood Link Extension in 2024, the route was extended to terminate at Shoreline North/185th station.

Average weekday ridership per Blue Line trip in October 2025. Inbound" is toward Shoreline North/185th station; Outbound" is toward Everett. Click the plot to view at full-resolution in a new tab.All-Day Workhorse Routes

Ten Community Transit routes carry between 500-1,500 passengers every day. All but one of these routes run every 30 minutes and primarily serve passengers in southwest Snohomish County.

Route	Route Termini	Average Weekday Boardings in October 2025
166	Edmonds - Silver Firs	1,265
103	Hardeson Road - Lynnwood City Center Station	921
101	Mariner P&R - Aurora Village TC	892
112	Mountlake Terrace Station - Ash Way P&R	843
117	Mukilteo Ferry - Lynnwood City Center Station	688
120	UW Bothell/Cascadia - Lynnwood City Center Station	685
119	Ash Way P&R - Mountlake Terrace Station	640
130	Edmonds Station - Lynnwood City Center Station	597
271	Gold Bar - Everett Station	586
114	Aurora Village TC - Lynnwood City Center Station	536

Route 271 is an outlier in the table above. Unlike every other route listed, Route 271 runs every hour and does not connect to southwest Snohomish County. Instead, it travels between Everett and Goldbar with stops in Snohomish, Monroe, and Sultan. The route is primarily used to connect southeast Snohomish County with Everett, but it does have a bump in ridership between Sultan and Monroe.

Average weekday ridership per Route 271 trip in October 2025. Inbound" is toward Everett; Outbound" is toward Gold Bar. Click the plot to view at full-resolution in a new tab.Coverage and Express Routes

The remaining 19 Community Transit routes each have less than 500 passengers each weekday. Most of these routes are coverage routes, peak-only routes, and/or Express routes. While they do not excel in the ridership category, these routes highlight the true measure of success for a transit system: helping people get where they need to go. Ridership patterns for Express routes were discussed in a recent article.

Route	Route Termini	Average Weekday Boardings in October 2025
280	Granite Falls P&R - Everett Station	441
102	Edmonds Station - Lynnwood City Center Station	409
121	Ash Way P&R - UW Bothell/Cascadia College	395
222	Marysville - Tulalip	385
109	Ash Way P&R - Lake Stevens TC	352
106	Mariner P&R - UW Bothell/Cascadia College	349
209	Smokey Point TC - Lake Stevens TC	337
905	Stanwood Downtown - Lynnwood City Center Station	281
240	Stanwood Downtown - Smokey Point TC	231
909	Edmonds Station - Mountlake Terrace Station	219
220	Arlington - Smokey Point TC	182
901	Silver Firs - Lynnwood City Center Station	179
904	Marysville - Lynnwood City Center Station	145
424 (replaced by 908)	Snohomish P&R - Seattle	112
903	Lake Stevens TC - Lynnwood City Center Station	106
270	Gold Bar - Everett Station	67
907	Stanwood I-5 P&R - Paine Field Airport	43
230	Darrington - Smokey Point TC	29
111	Brier - Mountlake Terrace Station	5

North and east Snohomish County has a mix of rural and suburban areas that make traveling without a car quite difficult. In these areas, Community Transit offers a lifeline to many residents. Route 280 is an example of one such route. It travels between Everett and Lake Stevens with every other trip continuing to Granite Falls. Route 280's hourly service to Granite Falls is the only transit service in the city. As a result, over 50 people in Granite Falls rely on Route 280 every day.

Average weekday ridership per Route 280 trip in October 2025. Inbound" is toward Everett; Outbound" is toward Granite Falls. Click the plot to view at full-resolution in a new tab.Ridership Dashboard Update

Given the complexity of Community Transit's network, one article cannot cover every route in detail. Instead, the Seattle Transit Ridership dashboard has been updated to include all Community Transit routes with data from October 2023, October 2024, and October 2025. Community Transit also operates several Sound Transit routes (510, 512, 513, 515, 532, 535). Data for these routes have also been populated in the dashboard.