(Image: SDOT)
HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.
Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.
Tuesday, the King County Council approved Ordinance 2024-0053 to establish service on the new RapidRide G connecting Seattle’s downtown to Madison Valley, passing through First Hill, Capitol Hill, and the Central District. The ordinance also officially revises eight nearby bus routes effective at the end of summer.
Officials say construction for the G Line is nearing completion with service on the new line anticipated to begin at the Fall 2024 service change — tentatively August 31st. The arrival of that milestone will be very welcome to transit officials facing skepticism about the return on investment for the surprisingly slow and costly to implement “bus rapid transit” that has been touted as a cheaper, faster, more effective solution than costly light rail and streetcar lines.
A new bus island being installed between Terry and Boren (Image: SDOT)
The new RapidRide G line will operate along the Madison alignment with station locations, providing “very frequent service” to connect downtown, First Hill, Capitol Hill, and the Central District. The service levels approved Tuesday will feed the line with buses every six minutes on weekdays, every 15 minutes on weekday nights, every six to 15 minutes on Saturdays, every 15 minutes on Sundays, and every 15-40 minutes on weekend nights. The G Line will operate 23 hours a day, from 5:00 AM to 4:00 AM.
King County Metro currently operates seven RapidRide lines (A-F, H) and is working to develop five more lines including the new G for planned openings between 2024 and 2030. CHS reported here on the start of construction on RapidRide J serving Eastlake. The Eastlake project including two new miles of bus priority lanes and 3.7 miles of “protected bike facilities” has a $128 million cost estimate.
Originally conceived with a planned opening date of 2019, the Madison RapidRide G line started with a $134 million price tag buoyed by $60 million in federal funding. The construction budget, by the way, included an agreement with Capitol Hill queer bar Pony on a $250,000 deal with the city in exchange for shaving off a bit of its property to make room for the new route.
RapidRide G broke ground in 2021. While the project will bring major transit, biking, walking, and driving safety improvements, neighborhood businesses and residents have had a rough ride during the years of construction. RapidRide G work included millions of dollars of attached utility and infrastructure work by the city that has created months of major challenges for businesses and residents living along Madison.
CHS reported here on the final year of construction that will complete the 2.4-mile route promising six-minute service during most hours of the day between 1st Ave downtown and MLK Jr Way in Madison Valley with stops across First Hill and Capitol Hill along the way.
For comparison, the First Hill Streetcar debuted in early 2016 just under three years after its start of construction to complete the 2.5-mile route. Sound Transit footed the $132.8 million bill for that project to compensate for the decision to cut a planned light rail stop on First Hill. The First Hill Streetcar line carried around 4,000 riders a day in 2023.
Along with what is hoped to be faster, more efficient bus service, the RapidRide G route will also have new curb ramps, sidewalks, and crossing improvements. In addition to the infrastructure and water main work, the new line will include stations with passenger amenities — “including branded RapidRide shelters, off-board fare payment, and real-time arrival information” — new pavement, dedicated transit and bike lanes, transit signal priority at intersections, and reconfigured intersections with new crosswalk and bike box markings, separation between pedestrian and bicycle paths, some areas of expanded sidewalk space, and “restricted turn movements to facilitate pedestrian and bicycle safety” as Madison has been slowly transformed along the route.
Along with approving service costs for starting the new RapidRide G line this year, the ordinance passed Tuesday formally approves Metro’s planned changes to other routes in the area as it optimizes its schedules around the new line. Changes include Route 10 and Route 12 with a plan for the lines to be “reoriented” to operate along E Pine instead of E John and Madison, until they turn north on 15th Ave and 19th Ave. Metro is also going ahead with a plan to move Route 11 off Pine. Service on the former Route 47 will be replaced with a limited extension of Route 3.
The optimization will reduce service on some of the adjoining routes as Metro dedicates funds to pay for the RapidRide G hours and the City of Seattle reallocates funding for supplemental service. That Seattle “rebalancing” will mean Routes 10, 11, and 12 will have fewer Seattle-funded hours while Routes 49 and 60 will have more Seattle-funded hours, the county says.
“Although overall transit service levels in the project area will increase due to the very frequent service on the new G Line, combined service levels on the other bus routes in the area will, in future years, provide less service than in the past, due to a combination of lower investment levels from the Seattle transit funding measure and fewer County-funded service hours allocated to those routes,” a King County Council briefing on the ordinance reads.
UPDATE: Metro has asked CHS to clarify that the reduced service is the result of changed investment priorities by the city — not Metro. “We want your readers to be aware that all Metro-funded hours are being reinvested in surrounding routes, and the G Line is funded with new service hours,” the spokesperson said. “The only reduction in service hours on those routes is due to reallocation of Seattle Transit Measure (STM) investments to align with the city of Seattle’s equity-focused program goals.”
Minor at Madison (Image: SDOT)
According to the county, starting up RapidRide G this year will require 15,835 service hours and that the entire restructure will require a total of 15,950 service hours in 2024, at a total cost of $3.93 million. That money has already been budgeted and is available. For its first full year, RapidRide G will eat up nearly 48,000 service hours, “an expense that would need to be included in those future budgets,” according to the county.
King County is on the hook for that level of RapidRide G service for five years under King County Metro’s agreement with the Federal Transit Administration. Officials are crossing their fingers that ridership on the new line will justify the expense.
We’ll get the first idea of demand soon. Metro officials said this spring’s approval of the service changes will give it time to “complete the scheduling and staffing changes needed to implement the new service beginning at the Fall 2024 service change.” City of Seattle transportation officials boasted of forecasts predicting 12,000 RapidRide G riders a day during the design phases of the project five years but have stopped including ridership forecasts in communications around the project.
HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.
Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.
Excited for the G to start! I’ll be using it to avoid the walk back up the hill from downtown, and to go to Trader Joes (I’m closer to QFC but prefer to keep my distance from the drug scene at Broadway & Pike)
I agree with your sentiment but how is this better than the old number 11 and 12 that went up Marion/madison from downtown to Capitol Hill (and the Trader Joe’s)?
What a sentence.
It’s insane we can’t solve the drug scene there.
That gas station needs to go, and you need 1 cop stationed there, it would solve 80% of the issues.
Gas station is so unacceptable there
It’s quite disgusting with the druggies in front of QFC. Those stairs are usually the worst of it and nothing is ever done.
The fact that the city has allowed Pike and Broadway to become another 3rd and Pike drug zombie scene is the reason why there are so many shootings in the area. Drug dealers fighting for turf. We need a much larger police presence here and on Nagle to shut down Capitol Hill’s open air market drug markets. The drug zombies should be arrested, committed and their drugs confiscated every time they shoot up in public. The dealers should get long prison sentences. With enabling policies, Seattle has taken in way more drug addicts that we can handle. We need to focus on getting them connected with family back home not offering them free housing and needles.
Exactly right! The ;police now have the authority to arrest those who are possessing and using hard drugs in public. Why aren’t they using it?
That’s only one little piece.. sure they can be arrested again, but where are they going to end up? Probably bounced right back out onto the street because the King Co. jail will refuse to take them… They can just cite low staffing and refuse anyone who hasn’t committed a felony or an assault or a dui.. There’s no other options right now, like mandatory treatment, so arrest away, it’ll tie them up for a few hours, then they’ll be right back there nodding off on the QFC steps..
Tried to check out the ramen place hidden at the top of those stairs the other day. The scene was like a zombie apocalypse of passed out addicts…sadly I bypassed the restaurant.
Ooink is a great spot, offering a unique ramen style – it’s well worth the trip.
There are often people hanging out around the bottom of the stairs, it is true, but none have ever pestered me while passing by.
The drug scene is due to social inequality. Fix housing and make it cheaper.
Sorry, I’m as liberal as they come but this never made sense to me. Without treatment and support options, housing will make no difference to this problem. Not to oversimplify, but no one says “I’m homeless now so I guess I’ll find some heroin”. Their addiction has some other underlying, hopefully treatable, element.
If by “housing” you mean rehab, then we’re on the same page. But just getting people housed doesn’t detox them or help them kick the addiction.
Bull pucky… the drug scene is due to drugs – cheap, strong drugs. It’s simply highly visible because this city is now too expensive and the drugs are too disabling to be an addict and maintain an apartment at the same time, neither does the city have much in anything at all in the way of abandoned property to squat in anymore either. Just housing them will hide them away and make them someone else’s enormous problem, but it will not solve anything.
The gas station taxes food too…It’s a scam run by criminals
Did I miss something from the article, but it the G Line not going to Madison Beach. Is the rerouted 11 going to make it down there?
The Madison Parkers NIMBYed their way into not allowing it to go all the way to the beach
It was never intended to go to madison beach. As far as I know the reason is it gets too sparse down there and also the traffic by the beach would make it less reliable. Yes the 11 still goes to the beach.
Thanks. I only go there a few times a year, but it was nice being able to take the bus instead of driving and trying to find parking.
There was, in fact, discussion to extend the line to Madison Park and have the turnaround there instead of Madison Valley. But, as previous posters said, it was killed by Madison Park residents.
G line was extended from planned 23rd Ave turnaround to a Madison Valley turnaround after neighbors’ suggestions. I believe #11 will still make it down to Madison Beach.
Rich people don’t want buses.
Your economics are way off, when people take the bus?
There are less cars on the road, which frees up space on the road for cars.
Go spend some time in NYC or Tokyo, you will find that the ratio of cars that are average vs “very expensive” is significantly different.
Locally the same observation can be made about the 520 vs I-5, though it is not nearly as significant.
It will only go to Madison Valley (MLK). The 11 will still go to Madison Park.
It will operate 23 hours per day. That’s excellent, a great way to return from downtown after a late night.
Lol what is there to do downtown late at night
Oh goody, now those who take this line will save all of about 5 minutes along the route. What an accomplishment!
It’s also more reliable, with shorter headways and increased operating hours. Oh and will scale to meet projected demand as this area continues to densify. Y’all always need something to complain about . .
Replacing an 120 year old water main is a pretty big accomplishment, but I guess fundamental infrastructure isn’t something people seem to take for granted…
Another “benefit” of the new Rapid Ride is that many First Hill residents have very limited access to their homes –Madison has become a “no
left turn” zone No left turns at 12th, Boylston, Minor, Terry, Ninth and
Eighth. We do have some nice new infrastructure, but the value of
saving four to five minutes transit time from Madison valley to First
Avenue seems to come at a rather high opportunity cost. A former
head of Metro once characterized the project as “a solution in search
of a problem.”
Good grief, you can turn on Boren. It’s a grid.
My theory is that it didn’t really have anything to do with transit being necessary there… it had to do with getting a bunch of federal $$ to be able to dig up Madison and replace all of the infrastructure – water and sewer that is underneath it… The rapid ride was just a necessary excuse to be eligible for the bucks.
You have two arterial streets, Broadway and Boren, such that there’s no more than 3 blocks without a left… That’s a pretty common scenario in a dense neighborhood like this and in no way a “no left zone” 🙄
My takeaway is that this is nothing but a vanity project aimed at getting federal dollars to fix the century-old road and water infrastructure along Madison. The bus is somewhat just an excuse and extra benefit.
But Madison should build up and become denser though… It might help that process in longer term. I am kind of optimistic.