With reporting by Hannah Saunders

The new RapidRide G stretching 2.5 miles along Madison Street from the waterfront to Madison Valley via First Hill and Capitol Hill is unprecedented in the city’s rollout of a growing alphabet of “bus rapid transit” lines. The first days of service across the line’s special coaches, dedicated lanes, center loading passenger islands, and coordinated signaling has been an illustration in the challenges of doing new things in the big city.

Starting with Saturday’s launch, the promise of 6-minute service and smooth rides through the corridor has mostly been out of reach due to early hiccups around signal and signage coordination, collisions, and delays due to mechanical failures and operator challenges with the new coaches.

King County Metro says it is responding to early issues though it also referred some questions about signalling to the Seattle Department of Transportation.

UPDATE: “This is the first RapidRide line with six-minute headways and, as we expected, our operators continue to gain experience with our scheduled operations and maneuvering with the varying traffic conditions along the route,” a Metro spokesperson said in a statement

Metro calls the line’s start a success despite the issues and says it is working with SDOT to address the signal priority issues.

Metro says the new or upgraded signals along the route along with a special signal at the terminal to ensure buses start their routes smoothly will continue to be adjusted.

“Metro and SDOT staff are working to resolve any issues as they come up,” the spokesperson said. “SDOT is currently updating signal timings along Madison Street and at the intersection with Martin Luther King Jr Way. SDOT will keep monitoring and adjusting these signals to improve traffic flow for both buses and general traffic in the coming weeks.”

The full statement from Metro appears at the end of this post.

Other issues also have added up in the growing pains around the newly launched $144 million line that includes bus service 10 new stations between 1st Ave and MLK Jr Way operating from 5:00 AM to 4:00 AM daily with a bus every six minutes between 6 AM and 7 PM Monday through Saturday.

The growing RapidRide system’s arrival on Madison is hoped to optimize an area that was already served by a tangle of Metro routes in neighborhoods unlikely to be connected to Sound Transit’s light rail network anytime soon.

Some issues are small in comparison to the ambitions of the new line. One Rapid G Line bus driver with a year of experience under their belt, for example, told CHS the protocol on the new route requires they switch drivers every time at the end of the route — just one of the many new steps and procedures slowing performance on the new line during the launch.

“It could be worse,” the driver said.

The driver sat at the wheel of one of the 13 new hybrid electric coaches Metro purchased specially for the route. Their three doors on the right, two on the left layout is designed to help speed loading with RapidRide G’s selection of center islands along the First Hill stretch of the line. New bus smell wafted through the vehicle.

The area is expected to continue to be a center of Seattle population and job growth as well as the city’s core for hospitals and medical services.

The opening day bus was packed with passengers throughout the route with riders waiting to hop on at each stop along the way. The RapidRide G coaches mostly utilize a dedicated lane until the special markings end near the 22nd Ave stop, forcing the driver to merge into a jumpway.

At this stop, a man loaded on the bus and complained to the driver about waiting 30 minutes for the bus on the very first day.

The RapidRide G coaches follow their own signal lights along the route: a white horizontal line means the driver must stop, while a vertical white line means the driver can go.

The launch brought some major signalling screw-ups with the city. At 5th and Madison, the bus hit a light right before stopping and others cars received priority. The RapidRide G bus waited through five rounds of lights.

“This is why all the buses are late,” the driver said.

The schedules were cleaner for the reorganization of Metro’s routes around the new RapidRide core that includes changes and cuts to dozens of bus lines including moving Route 10 back onto E Pine. The new dedication of Route 3 to serving the neighborhoods around Summit Ave had all of the excitement of the G rollout without the logistical headaches.

On RapidRide G, there are other major inefficiencies that need to be worked out. RapidRide G bus drivers cannot click a button to open the doors when reaching stops, but rather have to “kiss the curb” with the wheels of the bus, the driver said. The coaches have sensors that register when the doors should open, which the driver said is a safety feature. In case of emergencies, there are two manual emergency door releases that the driver can pull.

UPDATE: Metro says a mechanical failure on one of its coaches involving the curb system is being addressed. “Our Vehicle Maintenance team are still investigating the issue with the single RapidRide G Line bus that experienced what appears to be a temporary mechanical issue on Saturday,” a spokesperson said. “Vehicle Maintenance is reviewing what happened prior to apparent failure of the equipment so it can be addressed if it continues.”

Later, another rider hopped on and said they had waited for 15 minutes to catch the bus though the digital signs at the stop had reported a bus was due in five minutes. Like many, the rider said they were forgiving since this it was the first day of the line and that there would be hiccups.

That patience won’t last long — or people will quickly learn to ignore the information signs. Sound Transit is still struggling with real-time information signage through years of light rail service in the city.

Other types of signage on the RapidRide G line might need work. Some of the most useful informational signage posted at stops was on temporary printouts posted to provide information to riders about how best to load onto the new coaches including vital information for riders utilizing accessibility features and bike riders. The signs helped riders know you can’t, for example, load a bike on the front rack of a G bus from a center island. There’s a special part inside the coach for bikes and their riders. Signs like that would be useful long after the temporary signage fades away or is torn down.

Metro is also trying to boost the business communities along the route, promoting nearby shops and venues to the new G riders. In addition to transforming the corridor’s transit, biking, walking, and driving safety elements — and lots and lots of paint — RapidRide G work included millions of dollars of attached utility and infrastructure work by the city that created years of major challenges for businesses and residents living along Madison.

Back on RapidRide G, the bus driver has a small monitor that shows how many feet until the bus reaches the next stop, and the time in minutes on how far the bus is running behind. After reaching 1st Ave, the bus for this ride was about 40 minutes behind due to previous delays — including a car being parked in the bus lane.

Later Saturday, a slew of RapidRide G busses were held up with none arriving on time and without electronic bus stop signs displaying these changes. One Metro worker told CHS there was an accident on 1st Ave and that they were running special buses to resume Rapid G Line services. Thirty minutes later, no new buses had arrived.

UPDATE: Here is the full statement from Metro on the launch updates.

The launch of the RapidRide G Line has been very successful with hundreds of trips operated each day and carrying thousands of riders since launching. This is the first RapidRide line with six-minute headways and, as we expected, our operators continue to gain experience with our scheduled operations and maneuvering with the varying traffic conditions along the route.

Our Vehicle Maintenance team are still investigating the issue with the single RapidRide G Line bus that experienced what appears to be a temporary mechanical issue on Saturday. Vehicle Maintenance is reviewing what happened prior to apparent failure of the equipment so it can be addressed if it continues.

The boarding instructions for the center islands along the RapidRide G Line are designed to be temporary and last four weeks. The expectation is that much like Seattle Streetcars, as riders become used to boarding and exiting the buses from the platform, the instructions will not be needed.

Like any first week of service change, buses experienced some delays and bunching.

Our Service Quality team is in contact with our operators to help them navigate the issues as they come up. This includes additional supervisors to dispatch coaches and to mitigate any delays. Field Supervisors are helping solve minor mechanical issues that may arise, and an additional operator is being assigned to help get our operators breaks if the schedule does run behind.

Prior to the launch of service on Sept. 14, SDOT improved signal priority for the RapidRide G Line by installing new or upgraded signals along the route. These changes help buses bypass traffic and switch lanes more easily. There is also a special signal at the terminal to ensure buses start their routes smoothly.

Metro and SDOT staff are working to resolve any issues as they come up. SDOT is currently updating signal timings along Madison Street and at the intersection with Martin Luther King Jr Way. SDOT will keep monitoring and adjusting these signals to improve traffic flow for both buses and general traffic in the coming weeks.

Our focus during this period of adjustments to signaling, traffic, and operators on the RapidRide G Line will always be on ensuring that our riders are receiving the service headways that we said will be part of this new route.

 

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