Washington’s first bus rapid transit line has been operating between Everett and Shoreline for more than eight years, and it’s time for a fresh coat of paint.
Community Transit will began repainting the stations for its popular Swift Blue Line on June 11. Painting crews will close two southbound stations at a time, which began in Everett and working their way south on Hwy. 99. When the southern terminal station at Aurora Village is complete, crews will head back north, painting the northbound stations two at a time.
The stations will remain the same shade of blue, but the new paint is a special high-performance formula that should last 15 years.
Each station is expected to take about a week to paint and will be fully enclosed during that time so the work can be done quickly and in an environmentally safe manner. Sidewalks will remain open, and Swift buses will pick up and drop off passengers at the nearest local bus stop, less than 100 feet away.
Because Swift riders pay their fares at the station, passengers boarding near a closed station are asked to pay their fare when they get off the bus.
The project should be completed in September when Community Transit will increase service on the Swift Blue Line. Between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. weekdays, Swift buses will arrive every 10 minutes. That’s a 20 percent increase in service during those hours. The increase restores service to pre-recession levels and prepares for the launch of the Swift Green Line, which will connect the Boeing/Paine Field area with Canyon Park/Bothell through Mill Creek and south Everett.
When the Swift Green Line opens in spring 2019, it will intersect with the Swift Blue Line at Hwy. 99 and Airport Rd., providing connections to a Swift bus every 10 minutes along two of south Snohomish County’s most heavily congested corridors.
The Swift Blue Line is Community Transit’s highest ridership route, with more than 1.7 million boardings a year – more than three times the ridership of the next most popular route. The Swift Blue and Green lines will form Snohomish County’s first high-capacity transit network, which will eventually include more Swift lines and Link light rail.
