Nearly six months after King County Metro launched the RapidRide G Line, the brand new route along Madison Street is already providing big benefits for riders, who are voting with their ORCA card taps and flocking to the bus.
On an average weekday in March, nearly 5,600 riders jumped on the G Line, according to Metro ridership data.
That’s a 55% increase compared to the period after its September launch.
Comparing G Line performance to other routes that operate in the corridor — Routes 11 and 12 — ridership in March was up a staggering 127% compared to 2024.
As part of the bus restructure implemented with the G Line rollout, those routes were rerouted to serve different destinations but do still provide service along the Madison Street corridor.
That translates to nearly 5,000 daily transit trips being made in the corridor that weren’t being made before the launch of the RapidRide G, King County’s most ambitious RapidRide line to date.
The G Line has likely attracted brand new riders, but a big part of its ridership magic is enticing existing riders to ride more often thanks to the quicker trips and increased frequency that it has brought to Madison.
Ridership on Route 11 and 12 is down a bit, and Route 10 and Route 49 have also taken hits due to service cuts in the fall restructure (to account for all the new G Line hours) and the siphoning effect of the frequent G Line.
However, those ridership losses — collectively in the 1,000 to 2,000 daily boardings range depending on the month — are more than offset by the G Line’s surge.
What makes RapidRide G different?
The $130 million project included more dedicated roadway space than any other RapidRide line, with red bus lanes through Downtown, First Hill, and Capitol Hill allowing coaches to bypass other traffic.
Center-loading bus islands in First Hill separate the G Line from turning vehicles, and all-door boarding and ORCA card readers at stations reduce dwell times.
But the biggest upgrade that came with the G Line was frequency: buses are scheduled every six minutes throughout most of the day, Monday through Saturday.
If you miss a bus, one is coming up behind it pretty quickly.
A few kinks to iron out
The route is not operating seamlessly, however.
The traffic signals along the route, operated by the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), continue to be the main impediment to maximizing the G Line’s potential.
While King County Metro has made some improvements in keeping buses on-time — or maintaining RapidRide headways, in Metro parlance — there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
In March, 82.6% of G Line trips were considered on-time, compared to 77.2% in September when the line launched.
When a bus gets off schedule, buses will bunch together, arriving one right after the other, frustrating riders, and leaving a gap elsewhere that could leave a rider waiting more than six minutes.
This remains common on the G Line given the unique frequency that generally isn’t seen on other RapidRide lines.
But riders may see improvement starting this month.
On March 31, King County Metro implemented what the agency calls “Advanced Service Management” (ASM) on the G Line.
Already in place on other RapidRide lines, ASM allows Metro to deploy coaches based on what’s happening on-the-ground as opposed to what’s written on the schedule.
“The key change is moving from scheduled service (meaning buses aimed to arrive at set times on a clock) to more evenly spaced or headway-based services (meaning buses arrive a set number of minutes apart),” Metro spokesperson Al Sanders wrote in a blog post.
“Last year, we piloted the Advanced Service Management program on the RapidRide A and F lines.
Riders experienced smoother and more reliable service.
With the success of that pilot, Metro is now expanding Advanced Service Management to the RapidRide G Line as part of the spring service change.”
The implementation of ASM along the route has significant potential, but any system Metro implements won’t be able to bypass the hard truth around how the operation of city-controlled traffic signals.
Savvy G Line operators have figured out that it’s actually faster to get out of the bus lane after the eastbound stop at the downtown library, due to the fact that buses remaining in the dedicated lane have to wait for drivers to turn onto the I-5 ramp before getting the go-ahead — a big red flag for reliability.
Another criticism of the G Line is that its signature high-frequency service tapers off dramatically after 7pm and on Sundays, when buses are scheduled every 15 minutes.
Metro did begin to rectify that in this spring’s service change by adding two more runs per night, but more will be needed to avoid the nightly nosedive in frequencies, which is likely leaving ridership on the table.
Looking ahead to more service gains
In spite of those kinks, riders clearly seem happy with the level of service that the G Line is providing and appear hungry for similar projects in other areas.
Seattle has additional RapidRide routes on the way, in the form of the J Line along Eastlake Avenue, which is set to open in 2027.
Further on the horizon, the R Line along Rainier Avenue is tabbed for 2031.
However, it’s less clear whether local leaders will see the incredible success from the G Line and decide to build on it by boosting frequency on other routes and improving features on existing and planned RapidRide lines to strive for the G Line’s higher standards.
Pre-pandemic, Seattle saw significant increases in transit ridership by investing in the frequent transit network, getting as many routes to 10-minute or 15-minute service as possible, with more frequent service in some places.
Systemwide, Metro has yet to restore service to pre-pandemic levels, and relatedly more than 30% of its pre-pandemic ridership is still missing.
image source from：https://www.theurbanist.org/2025/04/16/rapidride-g-line-attracts-major-bus-ridership-gains-along-madison-street/
