As King County Metro continues to provide essential trips and connect people to necessities, preliminary estimated ridership shows just over 100,000 daily weekday rides. Metro analyzes preliminary extrapolations to create unofficial estimates of weekly ridership, which remains substantially lower compared to a year ago.

From April 20-24, the average weekday bus ridership was estimated to be about 100,000, compared to 413,000 for the same time in 2019, or a 76% drop.

Similarly, an estimated 77% fewer passengers used Metro’s Access paratransit service from April 20-24 compared to a year ago. Water taxi routes also are seeing significantly reduced ridership, with 96% fewer riders during the same weekdays.

Comparing ridership last week to ridership in 2019 during different times of day, the morning peak commute window from 5-9 a.m. saw estimated ridership drop by about 85%, and ridership in the afternoon commute from 3-7 p.m. decreased by about 80%.

Fewer customers are using transit outside of the typical commute windows, too, though the decrease is less. (See table below) Estimated ridership is down an average 68% during the midday, a range of 56-68% in the evening, and a range of 49-61% at night.

Metro is providing a core network of service and operating 73% of its typical weekday trips, while also limiting the number of riders per bus to support social distancing. Riders who must travel are strongly urged to wear a mask or face covering.

We continue to ask people to follow guidance to “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” and to reserve transit only for essential trips for work and for access to food, medicine, and similarly essential needs.

Please help support the health of our frontline essential staff – the operators and crews, supervisors, and maintenance staff—by:

  • Staying home if you are sick,
  • Wearing a face covering when traveling,
  • Washing your hands often and using sanitizer,
  • Covering your cough or sneeze, and
  • Staying as far apart as possible from other people.

Covid-19 estimated weekday ridership line graph since March 1 showing ridership down 75% as of April 24, 2020

King County Metro bus ridership

*Unofficial total ridership estimates are preliminary and based on samples and extrapolations

Date Baseline (2019) Current (2020) Change
3/2/2020 416,885 389,103 -7%
3/3/2020 430,822 396,544 -8%
3/4/2020 425,431 381,634 -10%
3/5/2020 411,763 344,562 -16%
3/6/2020 399,641 301,111 -25%
3/9/2020 408,494 283,259 -31%
3/10/2020 417,616 275,642 -34%
3/11/2020 424,583 269,362 -37%
3/12/2020 415,904 230,570 -45%
3/13/2020 397,707 207,253 -48%
3/16/2020 404,158 181,732 -55%
3/17/2020 410,204 163,519 -60%
3/18/2020 413,908 159,033 -62%
3/19/2020 403,555 149,350 -63%
3/20/2020 384,736 146,983 -62%
3/23/2020 377,285 131,543 -65%
3/24/2020 394,904 117,852 -70%
3/25/2020 394,545 115,874 -69%
3/26/2020 391,104 109,210 -72%
3/27/2020 376,578 109,633 -71%
3/30/2020 412,936 108,418 -74%
3/31/2020 426,257 109,490 -74%
4/1/2020 429,250 117,709 -73%
4/2/2020 426,229 108,079 -75%
4/3/2020 396,491 113,640 -71%
4/6/2020 386,962 109,611 -72%
4/7/2020 399,581 102,590 -74%
4/8/2020 396,974 105,624 -73%
4/9/2020 388,329 106,453 -73%
4/10/2020 377,581 107,688 -71%
4/13/2020 414,207 105,947 -74%
4/14/2020 423,523 104,672 -75%
4/15/2020 421,208 106,603 -75%
4/16/2020 416,347 106,735 -74%
4/17/2020 389,484 107,565 -72%
4/20/2020 402,532 104,275 -74%
4/21/2020 420,503 98,176 -77%
4/22/2020 424,733 93,881 -78%
4/23/2020 418,512 100,304 -76%
4/24/2020 399,920 103,447 -74%

Key affected King County Metro routes – Average weekday ridership

*Unofficial ridership estimates are preliminary and based on samples and extrapolations

Week Route Baseline (2019) Current (2020) Change
April 20-24 7 11,331 4,955 -56%
April 20-24 8 9,044 1,992 -78%
April 20-24 36 9,491 3,057 -68%
April 20-24 40 13,137 3,055 -77%
April 20-24 44 8,971 2,028 -77%
April 20-24 120 8,782 2,999 -66%
April 20-24 RapidRide A Line 9,585 4,907 -49%
April 20-24 RapidRide C Line 11,945 2,609 -78%
April 20-24 RapidRide D Line 14,298 4,279 -70%
April 20-24 RapidRide E Line 17,401 6,985 -60%

King County Metro bus ridership by time period

*Unofficial ridership estimates are preliminary and based on samples and extrapolations

Morning (5-9am)

Date (2019)
Morning
(2020)
Morning
%
April 20 113,492 17,055 -85%
April 21 116,408 17,312 -85%
April 22 115,357 16,843 -85%
April 23 114,575 17,423 -85%
April 24 103,717 17,328 -83%

Midday (9am-3pm)

Date (2019)
Midday
(2020)
Midday
%
April 20 113,874 39,944 -65%
April 21 116,380 36,546 -69%
April 22 123,545 35,144 -72%
April 23 117,380 37,758 -68%
April 24 120,958 39,909 -67%

Afternoon (3-7pm)

Date (2019)
Afternoon
(2020)
Afternoon
%
April 20 136,253 29,356 -78%
April 21 143,238 27,385 -81%
April 22 137,908 25,689 -81%
April 23 139,780 28,341 -80%
April 24 129,075 28,667 -78%

Evening (7-10pm)

Date (2019)
Evening
(2020)
Evening
%
April 20 27,076 11,906 -56%
April 21 31,852 11,253 -65%
April 22 33,883 10,783 -68%
April 23 32,692 11,207 -66%
April 24 31,345 11,746 -63%

Late Night (10pm-5am)

Date (2019)
Late Night
(2020)
Late Night
%
April 20 11,837 6,015 -49%
April 21 12,625 5,680 -55%
April 22 14,038 5,422 -61%
April 23 14,085 5,576 -60%
April 24 14,825 5,797 -61%

King County Metro Water Taxi ridership

Date (2020)
Feb. 24 1,910
Feb. 25 1,982
Feb. 26 1,962
Feb. 27 2,043
Feb. 28 1,540
March 2 1,778
March 3 1,892
March 4 1,739
March 5 1,383
March 6 838
March 9 958
March 10 936
March 11 845
March 12 686
March 13 452
March 16 370
March 17 274
March 18 271
March 19 262
March 20 208
March 23 183
March 24 212
March 25 208
March 26 145
March 27 115
March 30 147
March 31 136
April 1 156
April 2 144
April 3 125
April 6 80
April 7 102
April 8 71
April 9 81
April 10 85
April 13 83
April 14 90
April 15 78
April 16 81
April 17 72
April 20 108
April 21 81
April 22 92
April 23 83
April 24 54