COVID-19 update: Estimated weekday bus ridership for April 20-24 as Metro connects people to work and necessities
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.
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 |
Bus operators making up their own rules don’t helo essential workers trying to get to and from work. Had one operator tell me a mask was required for entry at the front door for all disabled passengers.
Bus passes up essential workers- again- the front half 3/4 full of homeless, back half all homeless- metro addresses this by not addressing it- fire Switzer, he gabbles- use the money for backup buses when full (if homeless)
Right! Left me standing there bewildered!!
Homeless, drug users and drunks are running the show. It is sick Metro. My tax payers dollars are sick of paying for their sleeping quarters. Get it together. No buses after midnight.
U r absolutely right!!!
Metro when are you going to stop letting the homeless be the majority of passengers on these routes. downtown is full of homeless and drug users. Not to mention the drunks and thugs. Why do you run these buses after midnight anyway. Ridiculous. My tax payer dollars are paying for their beds. Get it together Metro………………..
AMEN
I would really like to know where these ridership numbers are coming from as nobody is tapping an orca card or paying fares. Are these simply estimates that fit the King County Metro narrative that nobody is riding the buses because nobody needs to work? The drivers certainly aren’t keeping track of the 35-40 people on my 193 at 530am, and they haven’t had a reason to count riders before the 12 and 18 passenger restrictions, so again, who is providing these numbers? The past 7 days the 193 and the 70 have had double the passengers from the week before, and yet these continued reductions are based on week old “data” aka assumptions and estimates. I have a hunch these numbers are simply “well, we cut 70% of buses, so let’s just extrapolate that there’s 70% less riders. Done.”
Ok, metro.
RIGHT!!
The first d line & e line of the morning is so full of homeless from the Prefontaine stop it’s typically- sorry no stops by 3rd & Pine. Please sene Switzerland to observe for himself and have extra bus ready- essential workers need those buses
Right!!
Are you going to start adding more early morning trips (around 5:30 AM – 6:30 AM) to the northbound route 70 and route 62 buses? I work at an essential business in Eastlake and take the 5:47 AM route 70 from 5th Ave./S. Jackson St. Prior to the COVID-19 cuts, the route 62 and route 70 buses that use that stop around 5:47 AM would each get between 20 -30 people boarding there. Most of these passengers ware construction workers who were transferring from the inbound Sounder train.
If Metro is going to continue limiting ridership to 18 people per 60′ bus and not add more trips, there’s no way the route 62 or route 70 will be able to pick up everyone once the construction workers start returning to work. You’ll end up leaving a lot of workers behind because the buses will already be at maximum capacity at the first stop.
Also, I think Metro needs to do more to keep homeless joyriders off the buses. I’ve been counting passengers on the 5:47 AM route 70 bus. Every day this bus has approximately 12 – 15 passengers by the time it reaches 9th Ave/Virginia St, and approximately 1/3 – 1/2 of them get out at the homeless shelter at that stop. These homeless people are taking up space needed for people going to work, so I think you should either reinstitute fares or have someone checking ID at the bus stops or on the buses to verify that people are actually going to jobs rather than just joyriding to sleep or kill time until the shelters open. I have yet to see ANY security at the 3rd Ave bus stops or on the buses themselves!
RIGHT!!
I’m a equipment service worker at the Atlantic base and from what I see on these buses when they come in for the night it seem like they are just transporting the homeless , drunks , and drug abusers around . I don’t even know why buses run after midnight
I agree but there I hope it stays it’s my only way home. And I still would refill My orca card monthly.