Growth, Gains and Greatness: One Year of RapidRide G

On September 14, 2024, with music in the air and neighbors gathered in celebration, the RapidRide G Line rolled onto the scene as Metro’s eighth RapidRide line — right in the heart of the community it was built to serve.

Now, one year later, the G Line isn’t just a way to get to work or appointments — it’s become a go-to connection for getting around the city. From Capitol Hill to the Central District to Madison Valley, riders have watched the G Line grow into a fast, reliable and essential piece of Seattle’s transportation puzzle.

The RapidRide G Line offers buses arriving every six minutes along the bustling Madison Street corridor. Built in partnership with the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) and powered by funding from the Levy to Move Seattle, Sound Transit, and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the G Line was designed to keep Seattle connected. With sleek, 5-door buses cruising in dedicated red bus-only lanes, it’s easier than ever to hop on and connect to Link light rail, the Seattle Streetcar, the King County Water Taxi, and even Washington State Ferries.

Fast, frequent and built for Seattle — that’s the G Line.

Ridership, reliability and transformation

In the last year, Metro provided more than 49,000 service hours on the RapidRide G Line, helping spur tremendous growth in ridership. When service started in September 2024, the G Line had 3,500 weekday riders, which grew to more than 4,000 weekday riders in less than a month. By the end of July 2025, the G Line was the 12^th busiest route in our system, averaging close to 6,300 weekday riders – a 60% increase in ridership over its initial daily weekday ridership back in September 2024.

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Preliminary results of a Metro customer satisfaction survey indicate that riders consider the G Line a better experience overall than regular Metro routes and that it’s a better experience in terms of travel time. They also said the G line is a somewhat or significantly better experience in terms of reliability.

To keep the G Line running smoothly and reliably, Metro’s Advanced Service Management (ASM) team has made sure buses stay evenly spaced and on time. That’s meant, fewer bus delays, better spaced bus arrivals, improved access to an open seat, and a more comfortable ride for everyone. If something’s slowing things down, ASM spots it fast and gets things back on track, reducing gaps in service and staying as close to “every 6 minutes” as possible.

Reliable bus service thanks in part to a big investment by the City of Seattle

The work done by the City (including the Seattle Department of Transportation, Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle City Light) that helped transform transportation in the Madison community includes:

• 8 miles of sidewalks
• 1 lane-miles of concrete roadway
• 3 lane-miles of new asphalt
• 4 miles of dedicated bus lanes
• 21 new RapidRide stations
• 2 upgraded bus stops
• 4 new center-running bus stations
• 5 new and 36 upgraded signals that give buses priority ahead of car traffic
• 108 newly planted trees

 

Restructuring a region
The RapidRide G Line has been the focus of transit changes in the Madison community, but there have also been changes to other bus routes that have been providing service in these communities for decades.  Three routes, the 10, 11 and 12 — those most closely aligned with the G Line corridor — when combined with the new G Line, have seen weekday ridership grow by over 80 percent!

Becoming part of the community
The primary responsibility of any bus route is to get riders where they need to go, and the RapidRide G Line has done that. But the route has also become a part of the neighborhoods it travels through.

• It takes people to the main branch of the Seattle Public Library.
• It’s a vital route for “Pill Hill,” whisking workers and patients to the medical facilities on First Hill.
• It acts as a transfer connection for students getting to school—whether it’s middle school (Meany, Mercer, and Washington), high school (O’Dea, Garfield, Holy Names, Seattle Academy, NOVA and Franklin), or college (Seattle University, Seattle Central College and the University of Washington).
• It brings drivers together with the community they serve.

The Metro layover facility on East Madison in particular has developed into a location for community members to meet drivers. People and children walking in the neighborhood regularly stop by with baked treats, noodles and egg rolls, and questions about bus service. Between runs, some operators meet with the people in the community, lighting up the faces of their youngest riders with a peek at the driver’s seat and sharing Metro lanyards and stickers.

“I’ve had many opportunities to speak with riders and neighbors in the community, and the feedback has been very encouraging. They are grateful to have the route in their area, especially because a bus comes about every six minutes during the week and about ten minutes on the weekend, so they don’t have to wait long.” — G Line Driver Drake DeGrate  

“They have been such great neighbors. The young children enjoy seeing the buses and the drivers have been so polite and understanding, they make sure to be careful coming into and leaving the base. I have enjoyed talking to them.”—Julie Wallace, Day Care owner

The final touches
While there has been great success on the G Line over the past year, Metro continues to work with the City of Seattle to complete minor work along the route.

SDOT and its contractor are wrapping up construction activities this year, including planting more trees, modifying a few curb ramps, and some final touches at our operator break facility.

The City of Seattle and Metro are also working to complete improvements in front of some of our center-island stations to remove the steel plates from the roads – critical work to ensure our five-door buses can reliably access these unique stations. The work is likely to require some short-term, partial roadway closures.

At the same time, Metro is restoring overhead wires and poles at locations around Capitol Hill near the project corridor to get our beloved trolleys back on wire. By working closely with the City of Seattle, we’ve continued much of this work without interfering with the G Line, and we expect to finish the remaining work with little impact to service.

G stands for growth

The G line is the youngest of the RapidRide lines, but our transit “alphabet” is quickly adding letters:

The RapidRide J Line construction is in full swing, with service set to begin in 2027. The J Line will connect downtown Seattle with the growing Eastlake neighborhood and north to the University District Link light rail station.

Later this year, the RapidRide I Line will break ground, starting construction in the cities of Auburn, Kent and Renton.

Both lines are scheduled to begin service in 2027.

Additionally, the early planning and design phase for the RapidRide K and R Lines are underway. The K Line is preparing to serve the fast-growing communities between Kirkland and Bellevue. The R Line will transform one of Metro’s workhorses, Route 7, serving Rainer Beach, Rainier Valley, International District/Chinatown and downtown Seattle.

We look forward to these future lines becoming as popular as the RapidRide G Line, providing frequent and reliable service to the communities they serve.