Community Transit shares more details on upcoming Gold Line

Published 1:30 am Friday, August 1, 2025

EVERETT — At a board meeting last week, Community Transit shared details about potential options for the design of its new Swift bus rapid transit line connecting Everett to Arlington.

The new bus rapid transit line, the Swift Gold Line, will travel between downtown Everett and the Smokey Point Transit Center in Arlington while making a number of stops in Marysville. It’s expected to open in 2031.

Bus rapid transit mimics some qualities of rail service — frequent arrivals, separate travel lanes and off-board fare collection — without the larger overhead costs of providing passenger rail.

With growing populations set to come to the cities of Everett, Marysville and Arlington in the coming years, the corridor between the three cities needs alternative transportation options that can serve people quickly and efficiently.

“The question becomes, what can we do as a transit agency to snake something through there that will increase the people-moving capacity of our network? That’s the opportunity that the Gold Line presents.” Community Transit CEO Ric Ilgenfritz said at the July 24 meeting. “And the challenge for staff is to figure out how to do that in a way that adds value, not just to the transit network but the overall functioning of our transportation system.”

Community Transit expects to build 17 new stations as part of the project while also sharing a station near Pacific Avenue in Everett used by the Swift Blue Line. It will be 15 miles long.

The agency is still working on choosing between three potential routes through north Marysville. Option A goes north on State Avenue and Smokey Point Boulevard before turning on 136th Street NE and then connecting to 51st Avenue. Option B travels on State Avenue before turning onto Shoultes Road and continuing on 51st Avenue. Option C turns on Grove Street and then turns on 51st Avenue. All three have benefits and drawbacks, including differing access to businesses and residential areas.

“It’s probably going to be the biggest BRT project we ever try to accomplish because of this length and the complexity of the corridor,” Ilgenfritz said.

The transit agency is also considering implementing center-running bus lanes on certain arterials in Everett and Marysville, which improve the speed and reliability of transit service while accommodating more frequent bus arrivals.

“One thing that we’re doing that’s different is really making sure that we’re future-proofing this system,” said Morgan McGrath, Community Transit’s Bus Rapid Transit manager. “We’re looking at different ways to get around key segments of the corridor, one of those being center-running lanes.”

If the agency moves forward with the center-running transit lanes, it would also be the safest option for drivers and pedestrians along the corridor, McGrath said, adding that it would also open the project to more federal funding.

The center lanes could be located along stretches of Broadway in Everett and State Avenue in Marysville. The transit agency also wants to maintain the existing capacity for general traffic, McGrath said, so if center lanes are implemented, the current amount of through lanes will still be available for cars.

The agency studied other options, like leaving the buses in mixed traffic or using curbside bus lanes. Implementing curbside bus lanes would take away lanes from drivers using the road, however, and putting the buses in mixed traffic could cause delays for transit.

“As traffic continues to grow and population continues to grow with that, we’re really susceptible to reliability issues and increased travel times,” McGrath said of a mixed traffic option.

The agency is set to conduct more public outreach in September to get feedback from community members along the Gold Line. Community Transit previously sought public input in July 2024.

It expects to select a final route and decide on whether to build bus lanes in 2026.

Between the second quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2025, weekly boardings on Community Transit’s three Swift lines jumped 20%, with large increases from the Swift Orange Line. That line, which opened in 2024, connects to Sound Transit’s Link light rail in Lynnwood.

The Swift network sees about 85,000 boardings every week, Community Transit data shows.

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.