Swift bus lines expanding in Bothell, Marysville, Arlington

BOTHELL — Soon enough, Bothell will have more stops along Community Transit’s Swift Green Line bus route.

The transportation agency is asking for public comment on eight proposed new bus stops — Community Transit calls them stations — in Bothell. Opened in 2019, the Green Line runs between Seaway Transit Center in Everett and Canyon Park in Bothell.

The planned stops are:

■ Bothell Way and 228th Street SE;

■ Bothell Way and 240th Street SE;

■ Bothell Way and NE 201st Place;

■ NE 196th Street;

■ Bothell Way and Reder Way;

■ Bothell Way and NE 190th/191st Street;

■ NE 185th Street and 104th Avenue NE;

■ Beardslee Boulevard at UW Bothell.

The proposed stops would connect University of Washington’s Bothell campus to the rest of the line.

“There’s obviously a lot of need from student populations to have access to public transit,” said Melissa Cauley, the chief planning and development officer for Community Transit. It will also “intersect with some of our regional transit partners.”

The name of the Swift bus line speaks for itself — they’re quick. Ideally, they run every 10 to 20 minutes. The idea is they allow people to not worry about a bus schedule because of the frequent service.

Right now, Community Transit has two Swift lines, Green and Blue. The Green Line averages 2,363 weekday boardings, while the Blue route has about 5,700 per weekday. Combined, they make up 35% of all Community Transit boardings. The Blue route runs from Everett Station to Aurora Village Transit Center.

The Swift buses can carry about 75 people and are called “articulated” a term which Cauley mentioned, but I still Googled “What are the bendy buses.” You know, for science.

The articulated buses actually have a lot of names — slinky bus, banana bus, tandem bus, double bus, vestibule bus, wiggle wagon, stretch bus, sausage bus and accordion bus. (“Wiggle wagon” is at the top of that list, for me anyways.)

If you were wondering, wiggle wagons first came to North America when the Twin Coach Company built one for the City of Baltimore. While the buses fell out of favor, they were resurrected in the 1970s and have since been common for cities looking to build out their rapid transit infrastructure.

Their major benefit is high passenger capacity while still having that all-important turn radius.

The extended Swift Green Line is one of several changes Community Transit has planned for the next few years. The Swift Orange line is set to open its run next year between Edmonds College and the McCollum Park and Ride in Mill Creek.

One of the Orange Line’s main goals is to get passengers to the Lynnwood Transit Center, a connection to the coming Link light rail. The current Green Line runs near McCollum Park, with its Dumas Road stop, and it will be one leg of a plan to get commuters to light rail.

The Swift Blue Line will also be extended south to the 185th Street light rail station in Shoreline. Following the opening of the Orange Line, another new line — Gold — will be added to connect Everett with the Smokey Point transit center in Arlington. That will also serve downtown Marysville, the Cascade Industrial Center and Everett Community College. It’s expected to open between 2027 and 2029.

In a few years, someone could make it from Arlington to Lynnwood via Swift bus.

“It creates this network of Swift lines that are all intersecting and people can come from different areas in Snohomish County to be able to access the light rail system,” Cauley said.

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Jordan Hansen: 425-339-3046; jordan.hansen@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @jordyhansen.