News / Published on Oct 1, 2019

New Six-Year Plan: Swift Network Expansion and 160 More Jobs

Agency to provide easy access and connectivity to Sound Transit’s Link light rail in 2024

Snohomish County, Wash. – Community Transit’s Draft 2019-2024 Transit Development Plan (TDP) prioritizes providing easy access and connectivity to Sound Transit’s Link light rail and improving products and services that make travel easy and safe for all.

The six-year plan also calls for hiring about 160 new employees by 2024 to help provide 37 percent more transit service for Snohomish County residents. While most of those jobs will be bus drivers, there is a need for mechanics and other support staff that will increase the number of agency employees to more than 1,000 in the next six years.

The employment forecast is one aspect of the new Draft TDP. Each year, the transit agency looks ahead six years to forecast sales tax revenue and to match proposed future service expansions with the labor and fleet needed to provide that service. This plan covers the years 2019 through 2024 and includes accomplishments from 2018.

Community Transit continues to focus on expanding service, including the build-out of Swift, its bus rapid transit network. Swift Orange Line, the third line in the network, will launch in 2024. With terminals in Mill Creek and at Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood, Orange Line will connect Swift riders to Link light rail's Lynnwood City Center station.

This draft plan also includes a Swift Blue Line extension; the line will extend 1.8 miles south along Highway 99/Aurora Avenue to a new Sound Transit's Link light rail station at N. 185th Street in Shoreline.

Swift Blue Line, serving Everett-Shoreline since 2009, provides about 5,500 rides each weekday and served more than 1.75 million passengers in 2018. Swift Green Line, serving the Canyon Park/Bothell-Boeing/Paine Field communities, became operational in March 2019.

Other highlights of the Draft TDP:

  • By 2024, Community Transit plans to increase its fleet to 338 buses, 509 vanpool vans, and 52 DART paratransit buses.
  • Bus service levels are continuing to grow in 2019 and are forecast to reach more than 565,000 annual service hours by 2024.
  • Total system-wide ridership is expected to reach 14.4 million boardings by 2024.
  • The agency will order 585 new vehicles over the life of this plan to replace or expand the bus fleet, vanpool fleet, and paratransit fleet.
  • Expenditures over these six years total $1.5 billion in transit service and capital investment.

Draft TDP review and public comment

The Draft TDP was presented to the Community Transit Board of Directors today and is available for public comment through Oct. 31. The report can be found online at www.communitytransit.org/TDP.

Public comment on this proposal will be taken through Oct. 31. Comments may be made in several ways:

People can offer their comments before the Board of Directors at a public hearing at 3 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 7 in the Community Transit Board Room, 7100 Hardeson Road, Everett, accessible by Everett Transit Route 8.

Community Transit is hiring! Find out what jobs are available and how to apply at www.communitytransit.org/jobs.

Community Transit is responsible for providing bus and paratransit service, vanpool and alternative commute options in Snohomish County. The agency is building a network of Swift bus rapid transit lines with Swift Blue Line along Highway 99, the Swift Green Line between Canyon Park/Bothell and Boeing/Paine Field, and the new Swift Orange Line coming to Mill Creek and Lynnwood in 2024. 

Headshot of Monica Spain, Media Relations Specialist
Written by Monica Spain, Public Information Officer