Community Transit’s Swift bus system is planning on adding 17 stations along its proposed Gold Line service to better connect Arlington and Marysville to Everett Station along with the rest of the bus network. The proposed line will improve connections to the Puget Sounds Transit network from two of the cities in Snohomish County that are expected to see extensive population growth over the next 20 years. Some of the early plans for the line include center-running lanes through the congested parts of Everett and Marysville; with the rest of the route running in Buss Access Transit (BAT) lanes or curbside mixed traffic – like the Orange Line.
Everett Station is the nexus of Snohomish County’s transit network as its where Everett Transit, Amtrak Cascades, Swift Blue Line, and Sounder North Line all meet. This proposed line would also increase access to the City of Everett’s college district as the busses will arrive every 10 minutes on weekdays (15 to 20 minutes on weekends) making it easier for people to move around without their cars, that makes this line a potential catalyst for the long planned redevelopment of north Broadway.
The decision to run the busses in center-running bus lanes through Broadway will allow the system to move as many people as possible because it improves the flow of busses. As the population increases, there will be more cars to jam up the road which means that these bus lanes ensure on time performance of the Gold Line busses while also providing a traffic free set of lanes for emergency vehicles to use.
In Everett the line is proposed as a true BRT system because it’ll have two lanes dedicated center-running bus lanes, one for each direction of travel. CT will be able to achieve the two lane configuration by removing street parking, and having the southbound busses stop on a platform on the south side of the intersections while the northbound busses will stop at a platform on the north side of the same intersections.
On Broadway, Community Transit is also exploring BAT lanes like there is on Highway 99 through unincorporated Snohomish County, Lynnwood, and Shoreline for the Blue Line. But this would still slow the busses down as traffic frequently enters the lane to make right turns into businesses and side streets – this would not be a problem with the center-running configuration.
Unfortunately, it will be trickier in Marysville where there is no on-street parking to eliminate. What they’re looking at is to turn the center turn lane into the single-bus lane, with island platforms that serve as the passing area for the busses. This configuration would be present between 1st St and 84th St NE, and 92nd St NE and 100th St NE in Marysville.
Another option in downtown Marysville would be curbside running with mixed traffic, but that would significantly slow down the busses particularly during rush hour. It should be noted that this design could also be used on Broadway in Everett, but it doesn’t have nearly as many benefits as it the two lane configuration does.
Currently Marysville is connected to Everett by the half hourly (on weekdays) 201 and 202 routes, they stop short of Arlington as those two routes only run to the Smokey Point Transit Center. If you want to take transit through Arlington proper there is the hourly 220 which runs to Arlington Junction from Smokey Point. Smokey Point also provides hourly connections to Darrington, Stanwood, and Lake Stevens which will have more frequent connections to Everett once the Gold Line is up and running.
As it is currently planned, the Gold Line should enter construction in 2028 with an anticipated opening day in 2031.
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