Your bus from the U District to downtown Seattle will arrive in three years

Seattle and King County officials announced Tuesday that construction has started on the newest rapid bus line in the city, connecting the University District to Downtown.

The announcement comes less than a week after the city began repairs on another recently opened bus line.

The announcement means a bright red bus will one day shuttle students and commuters across the University Bridge, along Lake Union’s east shore, and through South Lake Union to the downtown core as King County Metro’s RapidRide J line.

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The bus agency’s tenth RapidRide project will include new protected bike lanes, improved pedestrian crosswalks, and priority bus lanes.

U District Partnership Executive Director Don Blakeney said the area around the University of Washington urgently needs more transit options to keep up with growth.

“We have added 10,000 people to this neighborhood in the last decade and are looking to add another 10,000 by 2030,” Blakeney said.

Twenty bus stops will be built or upgraded to support the new route — and hopefully, that work will go smoothly. The most recent RapidRide launch has been a bit bumpy.

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Platforms on the G line in Capitol Hill turned out to be slightly too tall for wheelchair ramps to work.

Seattle Department of Transportation Director Gregg Spotts said the city placed metal platforms on the ground to raise buses less than an inch. So, while a mistake was made, Spotts said SDOT found a temporary solution that allowed service to start as expected on Sept. 14.

The G line is center-loading, meaning platforms sit in the middle of the road with buses arriving on either side.

Spotts said this is a first for Seattle.

“We have new busses that have doors on the left side and this new type of island,” he said. “So, the geometry was new to us in Seattle, and we're making adjustments [of] less than an inch to make it work perfectly.”

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It isn’t clear how much those adjustments will cost on top of the more than $130 million price tag already on the project. Spotts said the problems did not interrupt service on the G line.

King County Metro is considering a long-term fix, including possibly raising buses slightly higher. As for the futur J line in the U District, Spotts said he’s confident this new project will be well-constructed.

SDOT says the J line in the U District will cost more than $128 million to complete. The first buses out of the U District are expected to launch in 2027.