Metro Charts Slow RapidRide Expansion, with R Line Slipping to 2031
A new report detailing progress on King County Metro’s RapidRide program has revealed that Seattle’s R Line won’t be delivered until 2031 at the earliest. The RapidRide R Line, long-planned to replace today’s Route 7 along Rainier Avenue, has been subjected to numerous funding-related delays, but last year, Metro was still saying a 2028 opening was potentially doable.
The delay illustrates the incredibly long timelines that have become inherent in Metro’s biggest transit corridor improvement program, even as the upgrades consistently bring increased ridership and system efficiency.
The R Line is tabbed as one of only a few signature transit investments in Seattle’s next transportation levy, if the $1.55 billion package is approved by voters this fall. But “RapidRide+” upgrades to Route 7 had been included as a promise to voters in the 2015 transportation levy as well, improvements that were downgraded to spot upgrades after King County put the RapidRide line on hold in 2021 — the year it was also originally pledged to open.
Of the seven RapidRide Lines promised in Move Seattle, only the H Line has been delivered as of yet. When it finally opens, the R Line will be only the fourth of the seven RapidRide lines promised by backers of the 2015 Levy to Move Seattle. Facing a lack of federal grants under President Trump, Mayor Jenny Durkan announced in 2018 that Route 40, 44, and 48 would be getting lesser upgrades, not
RapidRide conversions as pledged.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/07/09/slow-rapidride-expansion-r-line-slips-to-2031/