RapidRide K Line Project

Smart transit, more options

The RapidRide K Line will be a new, reliable bus route with short wait times that runs often, connecting Kirkland to key destinations like Totem Lake, Downtown Bellevue, and Eastgate. Advanced features like real-time arrival information and paying before you board make for a faster and smoother riding experience than standard busses. This first-class service is set to begin in 2030.

The K Line is for Everyone!

The City has worked hard to deliver the K Line

For over a decade, City survey data has consistently shown that traffic and congestion are among residents’ top concerns with Kirkland. This recurring feedback has been clear: the City should fix traffic.

The City continues to work on projects that help traffic where we can. Unfortunately, we're not making more roads, and there’s only so much we can fine-tune traffic signals (which we regularly tweak). Public transportation is a tried-and-true way of getting cars off the road and is often a strategy to address traffic. It is for this reason that, for over a decade, the City has advocated at all levels for more transit to more places more often.

Put another way: if public transit is a common strategy to help traffic, and the Kirkland community has repeatedly told the City that the City should fix traffic, why wouldn’t the City be supportive of and advocate for King County to increase transit service in Kirkland? It just makes sense.

Take A Tour of the K Line Route

Kirkland

Bellevue

How does the K Line impact the 255 or other Kirkland routes?

The City’s position for years is that any service additions via the K Line be in addition to current bus service. The City believes the Kirkland community needs and deserves more transit service. Although the decision on which bus lines to assign service hours to is ultimately Metro’s, the City will continue to strongly and resolutely communicate this position to King County Metro.

Next steps for the K Line in Kirkland

Some community members have asked what would happen if the City changed course and chose not to support the K Line in Kirkland. Although there’s no way to know the future, the best guess of what would happen if the City changes course and stops supporting the K Line is that Metro will put a different RapidRoute somewhere else in its County-wide system. Kirkland wouldn’t be guaranteed those service hours on other Kirkland bus lines. Kirkland taxpayers wouldn’t get a return of their investment. We all would just lose out on a major improvement to transit service in Kirkland.

Additionally, it is highly unlikely that Metro would bring an increase in transit service of this size to Kirkland for another 10-20 years. This is why the City views this as a “once-in-a-lifetime” investment by Metro. And it is for these reasons that the City has been supportive of the K Line for years.

The next phase of the K Line Project is to develop a locally preferred alternative (LPA). The purpose of the LPA is to define the transit option that best meets the K Line project’s purpose and need; the approved LPA will be used by King County Metro to seek federal funding. The LPA will describe the alignment, anticipated station locations, access to transit projects, speed and reliability projects, and general operating characteristics of the future K Line service. It will also include information on the community engagement process associated with development of the K Line. Once approved, the LPA will be advanced through environmental review and engineering design.

More Frequently Asked Questions

What is the RapidRide K Line?

The K Line RapidRide is Kirkland’s once-in-a-generation, $105 million transportation investment, long-requested by Kirkland’s community and made possible by Kirkland’s leaders, who have long advocated for Metro’s premier transit service. RapidRide combines the frequency and reliability of light rail with the agility of bus service to offer a viable alternative to driving a car.

The K Line will serve a dozen key destinations along a 16-mile corridor between Kirkland’s Totem Lake neighborhood and Eastgate in Bellevue.

How does RapidRide differ from standard bus service?

RapidRide creates a viable alternative to driving by providing service that is more frequent, efficient and comfortable than standard bus service. These attributes allow passengers to walk to the bus stop at any time during the hour, knowing they’ll have to wait no more than 15 minutes for the next bus to arrive. During the morning and afternoon rush hours, the wait times will be no more than 10 minutes.

This ability eliminates one of standard bus service’s chief liabilities: the burden for passengers to plan their trip in advance and arrive at the bus stop on-time.

When the passengers arrive at the bus stops, they’ll see electronic reader boards near sheltered benches, which, like a light rail station, will tell them the precise arrival times of the next three buses.

And since Metro retrofits RapidRide routes with infrastructural features, such as business access and transit-only lanes and signal improvements, the K line can travel its corridor 23 to 26 minutes faster than standard transit buses. Once at their destination, passengers don’t need to worry about finding a parking spot.

Standard transit, by contrast, arrives at each bus stop roughly every 15, 30 or 60 minutes. Standard service doesn’t include reader boards to provide real-time updates. And since many of the corridors they travel are not retrofitted with time-saving features, such as queue jumps and transit-specific signalization, standard buses can’t escape traffic congestion as easily as RapidRide.

When will it be active?

King County Metro expects to activate the K Line service as early as 2030.  Metro is currently pursuing federal funding that will help determine and build the K Line’s various infrastructural options. It is simultaneously collaborating with the City of Kirkland and the Kirkland community on some of K Line’s basic elements. Those infrastructural elements include where to fill-in sidewalk gaps, where to place the transit stops and how to help the K Line buses move faster along the corridor.  

Why does Kirkland advocate for the RapidRide K Line?

Kirkland’s long-established transportation strategy focuses on expanding options for how community members get around: walking, bicycling, riding transit and driving.  This strategy results in safer streets, cleaner air and greener landscapes.  The alternative—building our way out of our traffic problems by covering ever-more land with asphalt—would be too expensive, too temporary and too corrosive to Kirkland’s environment.  

For these reasons, community members have expressed their overwhelming support for the multi-modal strategy in a variety of forums, including high-level visioning discussions and in the thousands of projects suggestions individuals have offered to improve conditions for walking, bicycling and riding transit.  And the City Council has adopted balanced transportation as one of its 10 official goals.  That goal relies directly on reliable and efficient transit along one of Kirkland’s most-trafficked north-to-south corridors.  As Kirkland prepares for the future, a transit-based, multi-modal transportation network will become even more essential for connecting a local economy that is largely built around K Line’s future corridor.

To what destinations will the K-Line connect?

The K-Line will connect to three of the region’s most important commercial centers, a four-year college, a regional hospital and two of Kirkland’s top employers. Specifically, the K Line will connect to:

• Evergreen Health
• The Village at Totem Lake
• Boys and Girls Club
• Northeast 85th Street station area and Sound Transit STRIDE future BRT service
• Downtown Kirkland (Kirkland Transit Center, senior center and housing, Peter Kirk Park and pool, waterfront parks, etc.)
• Google
• Northwest University
• Sound Transit light rail
• Downtown Bellevue
• RapidRide B Line to Overlake and Redmond
• Bellevue College
• Eastgate Park and Ride

Will Kirkland’s taxpayers receive a good return on their K Line investment?

If Metro builds the K Line in Kirkland, Kirkland’s taxpayers will be the beneficiaries of a once-in-a-generation, $105 million transportation investment. They’ll have King County Metro’s top-of-the-line transit system transporting them to the city’s most popular destination along one of its three north-to-south corridors. These connections will amplify the vitality of Kirkland’s most important economic centers and destinations by ensuring community members always have a reliable and efficient method of accessing them.

King County Metro, however, could decide to build the K Line in a different part of King County. If it does, Kirkland taxpayers will be paying the same amount for a RapidRide that would serve a different community.

What does the design process entail?

The design process will determine where the bus stops will go, what sidewalk and bicycle lane gaps to fill-in and where to install treatments that help the bus move faster along the corridor.

How did Metro choose the K Line route?

King County Metro evaluated three routes in 2019 for its eighth RapidRide line. Those routes included two different north-to-south alignments to Totem Lake and an east-to-west alignment along Northeast 85th Street to Redmond.

King County Metro relied on the following criteria to decide which one to pursue:

• Existing and future ridership
• Origin – destination patterns
• Assessing impacts to riders associated with each alignment and the accompanying network changes. This may include changes to total travel times, wait times, number of transfers, etc.
• Affordable housing
• Integration with Sound Transit stations
• Existing and future land use
• Pedestrian and bicycle access
• Forecast change in VMT
• Existing transit speed and reliability, and potential to improve speed and reliability
• Demographics
• Community resources

In November 2019, the City Council endorsed the current alignment along the 108th Avenue Northeast and 124th Avenue Northeast corridors.  Metro outlined its Rapid Ride program its long-range transit plan, called Metro Connects.

How are transit-only lanes, business access and transit lanes and queue-jumps related?

All of these dedicate a lane—or a turn-pocket—for transit. However, they all differ on the details.

A transit-only lane, for example, is for the exclusive use of transit.

A business access and transit lane allows transit to bypass traffic backed-up at intersections and for all other traffic to turn right into businesses’ parking lots.

Transit queue-jumps are turn-pockets at intersections, which allow transit to bypass or “jump the traffic queue” during a special signal phase. Sometimes, queue-jumps include a receiving lane on the opposite side of an intersection, which help buses merge back into traffic. 

Would employer shuttles be able to use transit-only lanes? 

Private shuttles are currently not allowed to use transit only lanes per state law.  Metro is having conversations about that, including coordination with pilots in Seattle.  Even if this were allowed per a change to state law, it is unknown how this would impact Metro operations.

How much faster is the K Line than standard transit service?

From end to end, the K Line will travel its route 23 to 26 minutes faster than a standard bus can currently. The K Line gains its efficiency from each of its speed and reliability improvements along the corridor. Those improvements include optimization at traffic signals, bus-only turn-lanes and the business access and transit lanes. The business access and transit lanes on 108th Avenue Northeast, for example, will cut two minutes of travel time from the K Line’s route – one of the most significant time-savings rendered by any of the corridor’s individual speed and reliability projects.  This is two minutes for every bus which comes four to 6 times an hour, 16 hours per day.  All tolled and across the entire corridor, the time-savings from these improvements add up to 23 to 26 minutes per bus. That time savings cuts taxpayers’ costs by allowing Metro to run its K Line routes with fewer buses and fewer drivers.

How will the project maintain crosswalk safety while improving traffic flow with an additional business access and transit lane?

Adding extra lanes to 108th Avenue Northeast will increase the crossing distances for people who are walking from one side to the other. However, the project can improve crosswalk safety by building pedestrian refuge islands and by adjusting the traffic signals allow pedestrians to cross the street before it allows automobiles to turn.

What's the current estimate for the K Line project?

The overall K Line project is currently estimated to cost approximately $105 million.  The RapidRide program anticipates significant grant funding from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to support this project. This can bring additional federal revenue to the Eastside for increased transit service that would otherwise not be accessible through other programs.  This cost estimate is for capital investments needed to support the entire K Line project spanning between Eastgate and Totem Lake Center. The conceptual design phase will better identify anticipated costs. 

Will right-of-way acquisition be needed for this project?  

King County Metro expects that some properties may be impacted and may need to purchase some narrow strips of land from private property owners. As the project moves further into design, specific property impacts will be better defined. Metro will work directly with those impacted property owners.

Does notice of potential impacts from Metro guarantee that it will acquire a portion of my property?

Not necessarily. King County Metro sent a notice of potential impacts to the owners of all 500 properties along the entire route, from Bellevue College to Totem Lake. The 2025 design process will determine what sections of land the project will need.

What does planning and coordination with Metro look like?  

The staffs of Kirkland and Metro coordinate on the K Line regularly. Kirkland’s role is to: 

• Represent local needs and ensure the city's transit interests are effectively represented in K Line planning.
• Provide feedback on enhancements that will encourage long-term ridership growth on the K Line and that support transit facilities, safe and connected pedestrian and bicycle facilities, and speed and reliability infrastructure.
• Contribute detailed feedback for the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA), which is expected to be available in 2025.

What is the timeline for the K Line?  

The K Line planning work began in 2019 and was originally slated to begin service in 2025. Metro paused work on the K Line at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic due to funding shortfalls. This ultimately led to the K Line budget being eliminated in King County’s 2021/2022 Biennium. At that point, the project had established a preferred alignment and had entered into Project Development with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA).   

The budget for the K Line was reestablished in the King County 2023/2024 Biennium and included in the 10-year financial plan. Project work restarted in September 2023, and has been progressing toward the goal of 10% design. Metro anticipates commencing service on the K Line in 2030.   

The next phase of the K Line is a third phase of the community engagement process, planned for January 2025, where Metro will engage with key partners and communities. The goal of the third phase of community engagement is to further hone specific elements of the K Line and capital projects to support its development. The community is invited to weigh in on specific elements of the K Line in a variety of formats, including online and in person at meetings to be scheduled. 

How does the K Line affect Kirkland’s transit service to Seattle?

City staff and Council will continue to advocate on behalf of the Kirkland community for a reliable transit connection to Seattle.  However, King County Metro’s service network is always evolving. It adapts to new investments, such as the K Line or the I-405 STRIDE Bus-Rapid Transit, to ensure it continues to serve existing connections while not duplicating service. Metro plans to evaluate its service network before launching the K Line. This evaluation will include a public engagement process that will rely, in part, on community feedback.

If K Line comes, does it divert service hours in Kirkland to other areas in the county?

When Metro implements the K Line, they will be adding service hours to meet their standards required for a RapidRide line. There will be a restructure process about two-years prior to implementing the K Line that will include a separate public engagement process. At this time, Metro will take a holistic view of the entire area and will look at the service hours available at that time. They will look at the overall needs in the community, how to ensure connections while removing duplication in order to use the available service hours as efficiently as possible.

Metro also had service hour reductions due to the pandemic and operational limitations, including transit service hours in Kirkland. Metro has a service recovery plan adopted by the King County Council that requires suspended hours to come back into the geographies from which they were suspended. Metro has communicated that they hope to restore suspended service hours over time, and if they haven’t restored that service by the time the K line is implemented, those K Line service hours would be considered additive. 

What is the History of the K Line?

The K Line began work in 2019 and was originally slated to begin service in 2025. Metro paused work on the K Line at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic due to funding shortfalls.  This ultimately led to the K Line budget being eliminated in King County’s 2021/2022 Biennium.  At that point, the project had established a preferred alignment, and had entered into Project Development with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). 

The budget for the K Line was reestablished in the King County 2023/2024 Biennium and included in a 10-year financial plan.  Project work restarted in September 2023, and has been progressing toward the goal of 10% design.