On March 28, Sound Transit opened the much anticipated Crosslake Connection. This rail connection between Seattle and cities on the Eastside promised fast, frequent, and more reliable connectivity across Lake Washington. The Link 2 Line was designed to replace the hundreds of daily bus trips on I-90, freeing up service hours to improve local bus routes. Initially, however, the I-90 bus routes remained intact to offer extra capacity and redundancy during the World Cup. In the five months following the Crosslake Connection opening, passengers could either take the train or bus. Many chose to take the train. In August 2026, the 11 Link stations on the Eastside and Mercer Island accounted for 12,500 boardings each weekday.
This article will discuss the stop-level ridership data for select routes in east King County. To minimize the impact of seasonal changes in ridership, the analysis compares data from March-August 2025 with data from March-August 2026. The plots below show average weekday boardings and alightings at each stop, boardings are shown with positive bars, alightings are shown with negative bars. The different colors represent the number of passengers boarding/alighting during that time of day. The data for 2025 is shown as slightly faded. Click on each plot to open it in a new tab.
Sound Transit Express routes 550 and 554 provided all-day bus service across Lake Washington via I-90. Following the full 2 Line opening, many people switched from one of these routes to Link.
Overall ridership on Route 550 dropped 52% year-over-year. Boardings at the route’s busiest stop in 2025, Bellevue Transit Center, fell 57% as many passengers opted to take the 2 Line instead. Along Bellevue Way, the stop at 4th Street took the crown as the busiest stop with 278 weekday boardings (this stop had 366 weekday boardings in 2025). The other stops on Bellevue Way did not see significant changes in ridership. One stop that saw an increase in passenger boardings is South Bellevue station for Bellevue-bound trips. Passengers transferring from the 2 Line to Route 550 to access a stop on Bellevue Way doubled the boarding count to 50 per day. Route 550 stops near South Bellevue station and Mercer Island station. Seattle-bound boardings on Route 550 at those stops dropped by 78% and 74%, respectively.
Similar to Route 550, ridership on Route 554 fell where it overlaps with Link but remained constant elsewhere. Route 554’s stops in Issaquah had similar ridership to 2025. However, boardings at the Eastgate P&R (I-90 & 142nd Pl) fell 42%. This is likely due to more people choosing to use the nearby South Bellevue P&R and Link instead. On Mercer Island, the number of passengers boarding a Route 554 bus dropped 72% as many switched to the 2 Line. Route 554 was replaced by Route 556 in August. Route 556 provides more frequent service between Issaquah and Bellevue, via South Bellevue station and Bellevue Way.
State Route 520 is the only other connection between Seattle and the Eastside across Lake Washington. Some bus routes that use SR-520, such as Route 255, do not complete with the 2 Line and saw negligible changes in ridership patterns following the 2 Line opening. Other routes had significant changes as some passengers switched to the Link 2 Line.
While Route 545 takes a different route from Link across Lake Washington, it offers redundant service with the 2 Line between Redmond and downtown Seattle. Following the full 2 Line opening, ridership on the route fell 20%. At SR-520 & 40th St (near Redmond Technology station), inbound boardings fell 19%. Likewise, boardings at Redmond Transit Center dropped by 23%.
In downtown Seattle, Route 545 ridership has shifted north. Stops along Olive Way had a collective 2.5% increase in boardings, despite the closure of the peak-only stop at Boren Ave. Meanwhile, stops on 4th Ave had a collective 36% decrease in passenger boardings. This reflects passengers choosing to take the fastest trip. Route 545 is often faster than Link between the Denny Triangle and Redmond, while Link is usually faster between Redmond and CID or Pioneer Square. After all, Route 545 doesn’t save as much time as you think.
Compared to the 2 Line, Route 542 offers a shortcut between Redmond and the U District. A trip from the U District to downtown Redmond on Link takes 56 minutes vs just 32 minutes via Route 542. Ridership on this route has remained steady, with a 2.4% increase in boardings year-over-year. There were no significant changes to the route’s ridership patterns.
Route 271 also connected Seattle with the Eastside via SR-520. The long route had several noticeable changes in its ridership patterns following the opening of the Crosslake Connection. Trips between the U District and downtown Bellevue take 37 minutes on Link vs 24 minutes on Route 271. Despite the faster trip time on Route 271, the number of passengers boarding Seattle-bound trips at Bellevue Transit Center dropped 47%. This is likely from passengers who previously connected to another route in the U District and now have a more time-competitive option with Link (eg: trips from Bellevue to Capitol Hill).
Route 271 also had a 41% decrease in boardings at Eastgate Park & Ride. This is the same changed observed with Route 554 and is likely to due more people using the South Bellevue P&R instead.
The only new 2 Line station in Seattle, Judkins Park, impacted the ridership patterns of the five King County Metro routes that stop nearby: routes 7, 8, 9, 48, and 106. The intersection of an east-west Link station and five north-south bus routes is a key opportunity for many transfers. However, the data show that only 486 people are transferring between Link and one of the bus routes each weekday. This accounts for about ⅓ of boardings at Judkins Park station, a bit less than the projected 42%. The table below breaks down the bus boardings at Judkins Park station by route and direction.
| Route | Northbound Boarding Count | Southbound Boarding Count | Total Boarding Count |
| 7 | 86.5 | 115.2 | 201.7 |
| 8 | 74.2 | 11.8 | 86 |
| 9 | 3.8 | 4.4 | 8.2 |
| 48 | 107.9 | 13.5 | 121.4 |
| 106 | 25.9 | 42.9 | 68.8 |
The Crosslake Connection is already making its mark on travel patterns across Lake Washington. Many passengers switched from routes 271, 545, 550, and 554 to Link when it was the faster option. In Seattle, fewer people than expected are transferring between buses and the 2 Line at Judkins Park station.
The five month period of overlapping Link and bus service has come to a close and many bus routes were truncated in August. Seattle Transit Blog will share ridership data analysis from those changes in Spring 2027 (when the data are available).
In the meantime, explore detailed ridership data for most King County Metro, Sound Transit, and Community Transit routes at seattletransitridership.com. The dashboard has been updated to include stop-level data for all Metro and Metro operated Sound Transit routes from the Spring 2026 service change. The impact of the Federal Way Link Extension on bus routes in south King County will be discussed in an article tomorrow.
