Improvements coming to Route 40 in Ballard

Meghan Walker Ballard

King County Metro and SDOT are working on some upgrades to Route 40 in Ballard and North Seattle, and they’re seeking community feedback on the proposed changes.

The Route 40 Transit-Plus Multimodal Corridor Project has been launched to find ways to improve the speed and reliability of the Route 40 bus route, which travels along Leary, NW Market St, 24th Ave NW, and NW 85th St in Ballard.

Route 40 was one of Metro’s busiest bus routes before COVID, and still sees more ridership than most other routes in the city. The route is 13.5 miles long and currently serves 3,800 weekday customers. Along with Ballard, it serves Northgate, Fremont, South Lake Union, Downtown Seattle, and Pioneer Square.

From now until the end of the year, Metro and SDOT are reviewing community priorities and corridor needs to determine what improvements would be most beneficial and feasible. After this year of information gathering, they’ll identify a set of designs that will move forward to a final design in mid-2023 and construction in late 2023.

The project team has completed the planning phase and are entering the early design phase. As they narrow down the concept plans, they’re hoping for community feedback. You can watch the below video or take an online survey to review the proposed changes and provide input. The survey will be live until April 16th.

SDOT and Metro will also host two online drop-in sessions in which residents can ask the project team questions and share feedback about the design considerations. The project team highly recommends watching the prerecorded presentation before attending one of the drop-in sessions.

The two virtual sessions will be held on the following days:

  • Wednesday April 7th, from 5:30pm – 6:30pm. Click here to join the April 7th drop-in session.
  • Thursday April 8th, from 12pm – 1:00pm. Click here to join the April 8th drop-in session.

The project was launched in response to the Levy to Move Seattle and King County Metro’s METRO CONNECTS program. Results from the 2018 Levy Workplan Report determined that Route 40 will not become a RapidRide line, however improvements will be designed to align with a potential future RapidRide expansion.