On Saturday, June 27, Metro is launching a new summer-only bus route connecting beachgoers to Golden Gardens Park, temporarily closing a hole in the agency's bus network.
Officials celebrated the launch of the new "Golden Gardens Direct" route at a media event Monday, with Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, Metro General Manager Michelle Allison, Seattle City Councilmember Dan Strauss, King County Councilmember Jorge Barón, and Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) Acting Director Angela Brady speaking as part of the program.
Strauss sponsored the City budget amendment last year that made the route possible, with an investment of approximately $300,000 in Seattle Transit Measure funds for the 2026 season of service. The Seattle Transit Measure is up for renewal this fall, and Wilson has proposed doubling its size, pointing to the need for more frequent bus service.
Buses will run every 30 minutes from 15th and Market Street in Ballard to Golden Gardens Park, one of the region's most popular parks on Puget Sound. The service runs daily from 11 am to 9 pm through August 30. Rides cost $3 — a standard Metro bus fare — and are free for youth 18 and under.
Within their two-hour free transfer window, riders can transfer from other Metro services and pay no additional fare.
Operated by Metro's outside vendor Hopelink, the route has 10 stops, intercepting the D Line, Route 40, Route 44, Route 17 as it passes through the main drag of Ballard. It also stops near the Ballard Locks/Carl S. English Jr. Botanical Garden, Ballard Elks Lodge, and the Statue of Leif Erickson on the way to Golden Gardens.
Golden Gardens is "an 87-acre park on Puget Sound offering views of the Olympic Mountains, sandy beaches, beach volleyball courts, wetlands, forest trails, a fishing pier and a boat launch with 300 feet of shoreline at the south end of the park," the City noted in a press release. The park is also reachable via the Route 45 to Sunset Hill, but that requires a steep climb up and down steps to reach the beach.
"Golden Gardens is one of Seattle's most beloved public spaces," Wilson said. "It's where people come to relax, spend time with their family and friends, enjoy the beach, and experience the natural beauty that makes Seattle such a special place to live. But a great public space is not truly accessible if getting there is difficult. Everyone should be able to enjoy Golden Gardens, regardless of whether or not they own a car or how they choose to travel around our city. That is why I'm so excited about Golden Gardens Direct."
King County Metro's Allison thanked the City for its financial support for the route through the Seattle Transit Measure.
"This pilot is more than simply welcoming people to Golden Gardens, it's about making sure everyone can enjoy our parks, whether or not they drive with busses every 30 minutes all day," Allison said. "This service makes it simple to head to the water, wander the trails, relax in the sunshine, or gather around a beach bonfire at sunset. Golden Gardens Direct supports our shared belief of building a region where moving around is easier, greener, and more connected for everyone, with free rides for youth and easy links to existing routes. This service encourages people to travel together, skip the parking headaches, and enjoy more of the day outdoors."
Since the last bus is at 9pm, Golden Gardens Direct riders should be advised they will miss the last bus if they stay for the sunset, which extends after 9pm through mid-July. The bus stop is at the edge of the park, putting the beach's main pavilion a nearly 10-minute walk away.
Golden Gardens Direct is a similar service to Metro's Trailhead Direct, a Hopelink-operated summer shuttle bus connecting a handful of Seattle, Bellevue, and Issaquah transit centers to trailheads in the Issaquah Alps and Cascade Mountains – likewise designed to grapple with parking lot overcrowding. The City of Seattle is also the leader funder of that service, though King County and Amazon collectively cover half the costs. For now, the Golden Gardens pilot is solely funded by Seattle.
Barón noted that parking overcrowding and difficulty reaching Golden Gardens Park is an issue many of his constituents in County Council District 4 (which spans all of northwestern Seattle) have raised with his office.
"It's just a beautiful park to be, but one of the things that you notice frequently is the difficulty in parking that a number of my colleagues have alluded to, like we've had to park way down the street, and that can be difficult for families, for people with disabilities," Barón said. "And so having access to this is going to open opportunities for everybody to be able to access this beautiful place."
Ballard High School student Penelope Darling underscored the importance the bus route would have in helping youth get to Golden Gardens and enjoy their summer break.
"Next year I'll be a sophomore at Ballard High School. I'm 15 years old. I do not drive. Most of my friends do not drive. When we can't get a ride from our parents, we usually take the bus, and that works just fine," Darling said. "That's why the lack of public transportation to and from Golden Gardens has been such a big issue for teenagers, especially during the summertime. When I heard about the new bus service, I was really excited, because now it won't be such a hassle for teens to hang out at Golden Gardens. Easier access to the beach will also encourage more youth to disconnect from their phones and enjoy the beautiful nature of Seattle."
Strauss added that Metro's former Route 46 used to provide bus service to Golden Gardens when he was a kid. Metro phased it out in 2012 due to low ridership numbers – something that wasn't helped by its low frequency.
"When I was a teenager at Golden Gardens Park, we had the 46," Strauss said. "So I'm glad that for Penelope and others like her that we've got bus service restarted down here to Golden Gardens."
Strauss said his hope that Golden Gardens Direct would become a permanent fixture, perhaps even expanded to cover more months.
"I'm happy with what we got," Strauss said. "Does a boy want more transit? Every day. So, if we could do April to October, I think that would be really awesome, but whatever we can do is great."
The pilot program demonstrating the ridership demand is there is the first step.
"I would love for it to be permanent," Strauss said. "It's also good policy to try things out to see what the ridership is. This, as you heard me say back in my day, we had the 46 and then there was some more other tests, little pilots along the way that didn't quite have the ridership."
Robust population growth across Seattle and in Ballard specifically – where the neighborhood has added more than 6,000 homes in the last 2o years – is likely to mean higher demand this time around, Strauss argued.
"Something that's really different between now and when those pilots and when the 46 ran is the density of our neighborhood and the reliance on transit throughout the city," Strauss said. and "At that point it was just as easy to drive down here and find a parking spot anywhere, because the density in Ballard was lower, and today we see with us seeing people parking all the way down to Un Bien, and the Elks Lodge, down to Ray's [Boathouse], we see a higher need today. So we're hoping that this pilot will demonstrate the success that we are looking for, so that we can make this permanent in the future."
Another issue that might slowly be getting on the City's radar is parking corrals for Lime shared scooters and bikes at Golden Gardens. Already at 10am, Lime vehicles were piling up at the end of the Burke-Gilman Trail as people headed to the beach, ditching their vehicles before the no-parking zone that covers most of Golden Gardens Park – apparently at the behest of the Seattle Parks department.
"For the Lime scooters, we should have some parking spaces which are turned into corrals or something," Wilson told The Urbanist. "So Parks doesn't want people biking in? I am unfamiliar with the issue, but it sounds like we should do something."
It's possible that Golden Gardens Direct could relieve some of the load that bikeshare and scooters are being asked to carry in an area with limited parking for cars and Lime alike.
"I encourage everyone to give Golden Gardens Direct a try this summer and enjoy one of Seattle's greatest treasures," Wilson said.
Ryan Packer
