King County Metro route 7 'Prentice Street/Rainier Beach / Downtown Seattle'

7 Rainier Beach / Downtown Seattle

Service Area

Downtown Seattle, Chinatown, Mount Baker, Columbia City, Rainier Beach

Termini

Downtown Seattle (Virginia Street & 4th / 6th Avenue)
Rainier Beach (S Henderson Street & Rainier Avenue S)
Prentice Street (62nd Avenue S & S Prentice Street)

Operations

Atlantic Base

Vehicles

NFI XT60

NFI DE60LFR

On weekends only

Branches

7 Rainier Beach
7 Prentice Street
7 Downtown Seattle

Route Diagram

7 Rainier Beach / Downtown Seattle is a bus route operated by King County Metro in Seattle, Washington State.

Route Details

This north-south route runs between Rainier Beach and Downtown Seattle. Service runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on the Rainier Beach branch, and from 6 AM to 8:45 PM on weekdays, 5:30 AM to 10 PM on Saturdays and 5:30 AM to 10:45 PM on Sundays^[1].

Southbound trips depart Virginia Street and 6th Avenue east on Virginia Street, south on 7th Avenue, west on Stewart Street, south on 3rd Avenue, south on 2nd Avenue Ext S, east on S Jackson Street, south on Rainier Avenue S, south on 57th Avenue S, south on Waters Avenue S and south on 62nd Avenue S to S Prentice Street.

Northbound trips depart 62nd Avenue S & S Prentice Street east on S Prentice Street, north on 64th Avenue S, north on Waters Avenue S, north on 57th Avenue S, north on Rainier Avenue S, west on S Jackson Street, north on 4th Avenue S, north on Prefontaine Pl S, north on 3rd Avenue and east on Virginia Street to 4th Avenue.

Most trips do not serve the Prentice Street loop, and instead terminate at Rainier Avenue S and S Henderson Street.

Frequency

Branch	Weekdays							Saturday						Sunday
Branch	Early AM	AM Peak	Midday	PM Peak	Early PM	Late PM	Overnight	Early AM	Morning	Afternoon	Early PM	Late PM	Overnight	Early AM	Morning	Afternoon	Early PM	Late PM	Overnight
7 Southbound - Rainier Beach	15-30	5-10	7-8	5-10	5-10	15	30-60	15-30	10-15	10	10-15	15	30-60	15-30	12-15	12	12	15	30-60
7 Southbound - Prentice Street	30	30-60	30	30	30	N/A	N/A	N/A	30	30	30	N/A	N/A	N/A	30	30	30	1 trip	N/A
7 Northbound - from Rainier Beach	15-30	7-10	7-8	7-10	5-10	30	30-60	30	10-15	10	10-15	15-30	30-60	30	12-15	12	12-15	15-30	30-60
7 Northbound - from Prentice Street	30-60	30-60	30	30	30	N/A	N/A	30	30	30	30	N/A	N/A	30	30	30	30	1 trip	N/A

Route History

Route 7 began as one of the first Metro bus routes derived from the Seattle Streetcar netowrk.^[2] It had two northern terminals, one at View Ridge near 15th Ave NE and NE 70th St, and one at Wedgwood near NE 65th St and 35th Ave NE. The route ran from one of those two points to U District via University Way NE, then to Downtown via Campus Parkway and Eastlake Ave NE, then down S Jackson St, Rainier Ave S, and Waters Ave S.

The historic portion from Prentice St to Rainier Ave to View Ridge and Wedgwood was extended when the route was converted from a streetcar to a trolleybus throughout the 1940s.

In 1954, when the city of Seattle expanded the city limits to N 145th St, one of the two existing variants of the route 7 was extended to Jackson Park via 15th Ave NE, and a new variant was created to Jackson Park via Lake City Way NE.^[3] The branch to Wedgwood still remained.

The route always ran as an electric trolleybus, but as Seattle Transit System, the original operator for Seattles buses, began to mass-retire their trolleybus network in thew 1960s, the portions of the route north of University District became motorized and were never reinstated in the trolley network.^[4] This allowed the routing for the Wedgwood branch of the 7 to expand into the residential areas such as 50th Ave NE and NE 70th St that buses travel through today.^[5]

In January 1978, the branches north of U-District were split into 3 different all-day routes, the 71, 72, and 73.^[6] The part from U-District to Downtown to Rainier Beach and Prentice St remained, along with a "Columbia City" turnback along Rainier Ave, but two years later, in June 1988, the routing on Eastlake and Fairview Ave was shifted to 10th Ave and Harvard Ave, when the 70 was created.^[7] A turnback on Broadway near Aloha St was created to go with the 9.

This routing of the 7 remained (with 10 minute all day frequencies) until June 2005, when the part from U District to Downtown Seattle was split into the new route 49, and the northern terminal was shortened to Blanchard/Lenora St and 3rd Ave.^[8]

The same routing still remains, but King County Metro hopes to change the route 7 into a RapidRide running from Downtown Seattle to Rainier Beach in the 2030s.^[9]

7 Express

The 7 had "Blue Streak" express buses that served the same three northern terminals from Downtown, lasting from the late 60s to 1978, when the 71, 72, and 73 were made and got their own express versions.

During the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, the 7X served only went between Downtown Seattle and Prentice St, and operated only from 5 AM to 7 AM and 2 PM to 6 PM. It ran out of Central Base and used Gillig Phantoms and New Flyer D60s. ^[10]^[11]

The route was the same as the 7, except it traveled on S Dearborn St instead of S Jackson St.

The 7X was deleted in September 2014 due to budget cuts, along with other nearly-redundent express versions of Central Seattle routes.^[12]