Enumclaw to Seattle by bus and train, in two rides

There is no direct bus from Enumclaw to Seattle, but you can make the trip in two rides. King County Metro's route 915 runs from Enumclaw to Auburn Station in about 35 minutes, Monday through Saturday except holidays. From Auburn, the Sounder train reaches Seattle's King Street Station in 34 minutes on weekdays, and Sound Transit's 578 bus runs to downtown Seattle every day. As of October 2026, the best weekday connections take about an hour and 20 minutes from Enumclaw to King Street, for $4.25 in adult fares on an ORCA card.

What the timetable's fine print adds is that the 915 is not quite an ordinary bus. It is a DART route, Metro's dial-a-ride transit, which Hopelink operates under contract in smaller, wheelchair lift-equipped vehicles. On weekdays other than holidays, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., it can leave its route to pick you up or drop you off within a mapped area of Enumclaw and Auburn, if you book at least two hours ahead at 1-866-261-3278. Each trip can make only a limited number of those detours, and the driver may meet you a block or more from the spot you asked for.

Where does the 915 bus stop in Enumclaw?

The 915 is the only public bus route that serves Enumclaw. On weekdays it starts and ends beside the Enumclaw Aquatic Center, at a stop that Metro's route 915 timetable still calls Enumclaw King County Pool, stop number 99482. The name is a leftover from the years the pool belonged to King County. It runs through town to a timed stop at Griffin Avenue and Wells Street, then follows SR 164, the Auburn-Enumclaw Road, which our guide to every numbered road out of Enumclaw covers, to Auburn Way South. It makes every regular Metro stop on the way and ends at Bay 1 at Auburn Station, the Sounder stop, which some schedules call Auburn Transit Center.

On Saturdays the timetable starts and ends the route at Griffin Avenue and Cedar Street, stop 59033, instead of at the pool. To see when the next bus is actually coming, text the stop number to 62550.

What time is the first and last 915 bus?

On weekdays, 19 trips leave the pool stop for Auburn: five between 4:36 and 7:01 a.m., nine roughly hourly from 8:22 a.m. to 4:23 p.m., and five between 5:10 and 7:12 p.m. Seventeen come back from Auburn Station between 5:35 a.m. and 7:12 p.m., and the last reaches the pool at 7:51 p.m. Saturdays have six trips each way. Buses leave Griffin and Cedar at 10:35 a.m., 12:05, 1:35, 3:05, 4:35 and 6:05 p.m., and leave Auburn at 9:50 and 11:20 a.m., 12:50, 2:20, 3:50 and 5:20 p.m. Wherever you go in Seattle, the last 915 out of Auburn sets your curfew: 7:12 p.m. on a weekday, 5:20 p.m. on a Saturday.

The 915 times come from its timetable for August 29, 2026, to March 26, 2027, and the Sounder, 578, 181 and Link times below from schedules that also run to late March 2027. Metro makes major service changes twice a year, in March and August, so check the dates on the cover of the timetable you are reading.

How do you catch the Sounder train in Auburn?

The Sounder S Line runs on weekdays only. Thirteen trains a day leave Auburn for King Street Station, ten of them between 5:18 and 10:53 a.m. and three in the late afternoon, and the ride takes 34 minutes. Five morning 915s, leaving the pool stop at 4:36, 5:23, 6:03, 6:23 and 7:01 a.m., reach Auburn 7 to 10 minutes before a Seattle train. The 6:03 a.m. bus, for example, meets the 6:48 a.m. train, which is due at King Street at 7:22.

Coming home, the 5:20 p.m. train from King Street meets the 6:02 p.m. 915, which reaches the pool stop at 6:41, and the 6:30 p.m. train, due in Auburn at 6:57, is the last that makes the last bus. Between the morning trains and the late afternoon ones, take the 578 instead. It leaves Auburn for Seattle about every half hour on weekdays from 7:55 a.m. to 9:32 p.m., and the 9:19 a.m. 915 connects with a 578 due at Fourth Avenue and University Street at 10:50. The 578 keeps arriving in Auburn from Seattle until 11:49 p.m. on weekdays, long after the last 915 has gone.

Sound Transit's holiday list for September 2026 to February 2027 gives Sounder no service on Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the day after, Christmas or New Year's Day, and its spring and summer lists for 2023 through 2026 did the same for Memorial Day and Independence Day. Sounder runs on weekends only for some special events, such as certain Seahawks games, listed on Sound Transit's calendar. Bikes ride free on the train when the cars are not crowded, and the 915's timetable says Metro buses and vans carry up to three bikes on a front rack.

Is there a bus from Enumclaw to Seattle on weekends?

On Saturdays the whole trip is by bus. The 915 connects at Auburn with Sound Transit's 578, which runs every day between Puyallup and downtown Seattle by way of Federal Way Downtown Station and leaves Auburn for Seattle hourly on weekends. The 10:35 a.m. 915 reaches Auburn at 11:09, and the 11:40 a.m. 578 is due at Fourth and University at 12:28 p.m. Going home, the last Saturday 578 that reaches Auburn before the 5:20 p.m. 915 leaves the stop at Second Avenue Extension South and South Jackson Street, by King Street Station, at 3:44 p.m. and is due in Auburn at 4:31.

Sunday is the honest gap. The 915 does not run on Sundays or on its timetable's listed holidays, which on the August 2026 timetable are Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. The 578 runs on all of those days, but no bus runs from Enumclaw to Auburn to meet it.

How much is the fare, and how do you pay?

The adult fare is $3 on the 915, the 578 and Link light rail, and $4.25 on Sounder between Auburn and King Street. Riders 18 and under ride free on Metro and Sound Transit, and ORCA LIFT, senior and disabled fares are $1. Metro's prices date from September 1, 2025; check both agencies' fare pages before a long trip.

An ORCA card makes the transfer cheap. Both agencies give ORCA riders a two-hour transfer window, and Sound Transit says that when the next ride costs more, "you'll pay only the difference." So the bus and train trip costs an adult $4.25 in all, and the bus and bus trip $3. An adult card costs $3 and is sold at the ticket machines in Sounder stations. Cash works on the 915 if you have exact change, but the paper transfer it buys is good on Metro only. On bank cards the sources disagree: the 915's timetable lists contactless cards and phone wallets among the ways to pay, while Metro's tap-to-pay page lists DART among the services that do not take them. An ORCA card settles the question.

Can you take the bus from Enumclaw to Sea-Tac Airport?

You can, in three rides and about an hour and a half. Take the 915 to Auburn Station, then Metro's route 181 or the 578 to Federal Way Downtown Station, where Link light rail has stopped since December 2025, and ride the 1 Line north to SeaTac/Airport Station, the stop for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, about 17 minutes away. On the weekday timetables, the 6:03 a.m. 915 reaches Auburn at 6:38, the 6:51 a.m. 181 is due at Federal Way Downtown at 7:10, and the 7:14 a.m. train reaches the airport station at 7:31, an hour and 28 minutes after you left Enumclaw. The 181 leaves Auburn for Federal Way about every 15 minutes on weekday daytimes and every half hour on weekends. With an ORCA card the three rides cost one $3 adult fare, as long as your last tap comes within two hours of your first.

Does the 915 run when it snows?

Snow can stop it. The 915's timetable warns that snow may interrupt the route when roads become impassable, and adds: "In the rare event that Metro declares an emergency, it will not operate." In the worst weather Metro may switch to its Emergency Snow Network, a reduced set of routes that, according to Metro's snow guide, it announces a day ahead and keeps for the whole service day even if conditions improve. On a cold morning, check Metro's alerts before you walk to the stop, and for why plateau winters behave differently from Seattle's, see our comparison of Enumclaw and Seattle snow.

Why does every trip go through Auburn?

Because Auburn has the trains, as it did a century ago. Enumclaw began in 1885 on the Northern Pacific's transcontinental main line, and the railroad later moved that line off the town, building a cutoff through Palmer instead. HistoryLink's history of Enumclaw, by Mildred Andrews, records that the Enumclaw Good Roads Association later lobbied the state to pave "the narrow winding road to Auburn," where the Interurban ran frequent trains to Seattle and Tacoma. That electric line, the Puget Sound Electric Railway, opened in 1902 and ran down the valley through Kent and Auburn. HistoryLink's Alan J. Stein dates its last run out of Seattle to December 30, 1928, about ten weeks after Highway 99 linked Seattle and Tacoma. The interurban cars are long gone, but the plan is the one the town used then: get to Auburn first.

Before you go

On the day, check three things: the dates on the 915 timetable you are using; the alerts, through Metro's Transit Alerts by text or email and the alert lists on Sound Transit's S Line and 578 pages; and the calendar, since the 915 skips Sundays and its listed holidays and Sounder skips weekends and its own holidays. DART pickups are booked at 1-866-261-3278, which answers from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays. Metro's customer service is 206-553-3000; Sound Transit's is 1-888-889-6368. And if you are deciding whether you could live here without a car, our guide to moving to Enumclaw covers the drive.