Record Link ridership in 2018

In 2018, Sound Transit continued to avoid the national decline in transit ridership, according to the agency's latest service numbers.

Link light rail's ridership grew a solid 6.1% in 2018, with 24,416,411 boardings.

Link's service mostly met or approached Sound Transit's internal targets, though 10.4% of Link trips didn't match their target headway, or the two minute cushion the agency grants every trip. That number should improve starting next month, when buses (and their time-consuming boarding) move out of the downtown subway tunnel.

The entire system saw a record 48,217,826 boardings in 2018, a 2.9% increase from 2017. ST Express buses and the Tacoma Link streetcar both lost ridership in 2018, but every other part of the system grew, and ST Express only lost 1% of its 2017 ridership. Tacoma Link lost a significant, but not alarming, 7.6% of its ridership.