ST Express 2026 restructure

Sound Transit released its 2026 service plan proposal with an ST Express restructure and survey for feedback until November 7th. Last week ST previewed the changes in a Rider Experience and Operations Committee report, and STB commentators wasted no time in starting to comment on them. Ryan Packer at The Urbanist did an analysis the report. The proposal has new night owl express service, which Michael Smith covered in the last STB article.

The proposed changes are to several ST Express routes and new night owl service next fall, minor Sounder adjustments next spring (page 28 of the report), and the Link expansions we've reported on extensively. A timeline of upcoming transit changes is thus:

• In 3 months the Federal Way Link extension will open. (December 2025)
• In 7 months the full 2 Line (Redmond-Lynnwood) will open. (April 2026)
• In 9 months the World Cup will have extra service.
• In 11-ish months several ST Express routes will change. (Fall 2026)

This article looks at what options a passenger would have at various locations after the restructure. Where can they go on Sound Transit? How often? Which days? Symbols will highlight improvements/detractions from current service: (+) more frequent, (-) less frequent, (X) no service anymore. Every location also has non-ST service, but that's too much to get into here.

This isn't a comprehensive look at every location and route, and it was complicated to put together and I'm not an ST planner so I may have missed a route somewhere. You can put any mistakes in the comments and I'll correct the article. I'd recommend reading this article in conjunction with the proposal, the report, Packer's article, and the night owl article to get the most complete picture. The links are all conveniently together in the first paragraph.

ST's intention is to truncate express routes where expanded Link is time-competitive, but keep them when Link is more than about 10 minutes slower. Packard's article has a quote by Emily Yasukochi, ST's Director of System and Service Planning, that goes into more detail.

Several routes in the proposal are listed as No changes". Those routes will keep their current frequency, ST's Henry Brendon confirmed to me. Small schedule changes may occur here and there, but there's no intention to change their level of service.

This is just a proposal at this point. Early next year ST will make a second proposal based on the feedback, and the ST Board will vote on it in February/March.

Snohomish County, Shoreline, Northshore

Everett Station: 512 to Lynnwood City Center Link station and intermediate stops every 15 minutes, less after 9pm. Sounder to downtown Seattle peak only. 510 to downtown Seattle peak only, stopping only at Mountlake Terrace station along the way. 532 to Bellevue peak only. Night owl to downtown Seattle.

Route 513 tail: Add reverse-peak service (+), so it will be bidirectional peak hours. Skip Eastmont P&R (X).

Ash Way P&R: 512 to Lynnwood City Center station and Everett Station. 513 to Lynnwood City Center station and the 513 corridor, peak only but now bidirectional (+).

Lynnwood City Center: 1/2 Lines combined to downtown Seattle every 4-5 minutes. 1 Line to SeaTac/Federal Way every 8-10 minutes. 2 Line to Bellevue/Redmond every 8-10 minutes. 512, 513, and night owl as above. 535 to Bellevue every 30 minutes every day (+), 60 minutes every evening (+). No route 515 (X).

Bothell Way: 522 rerouted to Shoreline South station instead of Lake City/Roosevelt station every 15 minutes every day (+), 15-30 minutes every evening. The Woodinville-UW Bothell tail will run every 30 minutes.

Eastside

Downtown Redmond and Redmond Technology: 2 Line to Bellevue, Seattle, and Lynnwood. 542 to U-District every 20-30 minutes. 545 to downtown Seattle every 10 minutes weekdays, 30 weekends and evenings. 566 to Renton, Kent, Auburn, and Redmond Tech, peak only. A Redmond-SLU peak route concept has been discarded.

Bellevue Downtown: 2 Line to Redmond, Seattle, and Lynnwood. 535 to north 405 and Lynnwood every 30 minutes daytime (+), 60 minutes evening (+). 556 to Issaquah and south Bellevue Way (see next paragraph). 560 to south 405, Renton, SeaTac, Burien, and Westwood Village every 30 minutes weekdays, 60 minutes weekdays and evenings. 532 to Everett peak only. No ST service to U-District via 520 (X).

Issaquah: 556 from Issaquah Highlands to city hall, Sunset Way/Gilman Blvd local stops (+), Issaquah TC, I-90 flyer stops, South Bellevue station, South Bellevue Way, Bellevue Square, Bellevue TC, every 15 minutes daytime (+), 15-30 minutes evenings (+). No direct service to U-District (X); transfer at South Bellevue to Link. No ST service to Sammamish (X). Metro will have Issaquah Highlands-Mercer Island express routes (bypassing central Issaquah).

South King County

SeaTac: 1 Line to Federal Way (+), Seattle, and Lynnwood, every 8 minutes peak, 10 minutes off-peak, 15 minutes after 10pm. No direct route to downtown Tacoma (X); take Link to Federal Way and transfer to 574. Night owl to downtown Seattle, downtown Tacoma, and Lakewood (+).

Federal Way: 1 Line to SeaTac, Seattle and Lynnwood (+). 574 to Tacoma Dome and Lakewood, every 15 minutes daytime (+), 30 minutes evening (transfer to T Line for downtown Tacoma). 577 to downtown Seattle: northbound AM peak only; southbound AM peak, and noon through PM peak. 578 to downtown Seattle, Auburn, and Puyallup, every 30 minutes weekdays, 60 minutes weekends and evenings. Night owl to downtown Seattle, downtown Tacoma, and Lakewood (+).

Pierce County

Tacoma Dome: T Line to downtown Tacoma and MLK, every 12 minutes weekdays and Saturdays, 20 minutes Sundays and evenings. 574 to Federal Way and Lakewood, every 15 minutes daytime (+), 30 minutes evening. 594 to downtown Seattle and Lakewood, every 30 minutes. Sounder to downtown Seattle and Lakewood, mostly peak only. 592 to downtown Seattle and Lakewood, peak only. 595 to downtown Seattle and Gig Harbor, peak only. Night owl to SeaTac, downtown Seattle, and Lakewood (+). No direct route to UW (X): take one of the above buses and transfer to Link.

Downtown Tacoma: T Line to Tacoma Dome and MLK. 590 to downtown Seattle, peak only. 594 to downtown Seattle and Lakewood, every 30 minutes. Night owl to SeaTac, downtown Seattle, and Lakewood (+). No direct service to UW (X).

Seattle/Shoreline

Link: 1/2 Lines between CID and Lynnwood. 1 Line continues to southeast Seattle and Federal Way. 2 Line continues east to Bellevue and Redmond.

Downtown Seattle: Link. Sounder. 577/578 to Federal Way, Auburn, and Puyallup. 590/592/594 to Tacoma and Lakewood. Night owls to Lakewood, Everett, and Bellevue/Redmond.

Judkins Park: 2 Line.

Westwood Village: 560 to SeaTac, Renton, and Bellevue.

Lake City: No ST service (X).

Good and bad things

The most surprising thing is keeping the 510, 545, 577, 578, 590, 592, 594, and 595 to downtown Seattle after nine years of planning reports and proposals to truncate them. (ST Express in ST2 scenarios in January 2016; first rounds of East Link Connections proposals.) However, this is the first time it will affect passengers in less than a year, so that forced ST to make a judgment on the tradeoffs.

Several STB editors have been uneasy about truncating the Federal Way and Tacoma routes when Link will be 20 minutes slower and take an entire hour (55 minutes Westlake-Federal Way), so this is welcome news. Any possible route/mode has a distance range where it's competitive with other routes/modes, especially since faster routes usually bypass some stops. Link's sweet spot seems to be up to 15 miles in the north and east corridors, and 10 miles in the south corridor. That reflects the slower surface segments in south Seattle, east-west detouring, and the longer distances to Federal Way and Tacoma. (Federal Way is almost as far as Everett.)

We're less enthusiastic at keeping the 510 and 545, especially running the 545 every 10 minutes all day. I wonder if the 545 will eventually switch from articulated to single buses. But here again, ST has made a decision based on relative travel time. Given that Everett Link won't be faster than the 510 and will detour to Paine Field, this suggests the 510 may remain permanently.

I asked ST how many service hours and how much it costs to keep the non-truncated segments. Brendon said that information couldn't be gathered in the 2-day deadline for this article. If we get the information later, we'll pass it along and compare it to the operational budget and total budget.

I'm looking forward to 15-minute express service to Issaquah. That will make it easier to go to Issaquah trails and events in Issaquah. And it will make it easier for Issaquah residents to take transit to the the Eastside hubs, Seattle, and other parts of the region, so Issaquah will be less isolated.

Tell us what you think, take the survey, and send any other feedback to ST. Are you happy with these routes? Would you distribute the service hours differently? Would you eliminate all routes to downtown Seattle? Are there areas that need a route or higher frequency? Would you rather have night owls or increase more daytime corridors to 15 minutes?

Some ideas STB authors came up with that weren't considered in this proposal include:

• Add a Federal Way stop to the 594. This would improve access between Pierce County and South King County, and could potentially replace some 577 and 578 hours.
• Consider a Seattle-Kent-Auburn express. Kent has needed an all-day express ever since Sound Transit was created, and Kent is the largest city in south King County (137K).

If you agree with any of these you can add them to your feedback to ST.