Current and proposed overnight service along the Link 1 Line

As part of its 2026 Service Plan, Sound Transit is proposing a new overnight bus service in the corridor of the Link 1 and 2 Lines. These routes would also continue to Everett, Tacoma, and Lakewood. These services will specifically operate during the night after Link stops running, and end shortly before Link begins again the next morning. Service is scheduled to launch in the fall of this year, contingent on the ability of partner agencies to deliver the service. Sound Transit is also launching a pilot of this service on the segment from downtown Seattle to SeaTac starting March 28th, with service roughly every 30 minutes throughout the night.

Despite shadowing the Link 1 Line, the overnight service proposal skips 10 out of 26 current 1 Line stations. Intuitively, the reason for skipping so many stops is probably is to keep the bus moving quickly as it heads to Everett or Lakewood, as well as to keep operating costs and staffing levels manageable. Also, considering that Sound Transit is a regional agency rather than a local one, they may be leaning on King County Metro to provide night-owl service within the city of Seattle. However, though some of the gaps are covered by King County Metro's own night-owl network, there is not as much overnight service along parts of the 1 Line as you might think.

1 Line overnight service, visualized

Here is an overview of current overnight bus services along the Link 1 Line (including a comparison to the proposed overnight service), in the style of Sound Transit's diagram of alternative routes to Link (click the image to zoom in):

Here are summaries broken down by route:

• Overnight service proposal: This shows the proposed overnight service across the entire length of the 1 Line, and the segment launching as a pilot service starting March 28th in a darker and thicker green line. Service on the pilot segment is roughly every 30 minutes from downtown Seattle to SeaTac and Tukwila Intl Blvd Station. Service frequency on the full lines covering stations as far as Federal Way and Lynnwood still have not been announced.
• Route 7: This is a solid overnight route with roughly hourly service throughout the night, but diverges from the Link corridor south of Mount Baker Station.
• Route 36: Similar to route 7, this is a well-established overnight route with roughly hourly frequency. It also nicely fills in a bit of the gap that route 7 leaves, serving both Beacon Hill and Othello stations.
• Route 43: Despite not being a night-owl route (and in fact, this route consists only of route 44 buses going into or out of service), route 43 does provide substantial night-owl service in the southbound direction only (UW to Capitol Hill). Service from 1 to 5am is roughly hourly, but very irregular (with some trips as close as 15 minutes, and as far as nearly two hours).
• Route 44: This is a night-owl workhorse, with service every 45 minutes plus some bonus westbound runs splitting some of those 45 minute headways into 15-30s. That said, route 44 only connects U-District and UW stations, making it a very limited Link shadow.
• Route 48: This route connects the Rainier Valley part of Link with the UW part with a straight shot down 23rd Ave. Being a shortcut around Link's turn toward downtown, it becomes faster than Link itself between Mt Baker and UW starting in the evening. Overnight, it runs a relatively consistent hourly schedule.
• Route 49: With overnight frequency being consistently every 30 minutes, route 49 runs almost as much at night as it does during the day! This makes it a solid Link replacement for trips between U-District, Capitol Hill, and Westlake Stations. Additionally, trips from 3 to 4:30am continue down 3rd Ave toward Intl Dist/Chinatown.
• Route 65: Runs hourly through most of the night, but takes a 2-2.5 hour break before the early morning commute. It starts at Shoreline South/148th, but swings east through Lake City and Wedgwood before rejoining Link at UW and U-District stations.
• Route 67: Has a similar service level as route 65 as the two are connected, except closely following the Link alignment. Hence, route 67 fills in the Link stops that the 65 misses (Northgate and Roosevelt), along with both UW-area stations.
• Route 70: This route connects U-District station to Westlake along a different path than the 49 (and skips Capitol Hill), but also continues to Pioneer Square on every trip (with select trips continuing to Intl Dist/Chinatown). This route has good frequency at 30 minutes most of the night, but drops off to 45 later in the night.
• Route 106: This is not a night-owl route as it doesn't run through the night, but it runs late enough that it adds one or two (depending on the day) hourly trips after Link stops in the southbound direction only. Since it runs parallel to Link along MLK Way, it connects all four Rainier Valley stations to Intl Dist/Chinatown.
• Route 124: This an hourly night-owl route that connects downtown Seattle to the Tukwila Intl Blvd Station. Additionally, two trips per direction each night get extended to the SEA airport terminal stop (rather than other airport stops on International Blvd), saving nighttime airport workers a walk around the closed SeaTac Link station.
• RapidRide A Line: This south King County powerhouse provides roughly hourly frequency throughout the night. Being mostly along the Link alignment in the vicinity of its stations, it serves every Link station from Tukwila Intl Blvd to Federal Way Downtown with the exception of Star Lake Station.
• ST Express 512: This Link feeder route ordinarily operates only beyond Link's service area. However, one early morning southbound trip continues to Northgate Station daily before Link begins, and on Sundays only (when Link stops running earlier), two half-hourly northbound trips operate from downtown Seattle to U-District (freeway station), Northgate, Mountlake Terrace, and Lynnwood before continuing to Everett.
• ST Express 574: In the northbound direction, this route provides very early morning service from Federal Way, Star Lake (freeway station) and Kent-Des Moines (freeway station) to SeaTac. This runs every 15-30 minutes starting at 2:42 on weekdays, and every 30 minutes starting at 2:50 on weekends.

Filling in the remaining gaps

With Sound Transit's overnight service covering both Link and ST Express corridors, it's likely that Sound Transit will consolidate overnight service on its existing routes (512 and 574) into its new overnight service. That will leave farther out stations with generally good overnight coverage. However, there remains a pretty big gap in overnight service in the Rainier Valley, considering route 106 provides no more than two additional trips after Link stops running, and only in the southbound direction. For true overnight service coverage along Link, King County Metro needs to either upgrade route 106 to a true night-owl route, or consider alternative service options, such as a night-owl only route connecting the Rainier Valley to downtown and the airport. Either of these options may be a possibility in the next few years if a renewal of the Seattle Transit Measure this fall includes funding for them.