Seattle Transit Blog

In a surprising turn of events, Sound Transit CEO Dow Constantine announced Thursday that he now wants the agency to open the Federal Way Link Extension on the 1 Line as soon as possible, and move its opening ahead of the 2 Line's long-delayed Cross-Lake Connection. The Federal Way Link Extension (FWLE), after having setbacks ... Continue reading "Accelerated Federal Way Opening"

A love letter to trams. (Not Just Bikes) Trams in this sense mean surface light rail with transit-lane priority on arterials, like Link on MLK, or the MAX Blue Line outside downtown. Not stuck in car congestion or shunted away to freeways. He makes some interesting counterarguments to many STB authors/commentators' positions: Race the L8 ... Continue reading "Sunday Movie: Trams!"

On Thursday, Fix the L8 hosted a race between people walking, rolling, and dancing vs a Route 8 bus. The race was on Denny Way from Dexter Ave to Stewart St. On paper, this should be an easy win for Route 8 as its schedule indicates a 7 minute trip along this segment. Walking is ... Continue reading "Race the L8"

On the Fourth of July, Everett has a downtown parade, a festival at a waterfront park, fireworks in the evening - and two bus shuttles running every 5 minutes. I used it as an excuse to check out American Legion Memorial Park and the arboretum there in the afternoon. Everett's geography has some parallels with ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: Everett 4th Festival"

King County Metro has shared their revised South King County restructure proposal in preparation for Sound Transit's Federal Way Link Extension (FWLE) opening in 2026. Metro is accepting feedback via a survey until August 31. Overall, this plan will introduce three new routes and two new Metro Flex areas, revise eight routes, and remove 13 ... Continue reading "South Link Connections Phase 3 Proposal"

Local Transit News: A post on the updated South Link Connections bus restructure proposal is in the works. Other Transportation: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread.

The metric that housing should cost 30% of income is not based on any scientific estimate of people's total living expenses. (Radical Planning) Instead it has an arbitrary history, and has evolved to be detrimental to both affordable housing and mortgages. This is an open thread.

While most people looking at the sky today are hoping to see fireworks, I prefer to look at overhead trolleybus wires. The map below outlines the location of all trolleybus wires in Seattle. This dataset was created by King County and last updated in 2018. While the map has not been updated in 7 years, ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: Metro Trolley Wire Map"

Tomorrow is a Independence Day, so Puget Sound transit agencies are running reduced schedules. To help everyone travel to and from the celebrations throughout the region, some agencies are running extra service. The schedule changes are outlined below. Click on an agency's name to view the official announcement. Sound Transit King County Metro Washington State ... Continue reading "4th of July Transit Service"

Local Transit News: Other Transportation: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread.

This is a hypothetical redesign of King County Metro's transit service in the Seattle area, with smaller changes to Sound Transit service, meant to enhance riders' ability to reach destinations throughout the city whatever the time of day. Within the city's borders, every stop is served by at least one route with 15-minute or better ... Continue reading "A Bus Network for Access Above Demand"

Ryan Parker had a recent editorial about adding bus service on First Avenue. I completely agree. There are many options and issues to consider. Center Running with Normal Buses Many of you are familiar with the RapidRide G buses on Madison Street that run in the center of the street and use center platforms. These ... Continue reading "Add Bus Service to First Avenue"

Turning an elevated freeway back into a river in Seoul. (Not Just Bikes) This is an open thread.

A new trail segment has opened connecting the first two phases of the Lake to Sound Trail in Des Moines and SeaTac, as reported by Mara Mellits in the Seattle Times. The Times article has a map of the trail and its relationship to the Green River Trail, Interurban Trail, and Cedar River Trail. Today's ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: Des Moines Trail"

Local Transit News: Other Transportation: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread. Do you read a story you think should be in next week's roundup? Share it with us!

By JASON LI This is part 2 of a 3-part series on route 8. Part 1. As the only arterial connecting Seattle's second and third densest neighborhoods, Denny Way is one of the most important streets in the city. But as all locals know, it doesn't work well for anybody right now, including drivers. It's ... Continue reading "Fix the L8: Redesigning Denny Way"

Once again, Sound Transit is reconsidering its priorities as economic realities clash with its ambitious service expansion program. The Sound Transit Board recently attended a retreat focused on understanding the challenges facing the agency, including a brainstorming session to come up with ideas for cutting costs in order to afford the many projects planned under ... Continue reading "Brainstorming Fixes for ST3"

Los Angeles has a new metro station closer to LAX airport, and a new north-south K line serving it. (Erik Em) Erik rides the C line from downtown Los Angeles west to Expo/Crenshaw station, and the new K line south to the airport. Here are system maps to show how the lines relate to the ... Continue reading "Sunday Movie: Los Angeles Airport Metro Station"

There's been some discussion about past plans such as Forward Thrust (1970s). However, many other plans were debated. The Link light rail could have ended up as a very different variant of light rail. This article will provide a brief overview of the past plans and some light commentary. PSCOG 1986 The general alignments in ... Continue reading "Past Plans 1980s ~ 2000s"

Over the next few days, King County Metro is implementing Phase 2 of the East Link Connections route restructure. This phase includes updates to Dial-A-Ride-Transit (DART) routes 204, 930, and 931. Phase 1 changes started when the 2 Line extension to Downtown Redmond opened on May 10. Additional East Link Connections changes will launch August ... Continue reading "Summer 2025 Metro Service Change"

In April 2025, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) painted the Phase 2 bus lane for its Rainier Ave S Bus Lane project. This lane conversion extended the northbound bus-only lane from S Walden Street to S Grand Street. While the bus lane is the project's flagship feature, SDOT is also repairing the sidewalk in ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: Rainier Ave S Bus Lanes"

Local Transit News: Other Transportation: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread.

Another Link reduction comes this weekend, to repair a section of rail that was identified in an inspection. The section is near Westlake station on the 1 Line. On Saturday and Sunday, June 21-22, trains will run from Lynnwood to Capitol Hill every 15 minutes approximately, and from SODO to Angle Lake every 15 minutes. ... Continue reading "Link Reduction June 21-22"

Toronto's GO commuter rail electrification and expansion has been downscaled and delayed. (RMTransit) Deutsche Bahn was going to make it like an S-Bahn, with all-day frequent service on several lines with electric trains, but the contract was canceled. This is a 24-minute rambling rant but there are several parallels with Pugetopolis and other American transit ... Continue reading "Sunday Movie: Toronto Setback"

Bicycle Weekends are underway for Summer 2025. This year, Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) is hosting ten Bicycle Weekends between May 17 and September 21. During a Bicycle Weekend, Lake Washington Boulevard between Seward Park and Mount Baker Park's Beach is closed to cars from 10am on Saturday to 6pm on Sunday. The Boulevard is ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: Lake Washington Boulevard Bicycle Weekends"

Seattle is hosting six FIFA Club World Cup games between June 15 and June 23. These games are expected to draw 100,000 to 150,000 visitors to the City. Sound Transit and King County Metro are providing additional service around these games to ensure both visitors and residents can get where they need to go. In ... Continue reading "FIFA Club World Cup 2025 Transit Service"

2025 Seattle Elections: Candidates for Mayor and city council debated housing and transportation issues last week: What transit questions would you ask this year's candidates for Seattle City Council, Mayor, and King County Executive? Local Transit News: Other Transportation: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread.

How housing became unaffordable. (City Beautiful) And a followup to last week's series: Seattle to Los Angeles on the Coast Starlight (AdamDoesNotExist) This is an open thread.

Over the past two weeks, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has updated signs along Aurora Ave N to convert the existing peak-hour bus lanes to 24/7 bus lanes. This change was introduced to help mitigate expected delays from increased travel on SR-99 as the result of WSDOT's Revive I-5 project. While some of the ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: 24/7 Bus Lanes on Aurora Avenue"

From June 7th to August 28th, 2025, Pierce Transit will operate its seasonal route 101 in Gig Harbor as the Gig Harbor Waterfront Connector. The service will run from the commercial center in Uptown Gig Harbor, crossing State Route 16, and winding its way up to Downtown Gig Harbor and the waterfront. Fares cost the ... Continue reading "Seasonal Gig Harbor Waterfront Connector Begins June 7th"

Another East Link connection disruption: From 10pm on Saturday, June 7, through end of service on Sunday, June 8, 1 Line service between Capitol Hill and SODO will be replaced by shuttle buses operating every 10-15 minutes. Trains north and south of downtown Seattle will run every 15 minutes. Tonight: The Urbanist and other orgs ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: Buzzword Salad"

In this Sunday Movie installment, Adam (aka AdamDoesNotExist) travels from San Francisco to Seattle using only local transit. No Greyhound, Amtrak, plane, or car. A three-day journey in three parts. Part 1: From San Francisco via the Pacific coast corridor to the California-Oregon border. Part 2: North along the southern Oregon coast, then east to ... Continue reading "San Francisco to Seattle by Local Transit"

Welcome to the first installment of Friday Roundtable. Each week, this column will discuss a route proposal, provide an infrastructure project update, dive into a piece of Seattle's transit history, or just share a cool map. If you have an idea for a topic to discuss, please reach out or let us know in a ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: Graham Street Route Idea"

Local Transit News: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread. Contact us if you'd like join the volunteer writing staff of the Blog.

Memorial Day transit information is below the movies. The evolution of Green Man/Red Man (walk/don't walk display) in Britain. Includes a square-dance song at 9:51. Comparison to US at 15:58. (Chris Spargo) Are American hawk crossings better than regular pedestrian crossings? (Evan Edinger) Memorial Day transit service on Monday, May 26: Sunday schedule for Metro, ... Continue reading "Sunday Movies: Green Man"

Local Transit News: Other Transportation: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread. Contact us if you'd like to add your perspective on Puget Sound-area transit and land use issues to the front page of the Blog.

The etymology of railroad and transportation terms. (Words Unravelled with RobWords and Jess Zefarris) This is an open thread.

King County Parks has announced that Trailhead Direct is returning in 2025 on weekends from May 24 to September 1. Additionally, the service will run on a few holidays, specifically: Memorial Day (Monday, May 26), Independence Day (Friday, July 4), and Labor Day (Monday, September 1). Trailhead Direct consists of two routes, one from Capitol ... Continue reading "2025 Trailhead Direct Routes"

Redmond Link Extension: Local Transportation: Other Transportation: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread.

Sound Transit operates two express routes between Redmond and Seattle. Route 542 travels inbound from Redmond Transit Center to the University District. Route 545 travels inbound from Bear Creek P&R to downtown Seattle. To celebrate the downtown Redmond Link extension opening on Saturday, this article takes a look at the ridership patterns for the Sound ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for Sound Transit Routes 542 and 545"

I was going to try to make the opening ceremony yesterday, but I'd walked extensively Friday so I did a shorter excursion in the afternoon. I haven't heard anything about how the ceremony went, how many people attended, or how full the buses were getting to it. To compare my trip to normal ridership, usually ... Continue reading "Impressions of Redmond Link"

The downtown Redmond Link extension opens today, May 10. This will extend the 2 Line from Redmond Technology station to two new stations: Marymoor Village and Downtown Redmond. The ceremony starts at 10:30am at Downtown Redmond station. The ribbon-cutting will be around noon, and then train service will start. Between noon and 4pm there will ... Continue reading "Welcome Redmond Link"

This article is for comments on topics other than the Redmond Link extension. There will be no Sunday Movie this week; instead we'll have a follow-up article on Sunday after we get back from Redmond. This is an open thread.

Yesterday, Sound Transit invited members of the media to preview the two-station Redmond Link extension, which is on track for a grand opening this Saturday, May 10th. Coming online will be Marymoor Village and Downtown Redmond stations, which will be the first of the ST3 stations to open. On hand at the preview ride was ... Continue reading "A sneak peek at Redmond Link"

3 daysuntil theDowntown Redmond Link Extension opens this Saturday, May 10! Sound Transit has more opening day details. Local Transit News: Other Transportation: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread. Do you (yes, you!) want to help fill our front page? Contact us! We are 100% volunteer - your voice ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: Deadmond" to Redmond"

Community Transit operates three bus rapid transit routes under the Swift branding: Blue, Green, and Orange. These routes provide fast and frequent transit between key destinations in Snohomish County. On August 30, 2024, Sound Transit opened the Lynnwood Link Extension (LLE). The 8.5 mile light rail extension connects south Snohomish County with Seattle, Sea-Tac Airport, ... Continue reading "Swift Ridership with Lynnwood Link"

They took sledgehammers to sidewalks." How curb cuts originated. (PBS American Experience) Big box stores. Why they exist, and how they're becoming more urban friendly. (City Beautiful) The Target at 6:49 appears to be the one in downtown Seattle. This is an open thread.