Seattle Transit Blog

Reminder: From 10pm on Friday, Jan. 23, through Saturday, Jan. 24, the DSTT will be closed between Capitol Hill and SODO stations for signal upgrades. Shuttle buses will run every 10-15 minutes. Normal service will resume on Sunday, Jan 25, to serve the NFC Championship game. The Los Angeles Rams will play the Seahawks at ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: like it's 1999"

On New Year's Eve, SDOT posted a short video highlighting several projects it completed in 2025, distilling a longer summary shared in a blog post earlier in December. The blog post gives roughly equal space to each of its major initiatives, highlighting SDOT's Hot Bike Summer" of street improvements, various bridge maintenance projects, ongoing transit ... Continue reading "SDOT's Year in Review reveals room for improvement"

As ST3 construction cost has skyrocketed, Sound Transit is considering truncating the Ballard line at Smith Cove for now. Ballard riders would need to continue on the bus as very few people live around that station. When Paris faced similar topography challenges to serve the end of line 8 by bus, they built an aerial ... Continue reading "Learn from Paris: Gondola line over Ship Canal"

Evan Edinger tries the buses in suburban southern New Jersey. That video got a lot of comments saying why public transit can't work in the US. So Evan made another video refuting these claims. It's a comedy. The second video also refers to his walking to school video, which we covered in September This is ... Continue reading "Sunday Movie: South Jersey & Anti-Transit Comedy"

Yesterday, Sound Transit's Rider Experience and Operations Committee shared an update on the agency's 2026 Service Plan. Along with aggregated community feedback on the previously shared ST Express service changes, the Sound Transit announced a pilot night-owl route between Sea-Tac Airport and downtown Seattle. Last year, Sound Transit shared a proposal for three night-owl routes ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: Sound Transit to Pilot Night Owl Bus to Sea-Tac Airport"

This morning, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announced two executive orders delivering on campaign promises: one will accelerate production of emergency shelter and affordable housing, and the other will quickly implement transit improvements starting on Denny Way. Executive Order 2026-01 directs SDOT to design and install at least one dedicated bus lane on Denny Way, with ... Continue reading "Mayor Wilson's First Orders: Denny Way Bus Lanes and Housing"

Originally Ballard was going to be served by a bridge over the Ship Canal along 14th or 15th Ave NW with a station along on that street. Either way such station would be far from the old town or the current center of Ballard along Market Street. While 3 stations were proposed for West Seattle, ... Continue reading "Ballard Center Station"

Update: The entire T Line will be replaced by buses from Tuesday January 20 at 6:12pm through Friday January 23 evening to replace broken rails. Saturday January 24 may also be affected if necessary. The shuttle buses will have the same schedule as Link and will be free. Update 2: Metro is looking for part-time ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: induced demand"

On Monday, Sound Transit announced seats on all Link trains will be upgraded to use vinyl inserts instead of the current cloth covers. This change comes following feedback the agency received during a pilot of these seats in 2024. The vinyl inserts are similar to the vinyl seats that King County Metro first started using ... Continue reading "Vinyl Seats are Coming to All Link Trains"

When Toronto faced escalating cost on their relief line, instead of extending their existing subway network, they decided to build a separate Ontario line and use lighter and shorter automated trains rather than their prior subway trains. Lighter trains mean faster acceleration, allowing steeper climbs including from within a tunnel to shallow stations and even ... Continue reading "Learn from Toronto: Automate Ballard Line"

Adam (aka AdamDoesNotExist) is at it again, traveling from Washington DC to Boston via only local buses, regional trains, and ferries. Previously we covered his San Francisco to Seattle trip. DC to Boston takes 3 days via local transit, vs 6 hours via Amtrak Acela. Part 1: Washington DC to New York City: Part 2: ... Continue reading "DC to Boston by Local Transit"

On Friday, King County Councilmember and Sound Transit Boardmember Claudia Balducci shared a series of updates regarding the cross-lake connection of the Link 2 Line via BlueSky. In a series of posts, Claudia Balducci shared she previewed the unopened section of the 2 Line with project partners from WSDOT, King County Metro, Sound Transit, and ... Continue reading "2 Line Update: simulated service beginning February"

This week Sound Transit announced another batch of work for which it will be strategically closing" sections of the 1 Linefor upgrades and complex maintenance. In summary: Friday, January 9 to Sunday, January 11 (Now): Buses will replace trains between Capitol Hill and SODO each night from 10pm Friday to noon Saturday and 10pm Saturday ... Continue reading "1 Line Update: more strategic closures"

The Washington State Department of Transportation's (WSDOT) project to conduct major preservation and repairs on the I-5 Ship Canal Bridge continues into 2026. Over the next year, expect months-long northbound lane reductions and a few weekends with a complete shutdown of the northbound I-5 lanes in Seattle. The Seattle Transit Blog encourages you to take ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: Revive I-5 in 2026"

King County Metro Route 50 travels inbound from Othello station to the Alki beach, via Columbia City, SODO, and Alaska Junction. Outbound trips travel in the reverse direction. In October 2025, Route 50 had 2,803 average weekday boardings. Average Ridership Per Trip The plots below show the average weekday ridership by stop in each direction, ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for King County Metro Route 50"

On January 2, Katie Wilson was sworn in as Mayor of Seattle by the Transit Fairy. Coverage of the ceremony: The Urbanist called her Seattle's Unabashed Urbanist Mayor. The Stranger thought she came in strong [good]. The Seattle Times ($) quotes Wilson's slogan This is your city". PubliCola celebrates Wilson's thesis we need bread, but ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: Urbanist Mayor"

Top 10 US cities that have become more city-like since 2010. This isn't the most urban cities, but the ones that have improved the most. (CityNerd) This is an open thread.

ORCA Wrapped is back this year with both system-wide and individualized reports. Throughout 2025, ORCA recorded 76,671,844 boardings across 1,276,059 distinct cards. The busiest stations were: A notable exception from this list is SeaTac/Airport station. SeaTac/Airport is the second busiest Link station, but likely has fewer ORCA card taps because many visitors opt to buy ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: ORCA Wrapped 2025"

What will happen in 2026 in Pugetopolis transit? Here's a few things off the top of my head: More events are below in the comments. Also, what should the agencies/governments do in 2026? Especially things that are politically and logistically feasible.

The past year was another tumultuous and exciting one for transit and land use in the central Puget Sound. Dow Constantine became CEO of Sound Transit and the agency began seriously reckoning with its massive long-range financial gap. The eagerly-awaited extension of the 2 Line to Redmond opened on-time, but opening of the 2 Line's ... Continue reading "Annual Roundup: 2025"

Transit agencies around the region will be free to ride all day (and most of the night) on New Year's Eve. Some agencies are extending late-night service to accommodate riders celebrating the end of 2025 and the start of 2026. These agencies will operate fare-free tomorrow until end of service: The Seattle Monorail will still ... Continue reading "Free and Extended Transit for New Year's Eve 2025"

Alternatives for a Geary Street subway in San Francisco with BART, MUNI Metro, or automated Skytrain technology. (Tomo Tawa Linja) Wordless 1900-era dream drama. MrWhippler combines Klovn's ambient song McKlaren" with a silent movie In the Land of Nod". The dream starts at 1:15, a main street inhabited with stop-motion toy dolls and animals on ... Continue reading "Sunday Movies: Geary Subway & Misbehaving Toys"

As 2025 comes to a close, let's take a look at the current state of transit lanes in Seattle. Since the SODO Busway opened in 1991, the City has built over 55 miles of transit lanes for buses and streetcars. To keep track of where transit lanes are and when/how they can be used, the ... Continue reading "Seattle's Transit Lanes in 2025"

Nate O'Brien moves to a tiny house off the grid on his own rural timber land. A subway entrance in the woods. (Ambient soundscape by Miracle Forest) There's also the mysterious subway station and abandoned subway station. (Miracle Forest) The mysterious subway station is in the Budapest Metro. Can you spot two things unusual about ... Continue reading "Movie Break: Woods"

Service Announcements: News: Commentary: This is an Open Thread.

More fare payment options are coming to ORCA in 2026, both motivated by the FIFA World Cup coming to Seattle next summer. Public pilot programs testing Open Payments and a 3-day PugetPass are planned for 2026, allowing more flexibility in how transit riders pay their fares. The last major updates to ORCA came in 2024 ... Continue reading "New ORCA features next year: Open Payments and 3-Day PugetPass"

The Fremont Bridge is a double-leaf bascule bridge that connects Fremont and Queen Anne. Opened in 1917, the bridge served as the sole link across the Fremont Cut for 15 years. When the George Washington Memorial Bridge (aka: Aurora Bridge) opened in 1932, travelers between Fremont and Queen Anne had a more reliable connection. The ... Continue reading "The Fremont Bridge Should be Car-free"

How many trains per hour can fit into one downtown tunnel, both currently and with tunnel upgrades? Sound Transit's current ceiling is 20 trains per hour, or one every 3 minutes. With capital upgrades this could be increased to 30-45 trains per hour, or one every 2 to 1.5 minutes, as many other metro tunnels ... Continue reading "Trains Per Hour in the Downtown Tunnel"

This is an open thread for miscellaneous transit and land-use topics. There will be no Sunday Movie this week. Instead Sunday will have another Link article, and next week will have five non-Link articles.

Transit ridership in the Seattle area typically reaches its seasonal low in early months of the year as tourists avoid the Big Dark and locals hunker down after the holidays. Sound Transit often uses this time to complete disruptive maintenance and upgrade projects. At a Sound Transit Board committee meeting earlier this month, agency staff ... Continue reading "Light rail work Jan-Feb 2026"

The Sound Transit board met today to discuss alternatives to building the second downtown Link tunnel (DSTT2), as part of its monthly board meeting. Video of the meeting will be available in 24-48 hours on ST's YouTube channel. (Here's the meeting agenda and webpage.) Sound Transit did an ad hoc study of two alternatives to ... Continue reading "ST Downtown Tunnel Board Meeting"

Yesterday, Mayor-elect Katie Wilson announced Angela Brady will be the next Interim Director of the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT). Since 2022, Brady has served as Director of Seattle's Office of the Waterfront, Civic Projects & Sound Transit. In the statement announcing the change, Wilson touted Brady's strong operational expertise" and said Brady is committed ... Continue reading "Angela Brady is Wilson's Pick for Interim SDOT Director"

Reminder: Link service in Downtown will close early on Friday. Discussion about the Ballard Link Extension continues on yesterday's article. Update: All Metro buses will stop for a moment Thursday at 2:54am and 2:54pm in memorial for slain bus driver Shawn Yim. Details in a comment below. This is an open thread.

This Thursday the full Sound Transit Board is likely to permanently determine whether the agency's recent analysis of downtown tunnel alternatives warrants further consideration. It's no exaggeration to say the future of the Link light rail system is at stake. The latest estimates show the agency faces a $34.5 billion shortfall over the next 20 ... Continue reading "Build the Best Parts First"

Earlier this year, Sound Transit revealed updated cost estimates for its major ST3 projectstotalling $14 to $20 billion (in 2025 dollars) morethan its current long-range financial plan can afford. Over half of that excess cost is due to a massive jump in costs to build the planned Ballard Link Extension, which was expected to cost ... Continue reading "No New Tunnel Downtown? Sound Transit Explores Ballard Link Alternatives"

Following the recent opening of the Federal Way Link Extension, confusion quickly set in over which 1 Line trains travel to Seattle. Once the 2 Line is connected across Lake Washington, all three Link termini will imply they are the center of the region: Lynnwood City Center, Downtown Redmond, and Federal Way Downtown. Of course, ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: Incorrect Signs"

In its last meeting in 2025, the Sound Transit Board's Executive Committee will officially direct agency staff to conduct a fare gate retrofit implementation study" and if study findings support further action, develop a fare gate retrofit pilot proposal". In September, The Urbanist reported fare gates were one of many options under consideration as part ... Continue reading "Sound Transit considers fare gate pilot"

Reminder: Link service through Downtown will be disrupted a few more times before the end of the year, with extended overnight closures planned for the nights of Dec. 12-13, 20-21, and 27-28. Local News & Commentary: Other Items: This is an Open Thread.

The recent election of the former head the Seattle Transit Riders Union Katie Wilson to be Seattle's mayor occurred less than a month after Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck announced her Better Bus Lanes' Campaign. In the spirit of that campaign I offer suggestions for improvements that can be accomplished in the near future: Better Bus ... Continue reading "Better Buses in Seattle"

We'll all be at the Federal Way Link opening today. Try out the new stations. Tell us your experiences below. There will be no Sunday Movie this week. We're planning a retrospective article after the event, but its timing will depend on what happens today and whether we can assemble the content by tonight for ... Continue reading "Weekend Open Thread: Federal Way's Big Day"

On December 6, Sound Transit will open the Federal Way Link Extension (FWLE). This extension will add three new stations along eight miles of new track south of Angle Lake station. The stations are Kent Des Moines, Star Lake, and Federal Way Downtown. Each station will feature connections to local bus service, pickup and drop-off ... Continue reading "Federal Way Link Extension: New Stations"

On Tuesday, Sound Transit invited members of the media to preview the Federal Way Link Extension (FWLE) that opens on Saturday. This extension will add three new stations to the 1 Line south of Angle Lake: Kent Des Moines, Star Lake, and Federal Way Downtown. Terri Mestas, deputy CEO for megaproject delivery at Sound Transit, ... Continue reading "Federal Way Link Extension: Sneak Peek"

Update at 7:15am: Othello station is open and trains are back to normal service. Othello station on the 1 Line closed around 2:30pm Tuesday and will remain closed through Wednesday's morning commute at least, due to an ongoing police investigation. Shuttle buses are running between Rainier Beach and Columbia City stations. Link is running north ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: Othello Station Closed"

In just a few days, the first Link train with passengers will travel to Kent and Federal Way. Since the first official discussions of building light rail to Federal Way over 15 years ago, the Seattle Transit Blog has followed its progress. Take a trip down memory lane as we look back at the discussions, ... Continue reading "Federal Way Link Extension: How We Got Here"

Sound Transit's Federal Way Link Extension (FWLE) will open to the public this Saturday, December 6. Festivities begin at 9:30am with speeches from community leaders at Federal Way Downtown station. Following the ribbon cutting at 11am, the first passengers will be welcomed onboard. Between 11am and 3pm, each of the three new stations will host ... Continue reading "Federal Way Link Extension: Opening Celebration Details"

Arlington, Texas (pop 400K) is the largest US city with no fixed bus routes, just subsidized Via app-taxis. (Classy Whale) See Milan's transit modes while learning Italian. (Easy Italian) This is an open thread.

On a rainy Sunday in October, three Metro buses meandered through the beautiful Cascade foothills on their way to Black Diamond. Leading the pack was Metro bus 5034, a 1990 Breda DuoBus 350. Following the Breda was bus 3152, a 1987 MAN Americana SL40102L. Finally, a 2004 New Flyer DE60LF acted as the caboose for ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: MEHVA Vintage Bus Tours"

Local Transit News: Further afield: This is an Open Thread.

Thursday is Thanksgiving, so Puget Sound transit agencies are running reduced schedules. In addition, some agencies (indicated below) are running reduced service on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Click on an agency's name to view the official announcement. Sound Transit Thanksgiving Day Day After Thanksgiving King County Metro Thanksgiving Day Day After Thanksgiving Washington State ... Continue reading "Thanksgiving Holiday Service 2025"