Seattle Transit Blog

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.

10 daysuntil theDowntown Redmond Link Extension opens on May 10. Sound Transit has more opening day details. Seattle ST3 Project Updates: Other Transportation: Taxes and Tolls: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread. Do you want to help fill our front page? Contact us! We are 100% volunteer - your ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: Nervous"

Shenzhen Metro, staggering powerhouse. (RMTransit) Shanghai Metro, the world's largest. (RMTransit) This is an open thread.

17 daysuntil theDowntown Redmond Link Extension opens on May 10. Opening day details. Local Transit & Streets: Other Transportation: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread. Do you want to help fill our front page? Contact us! We are 100% volunteer - your voice could help drive the conversation on ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: Crosswalk Hack"

A walk around Zurich interviewing transportation engineering professor Norman Garrick. (Active Towns) Two rides on very different funiculars at 2:05 and 52:23. The first part of the video is the old town and, at the other end of the first funicular, a university. The middle part after that is a walk through a cemetery, which ... Continue reading "Sunday Movie: Zurich Walk and Funiculars"

24 daysuntil theDowntown Redmond Link Extension opens on May 10. Sound Transit recently announced opening day details. Local Transit News: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread.

Where gondolas make sense and where they don't, La Paz and London edition. (Wendover Productions) The Seattle Gondola Blog continues.... This is an open thread.

As expected, Line 1 Line service through Downtown Seattle will be severely disrupted starting Monday as crews work to replace a cracked rail between International District/Chinatown Station and Pioneer Square Station. This work will require closure of the southbound tunnel between Westlake and Stadium Stations for 10 days. Previously, Sound Transit has handled single-tunnel closures ... Continue reading "Link 1 Line in Downtown Seattle reduced to shuttle train" April 14-23"

King County Metro announced today that the bus stops on the Montlake lid over SR 520, which are the last element of the Montlake interchange and lid to be completed, will open on Saturday, April 12th. Prior to 2019, when it was permanently closed for construction of the lid, there had always been a freeway ... Continue reading "Montlake Lid Bus Stops Opening April 12th"

In preparation for the upcoming openings of Sound Transit's Downtown Redmond Link Extension and full East Link Extension, King County Metro has outlined the planned changes to its Eastside network. Full details of the changes were previously covered on the Blog. Most of the changes in this restructure will take effect when the full 2 ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for East Link Connections"

31 daysuntil theDowntown Redmond Link Extension opens on May 10. Sound Transit recently announced opening day details. WSDOT opened the state's first e-bike rebate lottery today (Seattle Bike Blog). The state will award about 10,000 rebates at random. Households earning less than 80% of their county's median income can get $1,200 off a qualifying e-bike; ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: Save Curby"

Driving from Mercer Island to downtown Seattle in 1973. (Mark Tyrrell) Seattle Now & Then article on the video. There's one mistake in both the video and the article. US Highway 10 had been renamed to I-90 earlier, even though the road wasn't renovated until the late 80s. I moved to Seattle a year before ... Continue reading "Sunday Movie: I-90 in the 1970s"

38 daysuntil theDowntown Redmond Link Extension opens on May 10. Sound Transit recently announced opening day details. As Seattle pulls out of the Big Dark, SDOT has travel guides for getting to events at the Climate Pledge Arena and seeing the cherry blossoms at UW. The Urbanist mapped out Seattle's more than 17,000 cherry trees ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: Fix the L8"

The Seattle Times ($), Trains Magazine, and The Urbanist are reporting that Amtrak is rearranging cars from its national fleet to restore service to Amtrak Cascades over the course of this week. This is in response to Amtrak's sudden recall of Horizon rail cars nationwide last week which severely impacted Cascades service. Amtrak is ferrying ... Continue reading "Amtrak Cascades service recovering this week"

The Transit Riders Union alerted us to important legislation in Olympia that could use your help. The Urbanist covered this bill earlier in the legislative process, which seeks to improve service on Amtrak Cascades. To achieve these goals, WSDOT would likely implement upgrades described in the most recent service development plan. The following is largely ... Continue reading "Action Alert: Sign in Pro" for Amtrak Cascades bill by Tuesday 3pm"

Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) can help ease the housing shortage and give people a wider choice of housing types and locations. (City Beautiful) Service changes at several transit agencies started yesterday. This is an open thread.

On March 13, Sound Transit staff recommended the East Marginal Way location for the Boeing Access Road infill station rather than the originally planned location between I-5 and Sounder tracks next to the South Boeing Access Road overpass. Sound Transit held an open house in late February and reviewed both possible locations with the community. ... Continue reading "Future Boeing Access Road Station moves to East Marginal Way"

Angle Lake station on the Link 1 Line is closed due to a power outage. Trains are still running between SeaTac and Lynnwood. Peak hour trains are running every 10 minutes this morning instead of 8 minutes. This may affect future peak periods. Sound Transit has been sending several alerts since Wednesday evening. One of ... Continue reading "Angle Lake Station Closed"

This morning, Trains magazine reported Amtrak has removed the Horizon car fleet from all service indefinitely due to the discovery of severe corrosion on several cars. From Trains: In a statement issued at 9 a.m. today (March 26, 2025), the [Amtrak] said, We discovered corrosion in several Horizon railcars and, while working with the manufacturer, ... Continue reading "Amtrak Cascades Service Severely Reduced"

45 daysuntil theDowntown Redmond Link Extension opens on May 10. Spring Service Change: Several transit agencies are updating service patterns this weekend. Metro is also restarting fare enforcement on March 31. Local Transit & Streets: Other Transportation: Commentary & Miscellaneous: Events:Sound Transit is hosting anotherSouth Downtown HubOpen House next Wednesday, April 2 from 5-7pmatUnion Station. ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: Wig Wag"

Yesterday, Sound Transit announced the Preferred Candidate for its next Chief Executive Officer, previously only identified as Candidate C, is none other than Dow Constantine. The Sound Transit Board of Directors will vote this Thursday, March 27, to confirm the appointment. Constantine, currently the elected Executive of King County, is expected to take over the ... Continue reading "Dow Constantine is Sound Transit's Preferred Candidate" for CEO"

King County Metro Route 62 travels inbound from Sand Point to downtown Seattle, via Roosevelt, Green Lake, Wallingford, Fremont, and South Lake Union. Outbound trips travel in the reverse direction. In February 2025, Route 62 had 7,015 average weekday boardings. As shown by the solid red line on the map, the northern terminus for Route ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for King County Metro Route 62"

Munich is building a second downtown tunnel for its S-Bahn (regional rail) network, to open in 2035. Here's a map and summary. Deutche Bahn chose to build it when ridership in the first tunnel reached 800,000 and trains were running every 2 minutes. The second tunnel has 5 stations instead of 10, at the same ... Continue reading "Sunday Movie: Munich's DSTT2"

As Sound Transit continues to grow the Link light rail system and works to establish a state of better repair" for its existing infrastructure, more impacts to its critical trunks of transit service are expected. Ongoing and upcoming work expected to impact service includes replacement of rail clips at Wilburton Station, construction at the upcoming ... Continue reading "Link Disruptions: Spring 2025"

King County Metro's RapidRide B Line travels inbound from Redmond to Bellevue via Overlake and Crossroads. Outbound trips travel in the reverse direction. In January 2025, the B Line had 4,531 average weekday boardings. The data shown in the plots below were collected between March and September 2024. Sound Transit's Link 2 Line started operating ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for RapidRide B Line"

On March 4, 2025, the King County Council voted to pass King County Metro's East Link Connections bus restructure. This restructure is based around the upcoming openings of Sound Transit's Downtown Redmond Link Extension and East Link Extension. Overall, Metro is introducing 8 new routes, revising 16 routes, and deleting 20 routes. Many of the ... Continue reading "East Link Connections"

Countdown: 52 daysuntil theDowntown Redmond Link Extension opens (May 10). Local Transit & Streets: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: Events:Sound Transit is hosting anotherSouth Downtown HubOpen House onApril 2 from 5-7pmatUnion Station. Light Rail Disruptions:Sound Transit wants your input on recent disruptions to Link 1 Line service. Looking ahead, 1 Line trains will ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: Ups and Downs"

Spring is in the air, and with it, changes in transit service across the Puget Sound region. King County Metro (March 29) The most substantive changes in Metro's service change are reshuffling of Seattle Transit Measure funded service hours. There are also bus routes in Federal Way and Redmond moving into nearby light rail stations, ... Continue reading "Spring 2025 Service Changes"

With Link running mostly north to south, what's the best way to serve neighborhoods to the west and east of the line? The highways (I-5, SR-99...) run north/south, too, and Seattle's hills get in the way. Gondola technology might be a good way to address this issue. Gondolas' ultra-high frequency speeds up transfers, and grade ... Continue reading "SLU to Capitol Hill Gondola"

The biggest electric ferry in the world, built in Australia for use in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (ABC Australia) This is an open thread.

Countdown: 59 daysuntil theDowntown Redmond Link Extension opens. Open House: Sound Transit is hosting another South Downtown Hub Open House on April 2 from 5-7pm at Union Station. Light Rail Disruptions: Link 1 Line service in Downtown Seattle will be significantly disrupted from April 14 to April 23 according to a recent Passenger Impact Program ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: 151 Million Trips"

During a special meeting of the Sound Transit Board of Directors' Executive Committee this evening, the committee recommended Candidate C" for the role of Chief Executive Officer of Sound Transit. The leadership position has been vacant since Julie Timm departed last January, with the role filled by interim CEO Goran Sparrman. Sparrman's tenure as interim ... Continue reading "Sound Transit CEO selection proceeds in secret"

Currently most bus lines on the eastside are radiating from the Bellevue Transit Center. With the growth of Bellevue College and with the city's efforts to make the campus more transit friendly, Metro is planning to add more lines which serve the college. Why not make Bellevue College a secondary southeast hub and connect it ... Continue reading "Bellevue College Transit Hub with Gondola"

Why it takes so long to build transit, studies edition. (RMTransit) This is an open thread.

Two reports on the causes of Link's many unplanned outages ($) were released on Thursday, as Mike Lindblom at the Seattle Times writes. One report is by engineering consultant HNTB; the other is a Sound Transit internal review. The reports identify 432 hours (10 workweeks) of unplanned 1 Line disruptions, delays, and shutdowns between January ... Continue reading "The Reasons Behind Link Outages"