Seattle Transit Blog

As Sound Transit wraps up construction of the Federal Way Link Extension, King County Metro has shared an initial bus restructure proposal. Wesley Lin previously covered the proposed changes in detail on the Blog. This post will look at the ridership patterns for the existing routes impacted by the proposed restructure. Metro's survey on this ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for South Link Connections"

King County Metro's RapidRide A Line travels inbound from the Federal Way Transit Center to Tukwila International Boulevard Station, primarily along State Route 99. Outbound trips travel in the reverse direction. In November 2024, the A Line was the third busiest bus route in King County with 9,407 average weekday boardings. As noted in a ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for RapidRide A Line"

The science of stop spacing. (RMTransit) Stop spacing and the power of density. (RMTransit) This is an open thread. This article will serve as an inauguration open thread for tomorrow, so any political-related comments go here. Monday and Tuesday will be two transit topics articles indirectly honoring Martin Luther King Jr, so comments in those ... Continue reading "Sunday Movie: Stop Spacing"

The Denny Way Paving project will repave 12 blocks of Denny Way as well as add curb bulbs, no-turn-on-red signs, 8 new curb ramps, and bus stop changes. The project predominantly focuses on pedestrian safety. Denny Way will be repaved from 5th Avenue (near Seattle Center) to Stewart Street (in SLU) for 11 blocks or ... Continue reading "Denny Way Repaving and Future Route 8"

Let's talk about density maps. The concept of a population density map seems easy: take the population and divide it by the area to retrieve the density. Unfortunately a major problem stands out: what exactly is the area to divide by and how to easily count the population? Traditional density maps suffer from unevenly-sized census ... Continue reading "Exploring Better Density Maps and Link Station Areas"

The Seattle Times ($) is reporting that recently-released 2023 Census data indicates the percentage of households in Seattle which do not own or lease a car reached 20% in 2023, the highest proportion since the Census started tracking rates of vehicle ownership: There were roughly 365,000 households in Seattle in 2023. Of those, around 74,000, ... Continue reading "Coming Down From Peak Car"

Transit & Streets: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread.

Pike/Pine renovation bicycle tour. (Best Side Cycling) The worst bike lane law in the world, in Ontario, Canada. (Not Just Bikes) This is an open thread.

Slain Metro operator Shawn Yim will be remembered by a bus and transit vehicle procession tomorrow, Friday January 10th. The procession begins at 10am, starting from Atlantic/Central Base, traveling up 4th Avenue to Seattle Center before turning south through the SR-99 tunnel and concluding at the Lumen Field Events Center, where a public memorial service ... Continue reading "Procession and memorial service for Shawn Yim set Friday"

Transit & Streets: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread. Interested in joining the all-volunteer authorship of the Seattle Transit Blog? Send us a note.

India's cities have a few metros, a small and shrinking number of buses - and lots of cars, two-wheelers, and rickshaws. The crisis in India's transit. (The Quint) The video uses the Indian number units lakh (=100,000) and crore (=100 lakh or 10 million). These can be rupees, people, or anything. A rupee is worth ... Continue reading "Sunday Movie: Transit in India"

Link 1 Line winter reductions start today through February 27 for a variety of maintenance tasks, as outlined in the December 5 Passenger Impact report and covered in the Urbanist, and the Seattle Times ($). Overview Evening 130th station Single tracking From 5:30 p.m. to the end of service, trains will run every 12 minutes. ... Continue reading "January-February Link Reductions"

This year saw a handful of new writers join STB's staff and a few excellent serial posts sparking good discussion. In the transit world, we saw the opening of the RapidRide G Line, the Link 2 Line Starter Line, the Lynnwood Link Extension, bus restructures in King and Snohomish Counties, and continued rebound in ridership ... Continue reading "Most read & commented STB posts of 2024"

Transit & Streets: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread.

Vancouver SkyTrain extensions, at-grade high-capacity transit corridors, and a gondola. (StainerTheFirst) Vancouver has been good at including stub ends for future extensions, thus minimizing disruptions to existing service when/if the extension is built. The London Overground, established in 2007, now has six lines, and more are proposed. (CityMoose) This is an open thread.

King County Metro's Route 40 travels inbound from Northgate Station to downtown Seattle via Crown Hill, Ballard, Fremont, and South Lake Union. Outbound trips travel in the reverse direction. In October 2024, Route 40 had 8,539 average weekday boardings. Average Ridership Per Trip The plots below show the average weekday ridership by stop in each ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for King County Metro Route 40"

Some transit promotional videos. King County Metro ad: Metro Go": Travel Community Transit with Rick Steves. This four-part series was published for Lynnwood Link's opening. More videos below the fold. Bus Doggy Dogg: Eclipse, the Dogg, had her first solo bus ride in 2015. In 2022 she passed away at age 10. NPR obituary. Washington ... Continue reading "Movie Special: Transit Ads"

Tuesday December 24: Regular service on Metro, Link 1 Line and 2 Line, ST Express, Community Transit, and Pierce Transit."Reduced weekday" service on Sounder and T Line. ..... Agency shuttles: Metro Flex regular service, CT Zip regular service, PT Runner regular service except JBLM Runner no service. Wednesday December 25: Sunday schedule on Metro, Link ... Continue reading "Holiday Hours"

Can expanding Link generate enough new housing? (City Beautiful) This is an open thread.

ST Express fares will decrease from $3.25 to $3.00 on March 1st. This matches Link's recent fare change and Metro's upcoming increase, so all three all three will have the same fare. Metro closed the bus stops at 12th & Jackson ($), citing safety concerns with the people hanging out at the intersection. (Seattle Times) ... Continue reading "Weekend Roundup: Closing Bus Stops"

Just before 3am this morning, a King County Metro operator was stabbed to death in the U-District. From the Seattle Police Department blog: Just before 3:00 a.m., patrol officers were dispatched to reports of a stabbing near the 4100 block of University Way Northeast. They located an adult male suffering from stab wounds to the ... Continue reading "Metro operator killed in the U-District"

King County Metro's RapidRide H Line travels inbound from Burien to downtown Seattle, via White Center and Delridge. Outbound trips travel in the reverse direction. The H Line launched in March 2023, replacing Route 120. In October 2024, the H Line had 8,636 average weekday boardings. Average Ridership Per Trip The plots below show the ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for RapidRide H Line"

King County Metro (KCM) prepares to update their bus routes for the upcoming Federal Way Link Extension (estimated opening 2026 Spring). View their website www.southlinkconnections.com and take the survey by February 2025. Sound Transit for the Federal Way Link Extension will add three new Link stations: Kent Des Moines, Star Lake and Federal Way Downtown. ... Continue reading "South Link Connections"

The longest subway platform in the US, spanning three stations and a closed station. (Trains are Awesome) Extend the Brown Line. (Joint Transit Association) This is an open thread.

Trevor Reed wrote an op-ed in the Urbanist about Sound Transit's shortcomings. To address them, he encourages readers to sign a petition by Transportation Reform asking the State to take action to audit Sound Transit and improve its ability to deliver transit services. Trevor provides some great examples where Sound Transit has fallen short: Trevor ... Continue reading "State Must Reform Sound Transit"

On Tuesday morning, SDOT Director Greg Spotts announced his intent to resign in February from the position he's held for just over two years: This morning I notified Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell of my intent to resign my position effective 2/12/25.On a personal level, moving to Seattle alone has been hard, particularly living so far ... Continue reading "SDOT Director Spotts Resigns"

Sound Transit: Local Transit & Streets: Land Use & Housing: Global Transit: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread. Interested in contributing to the blog? Contact us.

The Chinatown 5th Avenue Shallow Diagonal (labeled CID-2a) station has returned as a potential implementation. Most notably it appears to be the only CID station alternative remaining that is both constructible at a reasonable cost and has all three Link lines at one convenient place for transfers. The other 5th Avenue shallow alternatives had community ... Continue reading "Chinatown 5th Avenue Shallow Diagonal Station"

How The Netherlands achieves high road safety. (Build The Lanes) We also recently covered street capacity in The Netherlands. (Not Just Bikes) This is an open thread.

Bellevue City Council met late November and were shown a presentation for the locally preferred alternative by King County Metro for RapidRide K route. Previous alternatives for RapidRide K around Bellevue were discussed in July 2024, while the alignments in Kirkland were mostly already decided. Chosen Alignment Back in July 2024, King County Metro (KCM) ... Continue reading "RapidRide K Winter Updates"

Update Fri Dec 6, 10am: The UW station repair work is rescheduled to February 1-2, reports Mike Lindblom of the Seattle Times ($). The reason for the delay is the six new breakages since Tuesday - ST doesn't want to risk them reappearing while trains are reduced to 22 minute frequency. Ross Arnold, ST's chief ... Continue reading "Link Reduction Postponed"

King County Metro's Route 36 travels inbound from Othello Station to downtown Seattle, primarily through Beacon Hill and the International District. Outbound trips travel in the reverse direction. Between Massachusetts St and the Dr. Jose Rizal Bridge in North Beacon Hill, inbound trips serve stops along 12th Ave while outbound trips stop along 14th Ave. ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for King County Metro Route 36"

The November 14 system committee largest topic was about the CID station selection. However, there were plenty of other news regarding Redmond Link Extension, East Link Extension, Tacoma Link Extension, Stride BRT and at-grade crossing improvements The full meeting video is on YouTube note it is 2 hours long, but the main updates are in ... Continue reading "Sound Transit Updates November 14 and Dec 6"

Transit & Streets: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread.

A decade ago, Sound Transit hired experts to review transit modes to select the best mode for the Spine which could accommodate at-grade, elevated, and tunneled sections. It reconfirmed the decision to proceed with building a light rail network. At the time modes such as monorail and the Vancouver, BC SkyTrain were dropped as they ... Continue reading "Ballard Link Mode Selection"

What large metro rail projects need to succeed. (RMTransit) Automation and the future of subways. (RMTransit) Stockholm electric hyrofoil ferry. (Candela Boats, the manufacturer) This is an open thread.

To accommodate growing passenger and cargo levels, the Port of Seattle plans to build new terminal for SeaTac Airport with their Sustainable Airport Master Plan. In addition, Concourse C will be expanded with 4 additional levels. There's a slew of other projects but this article will focus on the transportation aspects for passengers and travelers. ... Continue reading "Busway for SeaTac Airport"

Agency holiday announcements: King County Metro, Sound Transit, Community Transit, Pierce Transit, Everett Transit, Kitsap Transit, Intercity Transit, Skagit Transit, Washington State Ferries (in Monday's entry), Seattle Monorail. Thursday: Most bus and train services operate on their Sunday schedule: Link light rail, the T Line, ST Express, Community Transit, and Pierce Transit. There's no service ... Continue reading "Thanksgiving: Holiday Hours & Movies"

Transit & Streets: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread.

Kemper Freeman's war on transit. (Yet Another Urbanist) Shinjuku Station - the world's busiest. (Not Just Bikes) This is an open thread.

Earlier this week a hurricane-like storm system hit the Pacific Northwest, bringing severe winds and precipitation across the region. The first and strongest round of the windstorm hit on Tuesday evening and a second, weaker bout is expected tonight. With fallen trees comes downed wires and blocked roads, and the storm this week has left ... Continue reading "Bomb Cyclone"

King County Metro's RapidRide E Line travels inbound along Aurora Avenue from the Aurora Village Transit Center through Shoreline and north Seattle to South Lake Union, Belltown, downtown Seattle, and Pioneer Square. Outbound trips travel in the reverse direction, except for a small deviation to Linden Ave N between N 65th St and N 76th ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for RapidRide E Line"

Transit & Streets: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread.

King County Metro's Route 8 travels inbound from Uptown to Mount Baker, primarily east and south through South Lake Union, Capitol Hill, Madison Valley, and the Central District. Outbound trips travel north and west from Mount Baker to Uptown. In August 2024, Route 8 had 6,177 average weekday boardings. Unlike most of the high ridership ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for King County Metro Route 8"

During their meeting on October 24th, the Sound Transit Board selected the preferred alignment for the West Seattle Link Extension (WSLE). They also authorized staff to have their partners develop the final design for the stations and stub line between SODO and West Seattle. It will also include the connection to the existing SODO operations ... Continue reading "West Seattle Link Route Selection"

Winnepeg transit potential. (RMTransit) Updating rules could create better apartments. Praise for Seattle at 3:06 and 5:10. (About Here) This is an open thread.

Eight years after Sound Transit 3 was approved by voters in 2016, Sound Transit is still trying to figure out where exactly to put a new station near the Chinatown-International District as part of the Ballard Link Extension (BLE). After the agency published the Draft West Seattle and Ballard Link Extensions Draft Environmental Impact Statement ... Continue reading "Ballard Link Extension: 4th Ave Shallow is Dead, Long Live 5th Ave Diagonal"

Stop spacing is a trade-off. If the stops are too close together it takes too long for the bus to get anywhere. Too far apart and riders can't walk or roll to a bus stop. Although the basics are fairly simple, the geometry surrounding stop placement can be a bit complicated. Jarrett Walker has a ... Continue reading "RapidRide J Stop Spacing"