Seattle Transit Blog

On Friday, Sound Transit and King County Metro carried over 500,000 passengers on trains, buses, and boats throughout Puget Sound. Both Link and the King County Water Taxi set a new one-day ridership records of 280,000 and 9,483 boardings, respectively. Friday was a busy day in Seattle. Communities around the City hosted Juneteenth celebrations. The ... Continue reading "Seattle Scores Record Transit Ridership"

Leaders from King County and Seattle met at Golden Gardens Park Monday morning to inaugurate a new shuttle service direct to Golden Gardens Park. Golden Gardens Direct" will provide a direct connection between Market Street in central Ballard to the park on Seaview Ave NW. Buses will run every 30 minutes every day from 11 ... Continue reading "Golden Gardens Direct shuttle starts Saturday"

What are Barcelona superblocks (superilles) really like? What do they look like, how many people use them, and what do they do in them? Here's an overview: By CityFixer. Seattle is briefly mentioned at 9:30-9:41. Some shorts on the superblocks: (1) Streetfilms overview, (2) a zen garden like effect with flat rock seats, (3) the ... Continue reading "Sunday Movie: Barcelona Superblocks"

Borrowing a phrase from Kirk Hovenkotter (Executive Director of Transportation Choices Coalition), today's Roundtable is about tourist use of Seattle's mass transit system. On Monday, Seattle held its first FIFA Men's World Cup match at Seattle Stadium" (Lumen Field). Sound Transit, King County Metro, Community Transit, and Pierce Transit each boosted transit service to get ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: the world is riding Seattle transit"

Earlier this week, Sound Transit shared the per-station breakdown of Link's record-breaking ridership in April 2026. The two new stations, Judkins Park and Mercer Island had 2,130 and 1,723 average weekday boardings, respectively. Ridership at these stations will increase over the next year as travel patterns change. Additionally, Metro and Sound Transit will restructure their ... Continue reading "Early Look at Crosslake Connection's Record-Breaking Ridership"

Community Transit has transformed its network over the past few years. Since its founding in 1976, Community Transit (CT) has operated a mix of local routes in Snohomish County and commuter routes to Seattle and other significant employment centers. Following Sound Transit's Link extension to Lynnwood in August 2024, CT deleted all but one of ... Continue reading "Community Transit Express Route Ridership Data"

Reminders: Seattle is hosting 5 more FIFA World Cup games over coming weeks. Keep an eye on your transit agency's service alerts and be aware there may be crowds at unusual times. Bikes and scooters are banned from Link trains on game days. This Friday, June 19, is Juneteenth, and Seattle hosting a match between ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: Summer of Soccer'"

Reece Martin (RMTransit) resurfaces with a discussion with Dr Jonathan English on how process issues affect the quality of transit projects. They call it engineering issues" vs phone call issues". Engineering issues are straightforward technical problems, like building Link on a floating bridge or a tunnel in dubious soil. Phone call issues are those where ... Continue reading "Bonus Movie: Process"

Three videos by J-Man Explores. Riding all the Community Transit Swift lines in one day, with the history of each transit corridor. Swift is the limited-stop BRT in Snohomish County, 13-30 miles north of Seattle, serving Lynnwood and Everett and surrounding cities. Transfers from Link light rail are at Shoreline North/185th station and Lynnwood City ... Continue reading "Sunday Movies: All Swift Lines & Rural Puget Sound"

On Friday afternoon, Community Transit Route 424 made its final trip from Seattle to the City of Snohomish. This marks the end of Community Transit's Commuter bus service to Seattle. When Community Transit was created in 1976, the agency operated just seven local bus routes. Within the first year, the system grew to 15 local ... Continue reading "Community Transit ran its last bus to Seattle"

Visiting Bainbridge Island will be a bit easier on Saturdays this summer thanks to a new free shuttle operated by Kitsap Transit. The route will operate on Saturdays between June 13 and September 12 (except July 4) from 11am to 7pm. Route 385 will be timed with the Bainbridge-Seattle ferry and run in a small ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: Free Downtown Bainbridge Shuttle"

The 2026 Men's World Cup kicks off today with a match between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City. Seattle is hosting six games over the next five weeks. To ensure everyone can easily get where they need to go, transit agencies across Puget Sound are running extra services on match days. Seattle Each match ... Continue reading "Transit to World Cup Events"

Reminder: The FIFA World Cup starts tomorrow and the first match in Seattle is Monday, June 15, at noon. Plan for busy buses, trains, roadways, and lots of tourists. SDOT has travel tips. Metro has an SEA26 transit guide. Community Transit offers ways to Ride to Summer Fun. Pierce Transit is running a Fan Zone ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: Why, Robot"

On June 3, 2026, the Move All Seattle Sustainably (MASS) Coalition delivered a letter to the Seattle City Council supporting Mayor Wilson's proposal for the 2026 Seattle Transit Measure. Seattle Transit Blog, a proud member of the MASS Coalition, is reprinting the letter to broaden the Coalition's message for better transit service. The original letter ... Continue reading "MASS Coalition's priorities for the 2026 STM"

Last week, Mayor Wilson has unveiled her proposal for the next Seattle Transit Measure (STM) that will replace the current measure when it expires in 2027. The STM is an additional tax in Seattle that is used to fund more bus service and various transit programs. Wilson is proposing a 0.3% sales tax for the ... Continue reading "Seattle Transit Measure Renewal 2026"

Riding the oldest subway cars in the world. They're 1950s cars in the Buenos Aires Metro on Line B. (Trains are Awesome) Honorable mention to the Muni Metro F Line with a variety of vintage streetcars from the 1950s and earlier. I rode a few early 20th century international ones and found them bumpy, but ... Continue reading "Sunday Movie: Oldest Trains"

Sound Transit's Link light rail system continues to break its own ridership records. After the highly-anticipated Crosslake Connection opening at the end of March, system-wide ridership jumped 46% to 4,675,216 passengers in April 2026. This equates to an average 155,840 boardings across the 1 Line, 2 Line, and T Line every day. Since the pandemic, ... Continue reading "Link Ridership Soars 46% After Crosslake Connection Opening"

On Tuesday evening, a driver managed to drive their car on the light rail tracks from MLK Way & Walden St to Mount Baker station. The 70-year-old driver was not injured but was taken to the hospital as a precaution. 1 Line trains were replaced with shuttle buses between SODO and Othello station while Sound ... Continue reading "Driver Blocks Trains On Elevated Tracks at Mount Baker Station"

Local News: Further Afield: This is an Open Thread. Uncivil comments will be moderated.

On Monday, the newest Sounder cars made their debut on an S Line trip from Seattle to Lakewood. These new trains, three passenger cab cars and eight coach cars, were built by Alstom and delivered to Sound Transit in 2022. The new trains feature a new bike rack design, more power outlets and USB ports, ... Continue reading "Sound Transit Rolls Out New Sounder Trains"

How big an apartment can you rent in a city's most walkable neighborhood without a car, for the same cost as a 1000 square-foot rental in its most typical suburb with a car? Ray Delahanty answers that for the 26 largest metro areas in the US. Seattle is at 6:23. (CityNerd) Q&A about the tradeoffs ... Continue reading "Sunday Movies: With and Without a Car"

When Sound Transit opened the Crosslake Connection in March 2026, over 200,000 people went for a ride on the first day. Since then, the 2 Line has carried thousands of passengers between Seattle and the Eastside everyday. Many of these passengers are new transit riders who used to drive across Lake Washington, while others switched ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: Crosslake Connection's Impact on ST Express Ridership"

Update: The resolution passed with some of the amendments. Analysis at end of article. The Sound Transit board meets today at 1:30-5:00 to revise the ST3 system plan to reduce costs. The meeting page has links to the agenda, resolution, amendments, reports, and information on how to view the meeting and give public testimony in ... Continue reading "ST Board Meets to Postpone ST3 Projects"

On Wednesday, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson unveiled an amendment to the Sound Transit 3 realignment plan that would keep the Graham St infill station on track to open in 2031. The ST3 realignment plan was proposed by Board Chair Dave Somers in early May as a means of aligning the agency's future Link extensions with ... Continue reading "Wilson, Zahilay, and Mosqueda Propose Plan to Save Graham St Station"

Service Alerts: Local Headlines: Further Afield: Events: This is an Open Thread.

In light of the recent news that Graham Street Station is set to be deferred yet again, I thought it would be worth considering if there may be a better way forward. Despite the early promises of the Enterprise Initiative, we are heading towards a future where a key Link Station is deferred indefinitely yet ... Continue reading "Graham Street Station and the Failure of the Enterprise Initiative"

Sound Transit boardmember Dan Strauss is proposing three amendments to the ST3 system plan update on Thursday. The full list of amendments is expected Tuesday, and it sounds like there will be a lot of them. Strauss is a Seattle City Councilmember for northwest Seattle. His amendments are: To me, #1 is consistent with our ... Continue reading "Strauss ST3 Amendments"

Why it's illegal to walk to the World Cup Final in New Jersey. Hint: It's not just highways and chain-link fences. (Evan Edinger) What if we removed the Lexington Avenue subway line in Manhattan? How many car lanes would we need to allow all existing passengers to drive? (CityNerd) In other news, on Friday afternoon ... Continue reading "Movies: Walking to the World Cup & Removing a Subway"

Seattle Parks & Recreation's annual Bicycle Weekends program returns this summer starting tomorrow, May 23. This summer, Lake Washington Blvd (LWB) will be closed to non-local car traffic every weekend until Labor Day between Seward Park and Mount Baker Beach. This includes holidays (May 25, July 3, and September 7), but excludes August 1-2 due ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: Lake Washington Boulevard Car-free Weekends 2026"

During the pandemic, fares were suspended on a number of transit agencies in Washington State including Metro and Sound Transit for public health reasons. While transit was free for part of 2020, Metro and Sound Transit suspended fare enforcement until Spring 2025 and Fall 2023 respectively. On Seattle's buses and trains (and Snohomish's, Spokane's, and ... Continue reading "The Status of Fare Evasion in Washington State"

Local News: This is an Open Thread. Uncivil comments will be moderated.

Community Transit routes 201 and 202 travel inbound from Smokey Point Transit Center to Lynnwood City Center station via Everett, Mariner P&R and Ash Way P&R. Each route runs every 30 minutes, scheduled for a combined 15 minute frequency along most of the route. Between Marysville and Smokey Point, Route 201 travels on Smokey Point ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for Community Transit Routes 201 and 202"

How Portland created a sense of place. (Fourth Place) Taking one of the last Talgo trains to Vancouver BC. (Classy Whale) This is an open thread.

Trailhead Direct service is returning in 2026 on weekends from May 23 to August 30. Additionally, the service will run on a few holidays, specifically: Memorial Day (Monday, May 25) and Independence Day (Friday, July 3). Trailhead Direct consists of two routes, one from Capitol Hill station to Mount Si and one from Mount Baker ... Continue reading "2026 Trailhead Direct Routes"

King County Metro will run two free shuttles in downtown Seattle this summer. The Waterfront Shuttle will operate everyday between May 21 and September 7. Buses will arrive every 15 minutes from 10amto10pm. This route travels between the Chinatown/ International District and Seattle Center, via Pioneer Square, the waterfront (Alaskan Way), and Belltown. On days ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: Free Summer Shuttles"

Sound Transit's Executive Committee will have an unusual second meeting this month to further debate the resolution to downscale ST3 to shrink its budget gap. The meeting is today at 1:30-4:00pm. The meeting page has links to the agenda, the resolution, two reports evaluating the Enterprise Initiative, and how to attend the meeting in person ... Continue reading "ST3 Committee Meeting 2"

Reminder: TCC is hosting the Sound Transit South King County Town Hall tonight, 6-7:30pm, at Highline College in Des Moines. Local News: Other News: This is an Open Thread.

Sound Transit Route 535 travels inbound from Lynnwood City Center station to downtown Bellevue, primarily via I-405. This express service stops at Alderwood Mall and in Bothell and Totem Lake. Route 535 runs every 30 minutes during the week, every hour on Saturdays, and does not run on Sunday. In October 2025, Route 535 had ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for Sound Transit Route 535"

Paris's ultra-useful transit is getting better. (Transit Tangents) Stockholm's beautiful metro stations are the world's longest art exhibition". (Not Just Bikes) We need visionaries like this, and politicians who can prioritize the right things get it done. Paris has automated trains, platform screen doors, service every 5 minutes on many metro and bus lines, station ... Continue reading "Sunday Movies: Beautiful & Useful Transit"

In 2022, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) launched a project to redesign Aurora Ave. The highest ridership bus route in Washington, Metro's RapidRide E Line, carries 13,000 people along the corridor every day. Aurora Ave is consistently one of the most dangerous streets in Seattle. Over the past few years, SDOT has received thousands ... Continue reading "SDOT creating Aurora Ave Community Advisory Group"

BY ISSAQUAH MAYOR MARK MULLET The Sound Transit Board is facing large decisions regarding its budget shortfall. The Board is now expected to adopt an updated ST3 plan that will help reshape timelines for light rail segments across the region. Some projects, like the West Seattle line, are proposed to move forward now, while others, ... Continue reading "How to Finish ST3 Sooner (Without Raising Taxes)"

Yesterday, the Sound Transit Board Executive Committee reviewed a proposal assembled by the three county executives to realign ST3 for the second time. Although much of the hubbub since has focused on certain decisions presented in that proposal, including plans to temporarily truncate the Ballard Link Extension to Seattle Center and indefinite deferral of the ... Continue reading "Sounder North may end in 2033"

There won't be a Friday Roundtable this week, so here's your open thread. There will be two regular articles Friday and one Saturday.

Sound Transit has an Executive Committee meeting right now (10:30am-12:30pm) to discuss the proposed ST3 system plan changes to reduce costs. The meeting page has links to the agenda, the proposal, a reports on the Enterprise Initiative, a TOD progress report, and a link to watch the meeting live remotely via Zoom. The meeting will ... Continue reading "ST Executive Committee ST3 Debate"

On Thursday, Sound Transit Board Chair Dave Somers will share a resolution to update the Sound Transit 3 system plan. This update will help align the agency's future Link extensions with the available funding. Due to record-breaking inflation and more accurate price estimates, Sound Transit is facing a $34.5 billion funding shortfall. In March, the ... Continue reading "Sound Transit Updates ST3 Plan Amid FinancialConstraints"

Upcoming Link service impacts: Buses replace 1 Line trains between Rainier Beach and SeaTac/Airportthis weekend for track and power work on the Tukwila Curve. Link service reductions after 8pm resumed this week as construction of Pinehurst Station continues. Local News: Further Afield: This is an open thread.

Sound Transit still plans on building a new Link line to West Seattle. As Sound Transit struggles to find ways to fulfill the ST3 promises, there is a better option for West Seattle transit riders. With a relatively small investment in bus-based infrastructure, we could give riders in West Seattle the best of both worlds: ... Continue reading "West Seattle / Downtown via SODO busway"

Walking the London Underground District Line from end to end. (Let's Walk!) Seattle's annual Jane's Walk is still going on. The last one is Tuesday at 10am, Downtown South". I don't know if the registrations are full yet. This is an open thread.

The Seattle Transit Ridership dashboard has been updated to include 2025 ridership data for King County Metro routes and Sound Transit routes operated by Metro. In March 2025, Metro only updated a few routes, mostly with frequency adjustments from Seattle Transit Measure funding. In August 2025, Metro introduced four routes and adjusted various other routes ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: 2025 Ridership Data"

New post on Page Two: Reader Jack Valko proposes The Burke-Gilman Subway Monthly maintenance continues on the Eastside: Buses replace Link2Line trains between South Bellevue and Overlake Villagestations after ~10pm tonight and tomorrow. Local News: Further Afield: This is an Open Thread. Uncivil comments will be moderated.