Seattle Transit Blog

This week, sharp-eyed Link riders (including STB's Michael Smith and Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck) noticed new signposts installed on Link stations platforms across Seattle. The signposts are located along the textured safety tiles at the edge of station platforms near the first between-car barrier, and apparently-finished signposts feature an orange flag with a ... Continue reading "Signs for two-car Link trains return to Seattle"

The history of Gasworks Park. (Fourth Place) Even if you've heard some of the history you probably don't know all of it. From downtown Portland to Mt Hood by MAX and bus routes. (Climate and Transit) I made a similar trip to Grouse Mountain in British Columbia in the 90s. From downtown Vancouver I took ... Continue reading "Sunday Movies: Gasworks Park & Mt Hood"

On March 28 the full 2 Line will open with Crosslake service. The next nationwide No Kings march is on the same day. Having both at the same time raises logistical issues like overcrowded trains in the Crosslake segment and downtown street closures. It's worth thinking through the implications of this early. Hopefully Sound Transit ... Continue reading "2 Line and No Kings"

In January, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) announced the RapidRide J project reached a significant milestone: completion of the Eastlake water main replacement. It may seem odd for a transit project to be celebrating utility work, but this is a great example of how city departments can work together to improve the built environment. ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: RapidRide J Project Update"

Two teenagers were shot and killed at bus stop on Rainier Ave near South Shore PreK-8 on Friday (KUOW). Both were students at Rainier Beach High School. Students and community members including Mayor Wilson and new SPS Superintendent Ben Shuldiner gathered at the now-closed bus stop on Monday afternoon (The Seattle Times, $). On February ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: A Better Billion"

Autonomous vehicle (AV) technology is maturing from what I reported two years ago. While Waymo, Zoox (Amazon), and Tesla compete to replace taxis in the U.S., China (Baidu, Pony.ai, WeRide) is already a bit further along. The rollout has shown that AV technology requires expensive sensors but proved itself unless there is a major disruption. ... Continue reading "Autonomous Buses"

A long-awaited ORCA feature is finally available to (some) transit riders: Open Payments. Riders of the RapidRide G line are now able to use common contactless payment methods such as tap-enabled credit cards and digital wallets on smartphones to pay fare at ORCA readers installed along the line. The feature has been in the works ... Continue reading "Tap-to-pay soft launches on RapidRide G"

Tacoma's abandoned railroad tunnel. (Pretty Gritty Tours) 1980 Seattle bus and walking tour. A short KCTS documentary. (Tom Speer) A realtor looks at Seattle in ten years. (Living in Seattle with Sean McConnell) Best taken with a grain of salt, and he's trying to drum up buyers, but here's what people are saying. Just don't ... Continue reading "Sunday Movies: Tacoma tunnel, Seattle 1980 & 2035"

Yesterday, King County Metro launched its next generation of battery-electric buses (BEB) with a new livery and upgraded operator safety partitions. The new buses from Gillig will begin service on February 2, 2026 with periodic service on routes 105, 128, 161, 165, 184, and the F Line. The rollout of these buses marks a key ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: New Battery Buses"

Earlier this week, Sound Transit shared an updated proposal for its ST Express restructure that will be implemented later this year. In response to the initial ST Express restructure proposal, Sound Transit received nearly 4,500 survey responses and in-person feedback at three open house events. Using that input, the agency has proposed minor adjustments for ... Continue reading "Sound Transit's 2026 Service Plan (Phase 4)"

There Are No Safe Streets under Fascist Occupation (streets.mn) Transportation: Land Use and Policy: This is an Open Thread, but comments should focus on topics clearly related to transit and land use issues and be mindful of our Comment Policy.

On December 6, 2025, Sound Transit's Link extension to Federal Way (FWLE) welcomed its first passengers. This 1 Line extension added three new stations along eight miles of new track south of Angle Lake. The three new stations - Kent Des Moines, Star Lake, and Federal Way Downtown - are located in suburban communities between ... Continue reading "Early Look at Federal Way Link Extension Ridership"

Praise for Link from a British perspective. (CityMoose) Toronto's Finch West light rail, which opened in December, is slower than Link's surface segments. (Not Just Bikes) This is the gray line in the top left of Toronto's subway map. It's not the Ontario Line we featured in the automate Ballard article two weeks ago, which ... Continue reading "Sunday Movies: Link & Finch West"

This morning, Sound Transit announced the East Link Extension segment between South Bellevue station and International District/Chinatown station will open on March 28, 2026. When it opens, the 2 Line will be extended from South Bellevue station to Lynnwood City Center station, via Seattle. This extension will open two more Link stations: Mercer Island and ... Continue reading "Full East Link Extension Will Open March 28"

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the First Hill Line streetcar in Seattle. The 2.5 mile, 10 station line connects Pioneer Square, the International District, Yesler Terrace, First Hill and Capitol Hill. Since 2016, the line has carried over 10 million passengers. The First Hill Line launched in 2016 after years of delay. Construction of ... Continue reading "Friday Roundtable: First Hill Streetcar Turns 10"

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"