Seattle Transit Blog

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"

Transit & Streets: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread. Are you interested in advocating for better transit and/or land use? Reach out to contact@seattletransitblog.com.

Which styles would you nominate for Link stations? The Paris Metro has a steampunk station, Arts et Metiers": the Line 11 platform is inspired by Jules Verne. This is an open thread.

Sound Transit recently announced a survey regarding potential names for the infill station currently under construction near N 130th St in north Seattle. The station names under consideration are: This would be the northernmost Link station in Seattle, filling in a gap between Northgate and Shoreline S/148th. Some thoughts on the potential station names below ... Continue reading "Survey: Naming the infill Link station at 130th Street"

As announced in October, Link will be replaced by shuttle buses between SODO and Capitol Hill Stations from 10pm tonight (November 8) through Sunday, November 10, and return to full service on Monday, November 11. Trains will run every 15 minutes north of Capitol Hill and south of SODO. As a commentor noted earlier today, ... Continue reading "Link Disruption This Weekend (Nov. 8-10)"

Election 2024 Discussion of election results can be found in yesterday's thread, but here are some news items: Transit & Streets: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread, but the election should be discussed under yesterday's post. Are you interested in sharing your perspective on a transit or land use ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: Long-Term Gains"

I hear there's an election today. This article will be updated as results come in. King County's results will be on the county site or state site (other counties are also on the state site); the first batch usually comes around 8:15pm. The STB Election Committee made some endorsements on local transit and land use ... Continue reading "Election 2024"

This is an open thread.

There's been a rush of topics the past three weeks, including in Wednesday's roundup which has now reached 172 comments. So here's something light to start the weekend with. And what can be lighter than Sesame Street and the Muppets? This is an open thread.

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

Back in March of this year, Sound Transit appointed Terri Mestas to be the deputy CEO of megaproject delivery, a new position that was created specifically to oversee delivery of the agency's large capital projects. Mestas is a seasoned leader of capital program management, most recently being the chief development officer at Los Angeles World ... Continue reading "An extended interview with Terri Mestas, Sound Transit megaproject delivery chief"

King County Metro's RapidRide D Line travels inbound from Crown Hill to downtown Seattle, primarily through Ballard, Interbay, and Uptown. Outbound trips travel north from downtown to Crown Hill. In August 2024, the D Line was the fourth busiest bus route in King County with 8,824 average weekday boardings. Average Ridership Per Trip The plots ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for RapidRide D Line"

This is an open thread.

Community Transit will be improving Swift Blue along Evergreen Way in Lake Stickney (an unincorporated area north of Lynnwood) and Everett. The Swift corridor consists of Aurora Avenue, Pacific Highway and Evergreen Way. It currently has some BAT lanes with gaps. The new projects will fill in those gaps with new BAT lanes and potentially ... Continue reading "Swift Blue Improvements"

Although the RapidRide R project to replace Route 7 on Rainier Avenue has been postponed to 2031, SDOT (the Seattle Department of Transportation) has continued to implement bus lanes along Rainier Avenue. We'll go over a moderate recap of the changes made of the past decade starting from 2015, focusing on the transit improvements, as ... Continue reading "Route 7 Transit-Plus Recap"

Transit & Streets: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Misc. News: This an Open Thread.

Ballots are being delivered for this year's General Election and are due on November 5. On behalf of the Blog, the Seattle Transit Blog Elections Committee recommends the following: Ballot Measures Candidate Elections All Other Elections Election Review The STB Elections Committee considered many initiatives, ballot measures, and candidate elections on the ballot for the ... Continue reading "STB Endorsements: 2024 General Election"

King County Metro's Route 7 travels inbound from Rainier Beach to downtown Seattle, primarily through Rainier Valley and the International District. Outbound trips travel south from downtown to Rainier Beach. In August 2024, Route 7 was the second busiest bus route in King County with 10,599 average weekday boardings. Before diving into the ridership data, ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for King County Metro Route 7"

There's also an agency slide deck on the project and technology. This is an open thread.

The private company Seattle Monorail Services is proposing a fare increase to use the Seattle Center Monorail. Fares would go from $3.50 to $4.00 for adults, $1.75 to $2.00 for youth, and $1.75 to $2.00 for reduced-fare riders. This is substantially higher than what King County Metro charges to ride the bus and Sound Transit ... Continue reading "Oppose the Monorail Fare Increase"

Transit: Seattle Zoning News: Commentary: This is an Open Thread.

Earlier this week, I asked Sound Transit if they had determined the cause of the extended Link disruption on September 17, and the cause of the disruption last Friday. I got this response from John Gallagher, Sound Transit Media Relations Manager: The disruption on Sept. 17 was caused by a damaged pantograph on an LRV, ... Continue reading "Link Disruption"

Transit & Streets: Housing & Land Use: On Mexico City's Cablebus lines: Commentary & Other News: This is an Open Thread.

King County Metro's RapidRide C Line travels inbound from Westwood Village to South Lake Union. It passes through Roxhill, Fauntleroy, Gatewood, Seaview, Fairmount Park, Genesee, SODO, Pioneer Square, downtown Seattle, Belltown, and Denny Triangle. Outbound trips travel in the reverse direction. In August 2024, the C Line was the 7th busiest bus route in King ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for RapidRide C Line"

I've enjoyed riding the East Link starter line, and one of the things I've enjoyed is how conveniently the at-grade stations are designed. To get between platforms at several of the East Link stations, you don't need to take stairs or ramps to go under or over the tracks; you just walk across the track. ... Continue reading "Crossing the Tracks at East Link Stations"

Not Just Bikes compares an Amtrak+VIA trip (New York - Toronto - Fake London) with European train lines.

Picture, if you will, a renovated waterfront. The Overlook Walk between Pike Place Market and the waterfront opened October 4th. The Urbanist has a detailed description. I took a walk on it two days later, on Sunday in the late afternoon. This photo was by Martin Pagel on opening day, but the crowd was similar ... Continue reading "Impressions of the Overlook Walk"

The Ballard Bridge, Evergreen Point Floating Bridge (SR-520), and SR-99 Tunnel will be closed this weekend. Check Metro and ST service alerts for detours before travel. News: Commentary: This is an Open Thread.

Recent Hurricane Helene and numerous other weather events around the world have reinvigorated the discussion on how to slow down the climate change related to carbon emissions. Transportation is the largest contributor to those emissions, so many efforts focus on it, in particular to reduce individual car usage. Many transit advocates push for more transit ... Continue reading "West Seattle Link and Climate Change"

Transit Service & Projects: Streets & Public Space: Land Use & Housing: Commentary: This is an Open Thread.

A few months ago, I was waiting for a Route 7 bus and was frustrated by the far too common bus bunching along Rainier Ave. When the bus arrived at my stop, it was followed immediately by two other Route 7 buses. I spent some time thinking about simple changes King County Metro (KCM) could ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for King County Metro Route 70"

This is an Open Thread.

It's quite common in Seattle to see bikes and transit compete for the same limited street space. Once in a while though, we have the opportunity to improve both transit and cycling at the same time. This is one of those times. South Lake Union Streetcar The South Lake Union Streetcar opened in 2007. Unlike ... Continue reading "Replacing the South Lake Union Streetcar"

When the ST3 measure was approved by voters in 2016, Sound Transit had only some rough ideas about how to deliver the promised transit improvements. Cost estimates were done based on comparable projects. Now that the plans are getting more specific and Sound Transit can do bottoms-up estimates, it turns out that the projects are ... Continue reading "Munich vs ST3"

Transit News: Project Updates: Budget News: Commentary: This is an Open Thread.

This week (September 30 to October 6) is the annual Week Without Driving. Washington-based disability advocate Anna Zivarts notes in her excellent book When Driving Is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependence: nearly 30% of Americans do not have a driver's license. This statistic includes everyone our car-oriented transportation system leaves behind, including ... Continue reading "Week Without Driving"

This is an open thread.

Pundits claim West Seattle had been added to the ST3 plan by politicians envious that Ballard gets a light rail connection. It seemed easy to draw another line on the map, but now that Sound Transit published the final Environmental Impact Statement for the West Seattle Link Extension (WSLE) it has become evident that it ... Continue reading "Implications of the West Seattle Link Cost"

Ballard Bridge will be closed tonight (9/27, 7 pm) to Monday (9/30, 5 am). SDOT has advice on how to get around. Transit News: Land Use News: Seattle Budget Coverage: Opinions and Further Afield: This is an Open Thread.

Transit Updates: Local News: Other News, Opinion, and Miscellaneous: Upcoming Events: This is an Open Thread.

SDOT recently announced RapidRide J Line construction will start in October, with service planned to launch in 2027. RapidRide J will travel from downtown Seattle to University Districtvia Eastlake Avenue replacing Route 70. According to SDOT, the two years of construction will build the following: The project heading to construction has evolved somewhat since planning ... Continue reading "RapidRide J Line - Final Design and Recap"

CityBeautiful explores San Francisco's new transit center for MUNI and regional buses, and in the future Caltrain and high-speed rail. It's located south of Market and has a rooftop park reminiscent of New York's High Line. This is an open thread.