Seattle Transit Blog

If you’re an organization that works with populations eligible for free bus tickets, you can apply to distribute them in 2022. Apply here; the deadline is November 30th. There is a pool of $4m in tickets at face value. Of course, to the extent that this doesn’t displace fare-paying ridership, there is no actual budget … Continue reading "One more week to apply for bus tickets"

Over 10 years ago (!) I wrote that rebuilding a short road near Bellevue College to support buses would straighten multiple Bellevue trunk routes and save millions in annual operating expenses. I’m pleased to announce that the project has now reached the municipal hype video stage: Today, the 221, 226, 245, and 271 all travel … Continue reading "Streamlined Bellevue College service may really happen"

This is an open thread.

Over the weekend, the South Bellevue P&R inconspicuously reopened to the public after being closed for more than 4 years of East Link station construction. The new park-and-ride greatly expands capacity from the previous 500 some surface stalls to around 1500 spaces. Prior to its closure, the park-and-ride was a major source of commuter ridership … Continue reading "South Bellevue Park & Ride reopens to little fanfare"

Maybe we can back to weekly roundups soon… Name the new ferry Metro’s new real-time info signs Comment on Kent/Des Moines TOD through Nov. 15 Results from giving out ORCA cards Seattle Council fighting over the CCC, again; plus, carshare regulations Children’s is hiring a transportation planner Lake Forest Park “wins” battle to extort stuff … Continue reading "News roundup: October highlights"

The recent bus service change that coincided with the extension of the 1 Line to Northgate Station altered Seattle-Everett service in a clunky way. Riding between Everett and Seattle during off-peak hours and in the reverse-peak direction during peak hours now involves transferring between Sound Transit Express 512 and the 1 Line at Northgate Station. … Continue reading "Improving connectivity and frequency to Everett"

This is an open thread.

Out of service escalators at Westlake Station.Credit: Bruce Englehardt Last Thursday’s Rider Experience Committee meeting featured an update on the parlous state of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel’s escalators. While the overall system has recovered from some early hiccups with the three new stations, the current snapshot* shows 1 elevator and 13 escalators out of … Continue reading "DSTT escalators still a problem"

Regular Link riders might notice that real-time arrival information did not, in fact, come back with the Northgate stations as promised in September. ST’s John Gallagher says that “While the system was accurate the majority of the time, when it was wrong, it was really wrong.” It would cost “a significant amount of money” to … Continue reading "Real-time arrival out for the winter?"

This is an open thread.

Beginning Sunday, November 7th, Pierce Transit will reduce service on some routes, including some PT-operated ST Express routes, due to persistent shortage of bus operators. The hope is that with service reduced to match the level of service that current operators can reliably provide, trip cancellations will be much rarer, and you can be more … Continue reading "Pierce Transit reduces bus service due to operator shortages"

Bruce Nourish joins me to discuss a bunch of stuff. (0:00) Hot takes on the election; we basically agree on all issues and then vote in opposite ways. Warning: we go way off-topic beyond transit and land use, to where we probably know less than you do. So skip ahead if this will just irritate … Continue reading "Podcast #101: My Betrayal of All That is Good"

Progressive candidates did well in the Port and County Council races, while business- and Seattle Times-backed candidates are winning handily in Seattle. Discuss. Results here.

It may have snuck up on you, but today is election day. Ballots are due in drop boxes by 8 pm sharp. There are a lot of drop boxes, including several very close to 1 Line stations. There are also a few Vote Centers where you can register to vote if you have not already, … Continue reading "Did you remember to vote?"

As I was boarding a bus a few days ago, I saw a young gentleman sitting close to the middle of the bus, maskless. I pulled a mask out of the dispenser at the front of the bus, walked back to the gentleman, and handed the mask to him. He thanked me and put it … Continue reading "To reduce masklessness on trains, add more dispensers"

“Pingo” Microtransit in Kent STRide lines will open in 2026 and 2027 New bus to Portland ($) on high-traffic days Pierce Transit expanding its “Runner” microtransit to the Port Bike helmet law may be on the way out PSRC allotment of Federal transit subsidies more contentious than usual Local businesses vs ped/bus improvements A new … Continue reading "News roundup: September highlights"

Something else debuted this month alongside three new Link stations. Can you guess what it was? No? Surprise: it was Sound Transit’s first parking garage inside the Seattle city limits. Woo-hoo? Now, the official position of Seattle Transit Blog is that building parking garages near train stations is generally not the best use of taxpayer … Continue reading "How to park at Northgate Station"

[UPDATE: An earlier version of this article claimed that WSDOT has purchased no new ferries for a decade. There have been four.] The Washington State Ferry Service (WSF) is in the news. And not in a good way. After 70 years of steady, dependable service, it is falling apart. Out of the blue, we are … Continue reading "The Fate of Washington State Highway 304"

City goals: have a simple zoning/land use code that can be casually explained in under 15 minutes and is more permissive of mixed uses.

Recently STB writer Bruce Nourish and I had an opportunity to check out the new Link extensions from the air. Enjoy the photos! Northgate Link Extension We begin at Northgate Station; these photos were shot just prior to the opening of the extension: Looking north at Northgate Station. Northgate Mall is the large cluster of … Continue reading "A Photo Tour of Link Construction"

With the East Link Connections survey wrapping up Monday, it’s a good time to make suggestions if you haven’t already. The process of restructuring is about tradeoffs, and in any result, there will be both winners and losers. While no plan is perfect, I have two ideas for how I think the plan can be … Continue reading "Improving East Link connections in Issaquah and Newcastle"

One day I’ll catch up to the present… More security on Metro New ST bus base will be at Canyon Park USDOT approves $3.84 billion loan for ST, will save $500m in interest payments It would personally benefit me, but the land use around this spot is not all that promising for a Link Station; … Continue reading "News roundup: August highlights"

Seattle Transit Blog is officially a non-partisan publication, but it’s no secret that our favored policy positions tend to align with those on the progressive left. As someone with a libertarian streak, I want to make the case that pro-transit libertarianism has a strong ideological foundation, and in so doing, disabuse anyone of the notion … Continue reading "A libertarian case for robust transit investment"

Extraordinary engineering work went into floating slab track designed to minimize ground vibrations and electromagnetic noise from trains running under sensitive research labs on the University of Washington campus.

We are excited to share our endorsements for the 2021 general election! Our picks are based on hearing from candidates at our June forums (Seattle City Council Position 9 & Mayor of Seattle), in questionnaires sent in May (City, County and Port), and keeping in mind track records and our prior meetings with candidates during … Continue reading "Seattle Subway 2021 General Election Endorsements"

The Houghton Community Council, which controls land use and other policies for a large chunk of central Kirkland, is up for renewal in November. We wrote about the HCC (and its sibling, the East Bellevue Community Council) back in 2017, when it was working to water down mixed-use development near the Google campus: The Kirkland … Continue reading "Eastside’s exclusionary community council is on the ballot"

Sound Transit 3’s cost explosion has forced the politicians in charge to make tough decisions that displease constituents. In the ‘realignment’ endgame, Mayor Durkan produced a “cost savings amendment” to create regular reports about costs, hire outside consultants, and tell the Board “where any delays in these pre-construction activities are likely to trigger a delay … Continue reading "Fixing ST’s costs requires a legislative agenda"

Locals are not the only ones celebrating Northgate Link. Transit fans from across North America are watching Seattle, often held as a model of success (relative to this part of the world). Here is one mostly positive take from Canadian transit content creator and analyst Reece Martin with comparisons to his hometown Vancouver.

Sound Transit is once again considering Symphony as the new name for University Street Station in downtown Seattle. This is intended to reduce confusion with two other Link stations in the University District and University of Washington campus. This time, renaming will be done in conjunction with East Link extension work to minimize costs, about … Continue reading "An encore for Symphony station at University Street"

[UPDATE: the John Lewis Bridge was a hypothetical example, but SDOT would like me to say that it was a minor miracle it opened as soon as it did. Point taken.] When U-Link opened in 2016, trains operated after a 9am opening ceremony and about $858,000 in additional festivities. This of course brought out the … Continue reading "Open things when they’re ready"

Saturday’s Link opening was the largest product of 2008’s Sound Transit 2 vote to date. In the 15-year package envisioned at ballot time, Northgate opened about a year late, Lynnwood and North Federal Way are scheduled to do the same, and East Link will lag by no more than two years. Given a Great Recession … Continue reading "Some people to thank"

On the eve of Northgate Link’s grand opening, a ceremony and preview ride kicks off a month-long celebration of the Puget Sound region’s latest expansion of rapid transit, this time 4.3 miles north to 3 new stations in the U District, Roosevelt, and Northgate. For a summary of the speeches, read STB’s live coverage of … Continue reading "The ribbon is cut for Northgate Link"

In the East Link restructure online open house, the entire restructure proposal is broken up into five sections: North, Central, South, East, and Seattle. We’ve covered the south subarea previously. The east subarea covers Issaquah, Sammamish, Preston, Snoqualmie, and North Bend, but also throws in Mercer Island as part of the I-90 corridor (but omits … Continue reading "East Link restructure in the I-90 corridor and east subarea"

Woodinville, Duvall, and Redmond Ridge will be one bus away all-day from Link. Peak-only service to Seattle will make stops in South Lake Union and no longer travel on local streets in Kingsgate. Peak-only service to Bellevue and Overlake is replaced by all-day service to Link.

Some things we didn’t mention over July: Mike Lindblom investigates all those broken escalators ($); over two months later, at least three of Pioneer Square’s are still broken County Council approves the final alignment for RapidRide J (Eastlake) Kitsap Transit piloting app-based on-demand bus service on Bainbridge Island Kitsap weekend service coming back Community Transit’s … Continue reading "News roundup: July highlights"

Central Bellevue is the closest to Link Line 2, so it’s to be expected that there would be significant bus changes. Here’s what Metro’s working on: Untie the 245/B. These buses, among the most heavily used on the East side, would get rerouted on 148th Ave NE and 156th Ave NE. The 245 would stay … Continue reading "East link restructure: Bellevue & Redmond"

With Northgate Link opening in less than a week, Community Transit will begin a fundamental, multi-year transformation from providing a blend of long-haul commuter and local service to a refreshed agency focused on fast and frequent transit operations primarily within Snohomish County. CT’s initial phase of reworking existing commuter routes will take advantage of Link … Continue reading "Community Transit builds new connections at Northgate"

This is an opening thread.

Ready the Ballot Box: Seattle Wants Northgate-Style Light Rail Expansion Citywide On Oct 2nd, thousands of Seattlites will flood three new light rail stations as the Northgate Link extension opens. While Seattleites will be excited about the new stations, almost everyone in the city seems to agree that neither Northgate Link nor the West Seattle … Continue reading "Ready the ballot box: Seattle wants Northgate-style light rail expansion citywide"

Public transit is shortchanged. Where’s the news in that? If you follow this blog you know, and you have the numbers to back you up. Public transit in the United States is underfunded. And what’s with the folk band? Where’s the bus, the train, the ferry, the beautiful route map? The graph? Was the wrong … Continue reading "To save transit, tell the story"

It’s been a few weeks since we’ve had real-time arrival for Link. ST’s John Gallagher says that it’s because Northgate testing doesn’t conform to the schedule, and the software isn’t flexible enough to accommodate that. Next train times should be back on October 2nd — and more accurate, as the end-of-the-line problems move from Capitol … Continue reading "Where’s real time arrival?"

With the East Link Connections project underway, Sound Transit and Metro have presented their first service proposals as part of the East Link Connections survey. The opening of East Link will be a huge event, and will transform what transit service looks like not just crossing Lake Washington, but how neighboring regions are connected. The … Continue reading "East Link Connections: bus changes in the south subarea"

Sound Transit: The Fare Ambassador Pilot Program grew out of passenger feedback and community engagement that expressed discomfort with fare enforcement officers who resemble law enforcement. In response, Fare Ambassadors wear bright yellow caps, and carry yellow messenger bags that make them easy to recognize. Their focus is on passenger education and customer service rather … Continue reading "Sound Transit begins new fare ambassador pilot"

“Restructure” and “transfer” are hot transit words in the Pacific Northwest, with all eyes focused on Northgate Link opening October 2nd. A new Link extension comes with a significant restructure for transit services provided by Community Transit, Sound Transit, and King County Metro. During these exciting times for regional transit, Sound Transit and Metro have … Continue reading "Eastside transit restructure kicks off"

Some highlights from June that we never mentioned here: As you probably noticed, Link frequency is back to its long-term level, though headways through the Rainier Valley may never return to 6 minutes Lizz asks if transit ridership will come back Pierce gets a state grant for on-demand service to the tideflats and Port of … Continue reading "News roundup: June highlights"

Many of us have tried to forget the historic heat of Late June. Sadly, even Link trains had to reduce speeds. Areas south of the DSTT ran as slow as 20mph and caused delays of 3-10 minutes. This surprised me: elsewhere, Light Rail often operates in temperatures well in excess of Late June’s. ST’s John … Continue reading "About that heat dome"