Seattle Transit Blog

No one is going to remember the Durkan administration, positively or negatively, based on its transit or land use legacy. The twin crises of the pandemic and a reckoning with racist policing will dominate the historical record. But here at STB, we always size up the outgoing mayor (Murray, McGinn, Nickels) on this basis. And … Continue reading "Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan"

2021 was the slowest year at STB in well over a decade. Nevertheless, both readers and commenters turned out when we did: Most Read “The Fate of Washington State Highway 304” (10/25). One of our new writers, Melony Joyce, sketches the big picture for our ferries, was almost five times as viral as the next … Continue reading "Most read posts of 2021"

This snow will stick around a while. In non-pandemic, normal work week times, this might have been a snowpocalypse event. Meanwhile, Metro’s Emergency Snow Network is in effect. ST express has Snow reroutes but Link is basically unaffected. 6 Sounder trips are suspended.

With 2021 coming to a close, our region has set sail on a major, exciting, one-in-a-generation opportunity to restructure and reform our transit network thanks to billions in capital investments. In 2008, regional voters approved Sound Transit 2 (ST2), and these investments are now bearing fruit as our regional light rail network will nearly triple … Continue reading "Getting ready for big changes to regional transit"

King County Metro put out a web news release to the public on the possibility of snow this weekend, and how to be prepared to travel in it. This is an open thread.

The ST2 projects were cruising along, but now there’s a concrete driver strike ($) Everett and CT will do another study on merging Feds send Metro $396m to make up for Covid losses Another bikeshare vendor — the more, the merrier Inside Metro’s 2022 budget Marko Liias is the new Senate Transportation Chair. There is … Continue reading "News roundup: no better friend"

OMF at S. 336th St is “preferred” On Thursday, the Sound Transit Board made the responsible decision and designated S. 336th St in Federal Way as the “preferred” site of South Link’s Operations and Maintenance Facility (OMF). It has not actually eliminated the other two sites from consideration, but the process will put somewhat more … Continue reading "ST Board makes the obvious decision"

Zee Shaner, writing on the Sound Transit blog: Shortly after the Northgate, Roosevelt and U District stations opened in October, riders quickly noticed that next train information had disappeared from 1 Line platform digital signs. Passengers wondered why it was ‘broken’ and when we could ‘get it working again’. We want to clarify that the system is working just as it always has, but we made the deliberate decision to turn it … Continue reading "Real-time info will get better next year"

From the Governor’s blog: Gov. Jay Inslee’s 2022 supplemental budget proposes significant funding to reduce poverty, increase housing and resources for homeless individuals, expand K-12 learning supports, invest in clean transportation and green economy, decarbonize buildings, and protect salmon habitat. The governor released his budget in Olympia on Thursday and was joined by David Schumacher, director of … Continue reading "Inslee’s housing and climate proposals"

The recent stall of a Sound Transit light rail train after the Apple Cup has brought on a public discussion on communicating with transit customers. Let’s hope that conversation continues. It is an important one. Have you ever felt a touch of fate? Several weeks ago I decided to take public transit from Seattle to … Continue reading "We are an unruly lot: Five observations on communicating with transit customers"

Lizz tells the story of vision-impaired people struggling to navigate transit Everett Council considers states its priorities for Link By some metrics, some are pronouncing microtransit a success More camera enforcement ($) More electrics for PT Seattle grows faster ($) than suburbs 2010-20 Traffic is back, transit ridership still down Natural gas buses aren’t carbon-neutral … Continue reading "News roundup: more"

One of the better local initiatives to come out of the pandemic are Stay Healthy Streets, roads minimally reconfigured (usually by putting a sign in the roadway) to prioritize non-auto uses. Theoretically, these roads are for local access only. There’s a happy narrative where Seattle stood up to the car interests and the NIMBYs in … Continue reading "Stay Healthy Streets aren’t bold, they’re a layup"

ST’s executive search starts this afternoon Bellevue’s zoning is not ready Mary Hopson is Operator of the Year Comment on TOD in Lynnwood Seattle works through its state lobbying agenda Biden shifting grants away from cars This is an open thread.

Everyone involved regrets Friday’s rather long Link outage after the Apple Cup. Coming after a major sporting event and shortly after new stations opened, there were probably quite a few new riders who said “never again,” and that’s sad. A Link light rail train became disabled in the northbound tunnel between University of Washington Station … Continue reading "For the lack of an announcement"

This is an open thread.

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"