Seattle Transit Blog

Unless you’re really into the arcana of American politics, you may not have realized that today is Election Day. We didn’t do formal endorsements this year, but I explained why Seattle voters should approve Prop. 1. Furthermore, Seattle Subway did their homework and released endorsements informed by very similar principles to what I would have … Continue reading "Last chance to vote in the general election!"

Metro’s proposed budget greatly reduces most capital outlays over the next several years. The RapidRide expansion has shrunk to just three funded lines, and base expansion plans have been mostly suspended. But there remains a $270 million investment in battery buses and associated charging infrastructure, $93 million of that by 2022. Into the budget debate … Continue reading "Metro’s fleet will be all-electric, also much smaller"

Light Rail from Ian Reynolds on Vimeo.

ST’s art plan for Federal Way. Everyone’s seduced by a plan to rebuild the West Seattle Bridge way faster. ST donating land ($) for affordable housing. This is why ($) bus drivers have to strap in wheelchairs. When things aren’t so easy, Seattle stops worrying about climate change. Mercer Island lawsuit going ahead. Comment on … Continue reading "News roundup: this is why"

Like many transit agencies, Sound Transit predicts a constrained financial future and has cut transit service. Under Sound Transit’s initial 2021 Service Plan, Link would have continued its current operational pattern of 8 minute peak frequencies—stepping down to 15 minute and 30 minute frequencies—through 2021. In that document, the agency blames reduced peak hour demand … Continue reading "How important is Link to the network?"

On Friday Metro celebrated the retirement of the last diesel bus—part of the fleet dubbed “the 1100s”. Metro’s fleet is now comprised only of diesel-electric hybrids, battery-powered buses, and electric trolleys. To celebrate, a “Gold Tire” retirement ceremony was held to recognize the last bus, which will be preserved by the Metro Employee Historic Vehicle … Continue reading "Metro celebrates an all-hybrid/electric fleet"

The Mayor’s budget proposal funds streetcar service in 2021 at current levels, with about 10% fewer service hours than before COVID. The Seattle Council however appears to be looking at further reductions, eyeing about $700,000 in operating savings for every 10% further reduction in service. Prospects for restarting the paused Center City Connector appear dim. … Continue reading "Streetcar service may be cut again, as Center City Connector remains on hold"

It occurs to me that if you were to try to implement something like this in Seattle, you might start by demolishing the West Seattle Bridge.

On Thursday, Sound Transit staff presented a revised draft 2021 service plan, which the ST Board will vote on in November. Three routes have changes in the revised draft, vs. the original draft: Link Light Rail would be upgraded to 10-minutes off-peak headway, as compared to the long-term continuation of 15-minute headway in the first … Continue reading "ST draft service plan revised for better Link frequency"

While there is a lot of lost service in the King County Metro network due to COVID-19 and its economic impacts, Metro has nevertheless managed to make lemonade out of lemons by assembling an increasingly robust network of buses connecting to Link Light Rail stations at frequencies that match Link’s temporary off-peak frequency of every … Continue reading "15-Minute Link/bus network"

Navigating the thicket of fare discounts. West Seattle bridge alternatives analysis is done. You can dine in the street for at least another year. Nice one, SDOT. WS low bridge fines are coming. An interview with Metro GM Terry White. Kevin Desmond leaving TransLink, returning to the United States. Lynnwood garage construction starts. Heidi Groover … Continue reading "News roundup: returning"

On October 8th System Expansion Committee received briefings on various capital projects. The centerpiece was a detailed review of East Link. The system is 85% complete, within the budget set in 2015, and on schedule for opening in July 2023. But there’s also some bad news. Major civil engineering should be done in early 2021, … Continue reading "Challenges, more closures for East Link construction"

For most of us, voting could not be easier. Every registered voter with their address of record up-to-date gets a ballot in the mail. Return postage is pre-paid. There are also plenty of ballot drop boxes open. Ones close to light rail stations include the Beacon Hill Library, Uwajimaya, the King County Administration Building, and … Continue reading "Less-accessible voting sites and other easier ways to vote"

Sound Transit recently started its virtual open house for the NE 130th St infill station, where you can see the latest designs. As part of this open house, there is a survey where you can provide feedback on the proposed designs. In addition to the blue and green station-wide color scheme options, you can weigh … Continue reading "Sound Transit shares latest NE 130th St Station designs"

Link Light Rail service will be partially disrupted this weekend, per an annoucement from Sound Transit: Link light rail service will temporarily stop running between the UW and SODO stations Saturday, October 17, and Sunday, October 18 to allow for system upgrades. During the service interruption, free bus service will be available between UW station … Continue reading "Shuttles replace Link north of SODO Station this weekend"

King County Metro is embarking on a process to phase out on-board cash payments. Details are so far limited, pending discusssions with stakeholders. A briefing to the King County Council Budget and Fiscal Management Committee noted the discontinuation of on-board cash fares would happen in concert with the launch of the subsidized annual pass program … Continue reading "Metro prepares for end of cash fares"

No details as of yet, but who needs the details: WA Supreme Court strikes down Tim Eyman’s I-976 to cut car tabs. Story soon at https://t.co/DnQLxkhcnI. — Heidi Groover (@heidigroover) October 15, 2020 The immediate practical importance is that various transit and transportation agencies will not have to refund the money they have been collecting … Continue reading "I-976 struck down"

Seattle loves its bus service. As pandemic measures temporarily reduce demand, new challenges like the West Seattle Bridge closure arise. It would be irresponsible to reject a measure that doesn’t even fully replace the tax that it succeeds. In 2014, Seattle approved a $60 vehicle license fee and 0.1% sales tax to fund increases in … Continue reading "Vote Yes on Prop. 1"

Now the 1st Avenue South Bridge, the most obvious alternative to the West Seattle Bridge, is facing sporadic partial closures for maintenance. Uber/Lyft minimum wage is now law. There’s a town hall tonight on Metro restructuring. Is Lime pivoting to be a platform company? Apply to the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board. Bellevue fills out a … Continue reading "News roundup: pivoting"

One of the most notable features of King County Metro’s North King County bus route restructure proposed for September 2021, when Northgate Link is scheduled to open for service, is the continued use of north-end and Shoreline express bus service for First Hill. The rest of the express bus service from the north end and … Continue reading "Last-mile alternatives to legacy First Hill express service"

Second quarter ridership data from Sound Transit shows, as expected, a collapse in ridership after COVID. There was a meaningful recovery in June as the lockdown eased, but ridership more recently seems to have stabilized at just under one-fourth of normal levels. Pre-pandemic system ridership was about 4 million riders per month. At the bottom, … Continue reading "Sound Transit’s boardings struggle to recover"

I am Greta comes out in theatres elsewhere on October 16 (Friday, of course) and on hulu for us on November 13. This is an open thread.

Escalators at UW station, after failing spectacularly on several occasions in 2018, are now working well. After a series of changes to improve maintenance, downtime has been greatly reduced and Sound Transit is now comfortable postponing a full replacement of the escalators. The good news at UW allows Sound Transit to turn its attention to … Continue reading "UW escalator issues resolved, but DSTT repair costs mount"

Changes to Access coming soon. Survey for Southworth fast ferry. Kent Sounder garage is back. Mercer Island talks continue. The Lander Street Bridge is open. The equity target ($) for scooter rentals. A wonderful feature on the Metro drivers we’re losing to retirement ($). Options for the Columbia River Crossing. Living in a train depot … Continue reading "News roundup: coming soon"

Heidi Groover, The Seattle Times: The 7 was essential before the outbreak, too. Riders boarded the route 11,000 times a day, making it one of Metro’s five busiest bus lines. But with crowded and late buses, Metro labeled the route as in need of improvements and planned to convert it to a RapidRide line with … Continue reading "What’s left of Rainier RapidRide"

The proposed budget for King County Metro released last month indicates an agency preparing for a prolonged and deep decline in ridership. Fare revenue projections have been lowered by at least one third through at least the middle of the decade. While the budget authorizes the restoration of most suspended service if ridership does return, … Continue reading "Metro plans for a lower ridership system"

Two weeks ago I criticized Sound Transit’s 2021 plans for another full year of substandard Link service. Now that I’m corresponding with someone who actually still works at Sound Transit, I was able to get a reply. I had three concerns: (1) that a high-capacity trunk line should have high frequency even if ridership is … Continue reading "An explanation of Link frequency"

This is an open thread.

From current trends it’s worth reminding everyone that STB has a comment policy. If the post is about a Queen Anne bus lane or the SDOT budget, and you’re deep into homeless policy or Thomas Piketty, you are off topic. We don’t really encourage non-transit discussions here, but if you must have one, we provide … Continue reading "Comment policy reminder"

We’ve reported extensively on Metro’s darkest day, when the service reductions due to COVID-19 were refined, and the temporary service suspensions seemed less and less temporary. While the bulk of service reductions were applied peak-only service, there are a handful of all-day coverage routes that remain suspended: routes 22, 47, 71, 78, 200, 246, and … Continue reading "The suspended all-day routes"

Mayor Durkan announced her 2021 budget proposal on Tuesday, with cuts in many departments due to COVID-19 and, in the case of Seattle PD, a push from the council and the community to redirect spending elsewhere. One of those elsewheres will be SDOT, which is inheriting SPD’s parking enforcement division along with its ~$15m annual … Continue reading "SDOT takes a hit in Mayor’s budget proposal"

Metro fares are back today, with no enforcement. Council approves traffic cameras for low bridge transit lane enforcement, 9-0 (see 1:01:53). Background here. Amtrak may cut long-distance routes. Bruce Nourish might approve. Summary of last week’s ST Board meeting: a few projects are unpaused. Alex Hudson has a transit recovery plan. Mill Creek approves Orange … Continue reading "News roundup: fares are back"

Reconnect West Seattle’s bus brainstorm proposed replacing some car trips traveling between West Seattle and Southeast Seattle with an alternative that would take up less road space. This market certainly isn’t well served by transit today. Witness Route 50: The eastern half of this route used to head downtown as the 39, but this was … Continue reading "A direct West-Southeast connection"

On September 21st, the Council approved 9-0 an agreement for street improvements funded by ArenaCo. There are three transit improvements: “Converting a travel lane on 1stAve N to a bus-only lane between Denny Way and Republican St” “Installing a transit queue jump at 1stAve N and Republican St” “Converting a travel lane on Queen Anne … Continue reading "Council approves Arena bus and street improvements"

This is an open thread.

Pierce County’s BRT brand will be “Stream“. Feds provide $8.3m for Swift. Mercer Island raises taxes to sue Sound Transit to reduce bus volumes in their city (!). SLU streetcar is back. The Reconnect West Seattle “Implementation Plan” is out, but it doesn’t contain any big decisions about transit. They have, however, issued an RFP … Continue reading "News roundup: Stream"

Today is the last day you can take the survey on Sound Transit’s proposed 2021 service levels. You can read Brent’s summary of the very complicated ST Express changes. It’s worth highlighting that the expectation that Link will run at 15-minute intervals through all of 2021 undermines the entire rationale of light rail. Given plummeting … Continue reading "The Link recovery plan is a disappointment"

North Seattle Metro / Link restructures Lamenting Link frequency (10:54) Collapse is a choice (18:28) Reconnect West Seattle (25:29)Bellevue I-405 (39:26) Mt. Rainier bus ideas (44:37) Download link

Yesterday, King County Executive Dow Constantine transmitted the proposed Metro budget for 2021-2022. The budget eliminates several planned RapidRide expansions. Metro will dig into reserves to fund service, and will defer a planned increase in fares. The budget also funds a significant expansion of the electric battery bus fleet. The depletion of reserves sets Metro … Continue reading "Metro budget cuts RapidRide expansions"

As part of ST3, Sound Transit is planning to run three BRT lines (branded as Stride), two of which will run predominantly on I-405. These are going to be line S1, running from Burien to Bellevue, and line S2, running Lynnwood to Bellevue. Both lines are going to meet at Bellevue Transit Center, where transfers … Continue reading "How will Stride BRT serve Bellevue Transit Center?"

Those of you who commute to work via a King County Metro express bus may find your route gone this morning. Today is the first weekday of Metro’s biannual service change. It is probably the most painful service change Metro has ever undergone. David Lawson covered the details of how many routes have been savaged … Continue reading "Metro’s darkest day"

The lede is buried at 1:05 into the hearing. Nationwide deaths from the virus have surpassed 200K and worldwide cases have passed 30M. Please, please, please, wear your mask, and wear it properly, when around other people. This is an open thread.

King County Metro has been and continues to be shutting down an unprecedentedly long list of routes while the virus sets its own long-term calendar, with new cases worldwide topping 300K daily. And yet, like a bad zombie TV series, my silly bus stop in Georgetown that I rarely see anyone else use, persists. Yes, … Continue reading "Zombie route diversions"

In January, we reported with some excitement on Metro’s initial plans to restructure bus service around the three new Link stations opening in fall 2021. Since then, a combination of COVID-19-driven resource constraints and some mixed public feedback has dampened Metro’s ambitions. The agency’s latest restructure proposal largely maintains the first proposal’s approach of replacing … Continue reading "Metro scales back North Link plans"

SDOT’s plan for replacing 4,800 cars per hour that used the West Seattle Bridge at peak includes 1,280 more people per hour riding buses in the peak direction. Once Covid has receded to the point that most people are returning to work, how feasible is this? That’s a little under 11 full articulated buses over … Continue reading "Buses and Reconnect West Seattle"

The three e-scooter pilot candidates are Lime, Wheels, and (confusingly!) LINK. Here’s the difference between them. The West Seattle Bridge may be reparable ($) after all. Keep Moving Streets extended through October 5th. Transit lanes on the Fremont Bridge. Puyallup reviews its Sounder garage plan. Public comment on $4.3 billion in spending allocated by PSRC. … Continue reading "News roundup:the difference"

[Update: the original post incorrectly implied that the Mercer Island city council meeting will be on 9/16, when it in fact will be on Tuesday 9/15. This has been fixed.] It’s hard to believe that more than ten years have passed since Bellevue and Sound Transit began their long slog over East Link routing. It … Continue reading "Editorial: Don’t let Mercer Island impede regional progress"

On Thursday, two Sound Transit committees heard staff recommendations for proceeding with paused actions this year. The seven project actions staff are recommending come to just $76 million, though they relate to some $7 billion of larger projects. Along the way, there were tantalizing clues to staff intentions about the larger realignment process to come … Continue reading "Near-term decisions offer clues to ST3 realignment"