Seattle Transit Blog

Feigned helplessness is one of the least attractive qualities in a state or local politician. Dunking on Olympia, or on President Trump, is the cheapest kind of talk when policy tools exist in Washington to address our most serious problems. Not all of our current crises are solvable with money, but it could blunt the … Continue reading "Collapse is a Choice"

by ADAM SCHECHTER SDOT’s plan for replacing 4,800 cars per hour that used the West Seattle Bridge at peak includes 950 more people per hour using waterborne transit. Once Covid has receded to the point that most people are returning to work, how feasible is this? The draft SDOT framework requires “options to increase capacity … Continue reading "The ferries and Reconnect West Seattle"

While we lament the loss of Seattle’s frequent bus network (which has largely been in place since the opening of University Link in 2016), Pierce Transit is in a much more dire situation. Due to a smaller sales tax base, and the fact that Pierce Transit currently only levies a 0.6% sales tax (with measures … Continue reading "Pierce Transit cuts Sunday frequency to save bus network"

Alex Pedersen floats the idea of canceling RapidRide J (Roosevelt), but it’s still on track. Update on Rainier Ave improvements. Metro rolls out new Covid safety measures. This TNT editorial ($) is wrong, but does provide important information about how Pierce Transit will change. After Council vote, scooters are formally coming to Seattle. Alex Pedersen … Continue reading "News roundup: important information"

While riding a Metro bus last week, I finally witnessed an operator using his authority to get a rider who refused to wear a mask off the bus. The rider boarded the bus, talking to himself loudly, and sat in the back. The operator played the canned message about needing to wear a mask. He … Continue reading "When public health tactics collide on the bus"

Sound Transit recently released its proposed 2021 Service Plan, in which it prepared for the pandemic to continue through the duration of 2021, by continuing the suspension of ST Express routes 541, 544, and 567 indefinitely, continuing to have pared-down service on most other routes, and making 15-minute off-peak headway on Link Light Rail the … Continue reading "Getting more savings from Link feeder buses"

Sen. Markey defeated Cong. Joe Kennedy III, the first ever primary loss for the Kennedy dynasty, last Tuesday. This is an open thread.

Sound Transit has put out its proposed 2021 Service Implementation Plan, with a user-friendly online synopsis, and is taking public input through Thursday, September 24. You can offer your input through an online survey (with eight language choices), through remote participation in a public hearing scheduled for 11 am on September 24, or by submitting … Continue reading "Sound Transit proposed 2021 Service Implementation Plan, upcoming cuts"

Last month the National Park Service started asking what to do about crowds at Mount Rainier National Park overwhelming parking and road space. More parking would be very expensive and undesirable for the atmosphere of the park. Anywhere parking and road space are at a premium, transit is an obvious answer. But what would be … Continue reading "A bus to Mt. Rainier"

Snohomish County is continuing its virtual public engagement for its “Light Rail Communities” project, which will be used to decide on placemaking and zoning around two (or potentially three) light rail stations between Lynnwood and Everett. Previous rounds had solicited feedback on station locations and multimodal access to those locations. This fifth round, open until … Continue reading "Snohomish County asks for community ideas on housing types near light rail"

Sound Transit’s 6-year Draft Transit Development Plan is out. Not much interesting in it, although yearly ridership charts show ridership was plateauing across all modes in 2019. There’s a public hearing on it Thursday. Clallam Transit also has a 6-year plan. Incredibly, the Point Defiance Bypass is still not operational ($). King County promises 50% … Continue reading "News Roundup: Plateauing"

Metro has been signaling for a long time that major service cuts were coming. Between the impending expiration of Seattle STBD funding (with only very partial replacement) and the major loss of sales tax revenue caused by COVID-19, the funding picture is drastically different than it was a year ago. Now we know just how … Continue reading "Two Axes to Swing for Metro in September"

SDOT presented the Seattle Transit Advisory Board with a set of design concepts for the Route 40 corridor, slated to get priority bus treatments as part of the Move Seattle Levy. One of the most popular routes in the system, Route 40 also intersects with several other popular routes on its way from Downtown through … Continue reading "Route 40 improvements at 30% design"

This is an open thread.

When the RapidRide K Line opens on the Eastside in 2025, it’s hardly expected to gain the same fanfare as East Link will two years before it. Nonetheless, better high-capacity bus service is no less deserving of a sensible complementary land use policy that maximizes available development opportunities. The full alignment has yet to be … Continue reading "Upzone opportunities for RapidRide K"

As reported by the Mercer Island Reporter Thursday, the Mercer Island City Council is again preparing to sue Sound Transit. In an open letter, the City Council contends: It is essential for all Islanders to understand that the Bus/Rail Interchange, as currently proposed by Sound Transit, is in breach of the 2017 Settlement Agreement between … Continue reading "Mercer Island sues Sound Transit, this time over buses"

ECB is concerned we’re going to blow our opportunity to have scooter share. HNTB will design the West Seattle Bridge replacement — not that they’ve ruled out just repairing it. Seattle Transit Advisory Board (STAB) looking for new members. Lily Fowler explores riding in the time of Covid. SBB points out problems with the e-scooter … Continue reading "News roundup: blowing it"

As observant reader Brian Bradford brought to our attention, TriMet is installing metal face mask dispensers on their buses, streetcars, and trains. Thanks, Brian! Mask dispensers have also been installed in transit vehicles by: New York MTA, which uses the clever name of “Operation Respect”. Detroit DOT Dallas Area Rapid Transit The Regional Transportation Commission … Continue reading "Face mask dispensers"

As reported previously, south King County is seeing a major change in service coming in September. While nearly all of the all-day service from earlier proposals remains intact in the final service change, the proposed peak-hour Seattle express routes have been scaled down drastically. Metro is currently suspending all south King County peak-only express routes … Continue reading "Bring back Seattle express routes as Link feeders"

On August 6th Sound Transit’s Rider Experience Committee met to discuss its evolving “scorecard” for ride quality. It’s a promising set of metrics, but it would be great if the committee’s writ expanded beyond current service to the future. The scorecard has metrics in five categories: dependable, safe, available, clean, and informed. The individual items … Continue reading "Rider Experience Committee tracks service quality"

Bellevue Tunnel Completion: East Link's Underground Milestone from Sound Transit on Vimeo.

King County Metro is preparing to roll out its South King County route restructure on September 19, as party of its semi-annual regular service change (not to be confused with the ad hoc changes that have been rolled out on short notice all spring and summer). Frank reported on the semi-final proposal back in March. … Continue reading "South King County route restructure to break up high-performing 180"

On Wednesday, the Seattle Transportation & Utilities Committee approved two ordinances (starts at 1:54:14) related to e-scooter operations. The full council will vote on September 8th. The bills are CB 119867 and 119868. Slides for both are here. They both passed, with Gonzalez, Morales, and Strauss voting yes and Pedersen no. The former would allow … Continue reading "Council committee approves e-scooter pilot"

After years of Congressional pressure and the occasional serious accident, Amtrak announced last week that it’s completed deployment of Positive Train Control (PTC) on all track sections and locomotives that it owns. Cascades PTC work was complete in March 2019. The Coast Starlight and Empire Builder don’t use any Amtrak-owned track, though they do use … Continue reading "Amtrak completes PTC"

Uber and Lyft drivers to get paid more, at least in Seattle. San Juan ferry delays getting worse this year. Ballard/Interbay transit meeting tomorrow. Better access for UDistrict Station. SDOT Scooter share plan to go before council today; may launch this fall. But the scooters have already arrived in unincorporated White Center. “Portland just passed … Continue reading "News roundup: the best in US History"

SDOT’s proposed RapidRide G line will now open in 2024 after SDOT and the Federal Transit Administration have agreed that the agency has the chops to complete the project. FTA had raised concerns in February about staffing issues and other timeline aspects of the 2-mile BRT line, first conceived in 2011. Those concerns threatened the … Continue reading "RapidRide passes federal muster for Fall 2024 opening"

Community Transit has begun a public beta test of a new trip planning interface on its website using the OpenTripPlanner system. The trip planning website will be able to provide real-time departure information and service alerts for Community Transit routes and integrate with other regional agencies, including Everett Transit, Metro, and Sound Transit, in a … Continue reading "Community Transit tries out new trip planner"

The original webpage for this webinar is here. This is an open thread.

Bellevue is in the midst of its “South Downtown I-405 Access Study,” which is expected to wrap up at the end of the year. The East Main Link Station opening in 2023 is expected to spur development in the area below Main Street, which in turn will add to congestion in the area. The City … Continue reading "Will Bellevue’s I-405 project do anything for station access?"

The Spokane Transit Authority will be purchasing a set of double-decker buses for use on the Cheney Line, one of its High Performance Transit routes set to begin service next year. A $2.95 million FTA grant awarded this week will help fund the purchase of up to seven coaches, which would enter service in 2023, … Continue reading "Spokane looks to use double-deckers for its next high-capacity corridor"

Oppose the SPD subpoena. Portland abolishes single family zoning. From being a leader 5 years ago, Seattle is now a laggard on legalizing density. SDOT completes another bureaucratic step for federal funding for RapidRide G. But Heidi Groover points out ($) that it’s now 5 years late and $13m over budget. California Judge says Uber … Continue reading "News roundup: not all the way"

Sound Transit recently revealed that as of September 19, 2020, Link Light Rail will run every 15 minutes during the day on weekdays and weekends, and every 8 minutes at peak. Link will still drop down to 30 minute headways in the evenings. This will be the first time since early April that Link will … Continue reading "Link to run every 15 minutes starting September 19"

Seattle TBD goes to the ballot County TBD?(18:35) West Seattle options (20:46) Bremerton BRT (31:26) 130th & 145th St station plans (40:07) Download link

Alert commenter Tlsgwm noted that Sound Transit has once again started publishing quarterly ridership reports, which had been MIA since last November. In July, the agency released the 2019 Q4 and 2020 Q1 reports simultaneously. Sounder ridership was mostly flat (North Sounder was down by nearly 6% but overall Sounder dropped by 0.3%, a testament … Continue reading "Sound Transit’s ridership data shows early COVID impacts"

This is an open-air thread.

Link Light Rail has become little more than an exercise in keeping a transit line running during the pandemic. Although it is one of the safest transit options in town due to social distancing, because of dramatically low ridership and the ability to choose different cars, it has nevertheless become nearly useless for getting its … Continue reading "A way to restore Link frequency and save money"

Hard to believe we haven’t had normal light rail service since early January… Seattle will soon enforce West Seattle Bridge traffic restrictions with cameras. $75 fine! Happy birthday SBB. Interbay study is not going great. Jump bikes doubling to 2,000, but Lime says they won’t be profitable without scooters. They claim bikes are 2-3x more … Continue reading "News roundup: happy birthday"

The double crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic and the West Seattle Bridge’s closure has left tens of thousands of people stuck in commuting limbo. As demand for commuter capacity begins rising again, Metro is preparing several scenarios based on bridge availability, bus capacity, and funding impacts related to the pandemic. The West Seattle Bridge Closure … Continue reading "Metro draws up service scenarios for West Seattle"

Bremerton is finishing up a plan to upgrade the pedestrian, bike, and transit facilities along the State Route 303 corridor, which connects Central Bremerton with its northern reaches. Today, SR 303 is a “commute corridor”, in the words of Mayor Greg Wheeler, but he wants to “give our city priority” by giving “walkers, bicycles, and … Continue reading "Bremerton contemplates BRT"

Vertical construction has reached the northernmost of Seattle’s Link stations, bringing with it plans to improve surrounding streets for all modes. While both stations at NE 130th Street and NE 145th Street will be at freeway exits that bookend the Jackson Golf Course, there is room for better access, especially from the east and west. … Continue reading "Seattle presents potential improvements around light rail stations at 130th and 145th"

Since my last fit-throwing over passengers not wearing face coverings on buses, I’ve seen noticeable improvement in passengers having masks. Now, we need to figure out how to get them to put the masks on, over their mouth and nose, before they board the bus, and how to get them to keep the masks on. … Continue reading "Give operators more tools to enforce mask-wearing"

How WSDOT tests roundabout designs in partnership with transit agencies. This is an open thread.

We recently wrote about Sound Transit’s updated plans for SR 522 Stride. In this update, Sound Transit revealed that it wants to drop plans to run its Stride line to Woodinville at half frequency (and without any BRT infrastructure east of Bothell). Instead, Sound Transit intends to run an ST Express peak-only bus from Woodinville … Continue reading "Send the Woodinville bus to UW, not Bellevue"

Still actively discouraged from taking the bus, I had the opportunity to try out Gig car share recently. While the overall experience won’t surprise any Car2Go/ReachNow/ShareNow user since they ditched the smart cars, there are a few changes that might give the venture a chance where others failed. The ride Finding a car on the … Continue reading "Test drive: GIG carshare"

WSTC gets an incredible slate of transportation briefings. Riding Amtrak in a pandemic. Pierce Transit trying “Runner” on-demand vans ($) on the waterfront starting next month. Build the West Seattle Bridge out of wood? Many local government workers at home for the rest of 2020 ($). TriMet increases capacity by decreasing distancing to 3 feet. … Continue reading "News roundup: at home"

Budget shortfalls and COVID-19 have hit Amtrak Cascades service hard, according to a post last week on the WSDOT blog. Only one train per day is currently running in either direction. Long-distance service like the Empire Builder and Coast Starlight have been reduced to three runs per week. Before COVID hit, WSDOT and Sound Transit … Continue reading "Amtrak Cascades faces a long road back"

As expected, the Seattle Council approved a November ballot measure to renew its Transportation Benefit District 9-0 and preserve existing Metro service. The real action was in the amendments. (The discussion begins at 1:11:00 in the video above). The expiring measure included a 0.1% sales tax and $60 vehicle license fee. As the latter may … Continue reading "TBD headed to the ballot"

Today at 2pm, the Seattle Council is voting to send renewal of the Transportation Benefit District (TBD) to the November ballot. As eight of nine council members are already on record in support, passage of something is inevitable. The uncertain parts are what amendments will go with it. The baseline legislation is a renewal of … Continue reading "Seattle TBD vote is today"

Osaka Metro shows you how to open the window for fresh air on their various train models.

A letter from King County Executive Dow Constantine and four Councilmembers (Balducci, Dembowski, Upthegrove, Kohl-Welles) expressed support for the Seattle Transportation District (TBD) effort, while pledging to pursue a countywide measure “at an appropriate time.” The letter is delicately balanced between applauding Seattle’s effort to maintain service, while stressing the need for a regional measure … Continue reading "King County letter cracks door for regional TBD"