Seattle Transit Blog

Two reports on the causes of Link's many unplanned outages ($) were released on Thursday, as Mike Lindblom at the Seattle Times writes. One report is by engineering consultant HNTB; the other is a Sound Transit internal review. The reports identify 432 hours (10 workweeks) of unplanned 1 Line disruptions, delays, and shutdowns between January ... Continue reading "The Reasons Behind Link Outages"

King County Metro route 160 travels inbound from Auburn Transit Center to Renton Transit Center, via Kent and Benson Hill. Outbound trips travel in the reverse direction. In January 2025, Route 160 had 5,050 average weekday boardings. Average Ridership Per Trip The plots below show the average weekday ridership by stop in each direction, color-coded ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for King County Metro Route 160"

66 daysuntil theDowntown Redmond Link Extension opens. Transportation: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread.

At last week's Sound Transit Board meeting, Sound Transit's West Seattle project manager Brad Owen showed the extend of the guideway from the SODO station along the Spokane viaduct, across Highway 99 to the Duwamish bridge. He explained that rather than pouring its concrete deck in place, they plan to use precast segments. That will ... Continue reading "SODO guideway construction"

A tale of two cities: Utrecht and Fake London (Ontario, Canada). (Not Just Bikes) Both were walkable streetcar towns before cars, both went in a car-oriented direction in the mid 20th century. But in the 1990s Utrecht changed course and is now a walkers'/bikers'/transit riders' paradise. London is still a hellhole of car-dependent design and ... Continue reading "Sunday Movies: Utrecht & Cable-Stayed Bridges"

Originally around 2013, the Ballard Link Extension was envisioned as an at-grade alternative. Transit advocates and others pushed for complete grade separation for faster speed and reliability. Sound Transit extended the ST3 a decade and convinced the other sub areas to help fund a second transit tunnel. Unfortunately the preferred Ballard Link Extension has faced ... Continue reading "Ballard Light Rail At-Grade"

As Issaquah continues to grow, traffic has become a challenge. With I-90 running through the city and with major elevation differences between west and east, the few arteries are getting clogged. Now the city is considering another I-90 crossing. Would that address the problem? Or would it be better to increase transit options such as ... Continue reading "Issaquah Gondola"

Note: the site recently experienced downtime due to a clerical error, and is slowly coming back online. Apologies for the inconvenience. - Management. 73 daysuntil theDowntown Redmond Link Extension opens. Sounder Alert: Sound Transit sent an alert yesterday that the N Line is cancelled until tomorrow evening (2/27) due to a mudslide. ST spokespeople said ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: State of the City"

King County Metro's RapidRide F Line travels inbound (westbound) from Renton to Burien, via the Westfield Southcenter mall and Tukwila International Boulevard Station. Outbound (eastbound) trips travel in the reverse direction. In October 2024, the F Line had 5,107 average weekday boardings. Average Ridership Per Trip The plots below show the average weekday ridership by ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for RapidRide F Line"

Bogota is upgrading three of its high-quality TransMilenio BRT lines to an elevated metro line. (TheB1M) It's expected to open in 2028, with 1 million daily passengers. Here's a map: The metro line will follow the light blue, dark blue, and green lines from the western edge to the northeast edge. A second line was ... Continue reading "Sunday Movies: Upgrading BRT to Rail"

As planned late last year, Link service has been disrupted for several weekends this winter as Sound Transit works to complete several projects requiring closure of track in Downtown and the U-District. The final planned disruption was scheduled for this weekend (February 21 to 23) as a contingency weekend in case work completed the previous ... Continue reading "Weekend Link Disruptions Extended"

The Seattle Times recently reported that the Board selected 5 candidates for consideration from 60 applicants. After Julie Timm left, Goran Sparrman stepped in as Interim CEO, but he plans to retire on May 15th. A year ago, Sound Transit hired Terri Mestas to lead its construction projects. What would be expected from the next ... Continue reading "Sound Transit CEO Selection"

80 days until the Downtown Redmond Link Extension opens. Transit & Streets: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread. Are you interested in contributing to the Blog? Contact us.

The Rainier Valley line has been plagued by pedestrian and car accidents since it opened. The Sound Transit Board asked staff to develop a safety plan not only for Rainier Valley but also for other at-grade Link segments in SODO, on the Eastside (2 Line), and along Sounder (Lakewood). While some improvements have already been ... Continue reading "At-Grade Crossing Plan"

Why living near a freeway is bad for your health. (CityNerd) At 15:25 he mentions the Seattle Comprehensive Plan and the Roosevelt neighborhood. Trolley buses are better than battery buses. (Alan Fisher) This is an open thread.

King County Metro's Route 44 travels inbound from Ballard to UW Station via Wallingford and the University District. Outbound trips travel in the reverse direction. In October 2024, Route 44 had 6,663 average weekday boardings. Average Ridership Per Trip The plots below show the average weekday ridership by stop in each direction, color-coded by time ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for King County Metro Route 44"

The Father of Parking Reform UCLA Professor Donald Shoup (1938-2025), author of The High Cost of Free Parking, Parking and the City, and numerous articles, passed on Friday, February 7, at the age of 86. Donald Shoup was widely considered the the father of parking reform" (Bloomberg CityLab). StreetsblogNYC gathered tributes to the man known ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup: Donald Shoup (1938-2025)"

It has been several months since the RapidRide G Line opened. Along with the new bus line - arguably the region's first BRT line - there was a restructure in the area. To get an idea of how effective the new bus line and restructure was, I decided to look into the ridership data. Route ... Continue reading "Early Assessment of RapidRide G and Restructure"

An Issaquah-Ellensburg bus route would fill a hole in the transit network between Western and Eastern Washington. (The Transit Bandit) There's already an Ellensburg-Cle Elum connector, so a new route could have a timed transfer in Cle Elum to North Bend and the Issaquah transfer hub. This is an open thread.

The Tacoma Dome Link Extension will add 10 miles of elevated light rail from Federal Way to Tacoma Dome. There will be four light rail stations at South Federal Way, Fife, East Tacoma/Portland Ave and Tacoma Dome. The comment period for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement is open until next Monday, February 10. Most of ... Continue reading "Tacoma Dome Link Extension Draft EIS"

On January 25th the West Seattle Rethink the Link group invited the public to a forum to learn about the West Seattle Link Extension, and to discuss the pros and cons of bringing light rail vs increasing bus services in West Seattle. Martin Pagel from STB was one of the panelists to offer technical details, ... Continue reading "West Seattle Link Forum"

Transit & Streets: Land Use & Housing: Other News & Commentary: This is an Open Thread. Interested in lending your voice to the Blog?Contact us.

This morning, the Seattle Times ($) reported Metro is testing thicker, intrusion-proof" barriers to protect bus operators from attacks. The barriers will replace the safety partitions" Metro built in-house and installed across its bus fleet in September 2020 to protect drivers during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the Seattle Times notes, the use safety barriers for ... Continue reading "Metro testing beefier barriers to protect bus operators"

Sound Transit has opened an Online Open House" and public survey sharing updates on the Graham Street Station project, one of three infill station projects included in ST3. This latest online open house and survey closes on Friday, February 7. For an in-person experience, Sound Transit is hosting a public workshop tonight (5pm to 7pm) ... Continue reading "Narrowing the Options for Graham Street Station"

10 US transit project openings in 2025. (Transit Tangents) This was published December 31. A voice from Texas. Navigating Houston on only public transit. (Transit Tangents) The amazing transit comeback of Los Angeles. (Climate and Transit) This is an open thread.

Last year, Seattle voters approved the Transportation Levy, which will spend $1.55 billion on transportation projects over the next 8 years, averaging $193.75 million each year. Yesterday, SDOT announced its delivery plan for 2025, in which it expects to spend $174.8 million across the 11 Levy program areas. The plan notes that a major focus ... Continue reading "SDOT's Transit Projects for 2025"

Snow is expected this weekend, with mixed rain/snow on Saturday in downtown Seattle. Pure snow showers start early Sunday morning through Monday night, with a possible accumulation of less than half an inch every 12 hours. Tuesday through Thursday have a chance of snow showers. Lynnwood is similar. Boeing Field may get an inch Saturday ... Continue reading "First Snow of 2025"

WSDOT is currently conducting an I-5 master plan study. The primary focus for the Seattle metro area involves converting HOV lanes into express toll lanes. While the current study won't be finalized for another four years (until 2029), previous completed studies from 2010 to 2012 that provide a good starting point. Existing HOV to Tolled ... Continue reading "I-5 Toll Conversion"

At the future Marymoor Village Station this morning, Sound Transit announced the Downtown Redmond Link Extension will open on May 10, 2025. The opening will extend the 2 Line by 3.4 miles from its current terminus at the Redmond Technology Station to Downtown Redmond, with a stop near Marymoor Park south of the intersection of ... Continue reading "Downtown Redmond Link Opening May 10"

WSDOT has been working on extending and completing the HOV lane system through the Puget Sound region encompassing King, Pierce, and Snohomish County. This article will provide a short recap of the existing freeway system as well as future extensions, though predominantly focusing on the HOV improvements for transit purposes. Many of the existing HOV ... Continue reading "WSDOT HOV Overview"

Planned disruptions of the Link 1 Line continue: Shuttle buses will replace train service between U District and Capitol Hill stations this weekend (Feb. 1-2). This weekend is focused on repairing the overhead wire near UW Station which was broken in October. Transit and Streets: Land Use and Housing: Commentary and Miscellaneous: This is an ... Continue reading "Midweek Roundup"

Cross-platform interchanges allow much easier transfers between two lines heading in the same direction. Implementing a cross-platform interchange station at SODO station could help connect Line 1 and 3 much better. Though there are some complications to building a cross-platform interchange. Split Spine's Many Transfers The extensions of Link Line 1 north to Everett and ... Continue reading "Improving SODO Station with Cross Platform Transfers"

A downtown tunnel could speed up Portland's MAX light rail. (RMTransit) This is an open thread.

On January 21, Sound Transit interim CEO Goran Sparrman identified Link's ongoing reliability issues as an emergency, allowing him to issue a $1.5 million contract to HNTB to plan and design fixes to several problems with Sound Transit's operational and network infrastructure. The Seattle Times ($) summarized the problems identified by Sound Transit as contributing ... Continue reading "Link Reliability Issues Declared an Emergency""

The end of 2024 culminated in many King County Metro Bus projects such as new bus cameras, Lynnwood Link restructures, and RapidRide G. This article will briefly explore Metro's 2025 and near future projects. RapidRide From the recent RapidRide prioritization reports, Metro plans to build the RapidRide I line (Renton via Kent to Auburn) by ... Continue reading "King County Metro's Projects in 2025 and Beyond"

During a recent meeting, the ORCA Joint Board quietly approved implementation of a long-desired feature for the One Regional Card for All (ORCA) system: the ability to pay fares with a contactless (tap-to-pay") credit or debit card or a smartphone mobile wallet. This marks a major step along the slower-than-expected implementation of the next generation" ... Continue reading "Open Payments coming to ORCA"

Transit & Streets: Land Use & Housing: Commentary & Miscellaneous: This is an Open Thread. Interested in lending your voice to the Blog? Contact us.

As Sound Transit wraps up construction of the Federal Way Link Extension, King County Metro has shared an initial bus restructure proposal. Wesley Lin previously covered the proposed changes in detail on the Blog. This post will look at the ridership patterns for the existing routes impacted by the proposed restructure. Metro's survey on this ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for South Link Connections"

King County Metro's RapidRide A Line travels inbound from the Federal Way Transit Center to Tukwila International Boulevard Station, primarily along State Route 99. Outbound trips travel in the reverse direction. In November 2024, the A Line was the third busiest bus route in King County with 9,407 average weekday boardings. As noted in a ... Continue reading "Ridership Patterns for RapidRide A Line"

The science of stop spacing. (RMTransit) Stop spacing and the power of density. (RMTransit) This is an open thread. This article will serve as an inauguration open thread for tomorrow, so any political-related comments go here. Monday and Tuesday will be two transit topics articles indirectly honoring Martin Luther King Jr, so comments in those ... Continue reading "Sunday Movie: Stop Spacing"

The Denny Way Paving project will repave 12 blocks of Denny Way as well as add curb bulbs, no-turn-on-red signs, 8 new curb ramps, and bus stop changes. The project predominantly focuses on pedestrian safety. Denny Way will be repaved from 5th Avenue (near Seattle Center) to Stewart Street (in SLU) for 11 blocks or ... Continue reading "Denny Way Repaving and Future Route 8"

Let's talk about density maps. The concept of a population density map seems easy: take the population and divide it by the area to retrieve the density. Unfortunately a major problem stands out: what exactly is the area to divide by and how to easily count the population? Traditional density maps suffer from unevenly-sized census ... Continue reading "Exploring Better Density Maps and Link Station Areas"

The Seattle Times ($) is reporting that recently-released 2023 Census data indicates the percentage of households in Seattle which do not own or lease a car reached 20% in 2023, the highest proportion since the Census started tracking rates of vehicle ownership: There were roughly 365,000 households in Seattle in 2023. Of those, around 74,000, ... Continue reading "Coming Down From Peak Car"

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

Pike/Pine renovation bicycle tour. (Best Side Cycling) The worst bike lane law in the world, in Ontario, Canada. (Not Just Bikes) This is an open thread.

Slain Metro operator Shawn Yim will be remembered by a bus and transit vehicle procession tomorrow, Friday January 10th. The procession begins at 10am, starting from Atlantic/Central Base, traveling up 4th Avenue to Seattle Center before turning south through the SR-99 tunnel and concluding at the Lumen Field Events Center, where a public memorial service ... Continue reading "Procession and memorial service for Shawn Yim set Friday"

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