Seattle Transit Blog

Swift’s Link connection Recovery fare (14:21) CDC’s questionable transit advice (21:55) ST’s revenue shortfall (27:12) Passenger ferries (34:08) Tacoma Dome Link (35:49) Download link

On June 1st, Sound Transit instituted a “recovery fare” of $1 on Link and $2 on Sounder through June 30th, after a period of not collecting fares at all. ORCA is still charged at the normal rate; cheaper fares are only available through ticket machines or the TransitGO App. Early reports say 19% of Link … Continue reading "The “recovery fare”"

After almost four months of consideration, Community Transit announced that it has picked the route to extend the Swift Blue Line to intersect with Link. It will maintain a stop at Aurora Village Transit Center, as shown above. Alternatives would have continued on Aurora, skipping the transit center. Meridian is a residential street less likely … Continue reading "Swift picks a Link extension"

It’s been 9 months since Sound Transit broke ground on Lynnwood Link, the first step towards a light rail spine in Snohomish County. While the past few months have gone in an unexpected direction, there has still been visible progress along the I-5 corridor from Northgate to Lynnwood. As with past photo tours, these shots … Continue reading "Photo Tour: Lynnwood Link, quarantine edition"

Things not looking great for the Point Wells development proposal, and a mooted Sounder Station there. The monorail is running again. Now Bellevue is closing streets to cars. Bye bye beg button. ECB on the future of Stay Healthy Streets. NACTO has new guidelines for Covid-proofing our streets. The dilemmas of a transit manager during … Continue reading "News roundup: disconcerting"

Over the lifetime of the ST3 program, Sound Transit now expects a revenue shortfall on the order of $8-12 billion. Without adjusting expenditures, the agency will run out of available debt capacity by 2028. On Wednesday afternoon, a Board workshop learned more about the depth of the financial crisis and began to review options for … Continue reading "Sound Transit faces $8-12 billion revenue shortfall"

The simplicity of the Seattle Transportation Benefit District (STBD) is a big part of its appeal: two straightforward taxes used to purchase Metro service hours. Back when it was first proposed, then-councilmember Nick Licata insisted that the money not go to what he considered wasteful capital projects (a.k.a. streetcars). But several years ago, with Metro … Continue reading "The ever-present allure of capital funds"

The Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) has a survey of potential passenger ferry routes on Lake Washington and Puget Sound. It’s part of a study commissioned by the Legislature earlier this year and due to be complete by January. The rather generously scoped study is to examine ferry opportunities across the twelve-county Puget Sound region. … Continue reading "Another passenger ferry study"

The Tacoma Dome Link Extension (TDLE) delivers rail from Federal Way to the Tacoma Dome, not to be confused with the “Tacoma Link” streetcar running today. It will offer a 35 minute ride from the Tacoma Dome to Seatac in 2030, compared to 37 to 74 minutes, less frequently and reliably, scheduled on ST 574 … Continue reading "Tacoma Dome Link reduces the options"

A series of meetings this week will select criteria for Sound Transit’s program realignment. A Board workshop will be held on Wednesday. On Thursday the Executive Committee expects to recommend evaluation criteria for projects to be altered or delayed. On June 25, the full Board is to approve those criteria before a further series of … Continue reading "Sound Transit to decide evaluation criteria for program realignment"

RapidRide H construction about to start. Seattle seeks federal money for the West Seattle Bridge, which makes feel better about prospects for light rail. Bike trips way up. Friend of the blog Greg Nickels and environmental activist Paulina Lopez to help sort out the West Seattle Bridge mess ($). Homes for 35,000 by light rail … Continue reading "News roundup: about to start"

Seattle added 11,440 residents in the year ended last July, faster growth than any other city outside the sunbelt, and enough to make Seattle America’s fastest growing large city since 2010. But that is still the fewest residents Seattle has added any year this decade, and a halving of the peak growth seen in 2016. … Continue reading "Seattle’s growth slows again as Eastside grows faster"

SDOT’s got a new survey out about light rail to West Seattle and Ballard. It’s different than the usual fare with a bunch of alternatives on a map. Instead, it’s a high-level questionnaire about principles. It asks respondents to rate 20 different values as “important” or “not important”. These values are sorted into bins called … Continue reading "SDOT Link Survey"

In 2014, Seattle voters approved a six-year tax package for Metro transit via the Seattle Transportation Benefit District (STBD). It included a 0.1% sales tax and a $60 vehicle license fee, and the taxes expire this December. In recent weeks, there have been hints that the expected renewal may not be on the Fall ballot. … Continue reading "Will the Seattle TBD be renewed?"

To support social distancing guidelines, King County Metro is considering a reservation system so that riders don’t get passed up on late-night routes (1 am to 5 am), according to an agency survey. Today, drivers are authorized to pass up riders at the stop once the number of passengers reaches 12 (for 40-foot buses) or … Continue reading "Metro considering reservations for late-night trips"

State Route 520 Redmond Pedestrian Bridge from Sound Transit on Vimeo.

Believe it or not, Seattle has had a long and illustrious history of public transit and exotic forms of transportation, dating back to the beginning of American settlement in the region midway through the 19th century. While rail nerds on the East Coast have the luxury of picking between hundreds (if not thousands) of good … Continue reading "A guide to researching Seattle’s transit history"

Metro ridership is holding roughly steady at about 100,000 boardings per weekday, or about 75% off 2019 levels. After last week’s restoration of some mid-day trips on some routes that are still relatively popular, Metro is sending out 6 more buses at night on the 7, A, and E to thin the crowds on those … Continue reading "Metro ridership flat, but with more night trips"

Happy 50th Forward Thrust, Take 2. C-Tran hasn’t cut anything but commuter routes; ridership fell in March but steady in April. A Trump tweet that doesn’t make you wince. Metro fined for “training violations.” ST restoring some service to Pierce County May 24th. ECB reveals the homelessness angle to ST’s new pandemic fare, and some … Continue reading "News roundup: climbing again"

For those who are still riding transit for essential business or activities, it’s time to dust off your ORCA cards and keep your cash and cards handy. Three regional agencies have announced plans to re-introduce fare collection as part of a phased recovery process. Beginning on June 1, Sound Transit, Pierce Transit, and Community Transit … Continue reading "Fares and service to be partially re-introduced on June 1"

Last week, King County Metro General Manager Rob Gannon delivered a sobering assessment of Metro’s challenges in returning to normal service. Funding from the CARES Act has back-filled most of the revenue declines for 2020, but massive shortfalls in fare and tax revenue lie ahead after that once-off money runs out. Between foregone fares and … Continue reading "Metro faces steep challenges in 2021"

Sounder North Tacoma BRT (13:40) No really, Tacoma BRT (31:30) Uber + Lime quasi-merger (43:25) Huzzah for safe streets (57:15) Download link

Christof explains further with photos in his Twitter thread.

Pierce Transit has released a new virtual open house for its bus rapid transit project, which is in the middle of final design. The bus rapid transit line will travel along 14 miles of Pacific Avenue (State Route 7) from Downtown Tacoma and Tacoma Dome Station to Spanaway, replacing the popular Route 1. The agency … Continue reading "Pierce Transit’s first bus rapid transit line to split between mixed and exclusive lanes"

Now the U-district contemplates a freeway lid. 20 miles of “Stay Healthy Streets” now permanent. Meet local hero Dongho Chang. I am not sure how STB will navigate a potential future where transit is once again primarily a social service rather than something people with economic options might use. Provide feedback on Star Lake Station. … Continue reading "News roundup: potentially grim"

CNBC: Uber Technologies CEO Dara Khosrowshahi outside the New York Stock Exchange ahead of the company’s IPO, May 10, 2019. Uber is leading a $170 million investment round in Lime, the electric scooter and bike rental company announced Thursday. Bain Capital Ventures, Alphabet and separately its venture capital arm GV are also participating in the financing round, Lime said. Under the deal, … Continue reading "With Uber’s investment, Lime is getting back into the local bike share game"

In response to “crowding” (by current standards) on some routes, Metro is restoring some trips this week on weekdays from 10am to 5pm: Based on operator availability, we are dedicating roughly 15 additional buses starting today to six routes where coaches are either reaching capacity or passing up customers to maintain social distancing guidelines. These … Continue reading "Metro restores some trips, ridership still way down"

When we wrote recently about Sound Transit’s post-COVID funding shortfalls, the comments conversation turned quickly to Sounder North. The lightly used commuter rail line is everybody’s favorite local example of a transit service serving too few riders at extreme costs per rider. As the only Sound Transit rail serving Snohomish County to date, it has … Continue reading "Whether to cut Sounder North?"

The Port of Seattle became the first governmental entity in the region to roll out a face mask requirement for everyone in public areas on Port property Saturday. SeaTac Airport is included in that mandate. On Friday, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced that an ordinance was in the works that would at least cover retail … Continue reading "Face mask laws coming"

In February, I wrote a piece detailing my thoughts on how to name the Link lines. In it, I prioritized usability and conformity with international best practice. The verdict is in, and Sound Transit have announced that Link lines will be numbered moving forward. In my opinion, this is great – they’re universal, and avoid … Continue reading "Reviewing the new Link line names"

As we all know, we are facing a dual crisis: a global pandemic, intertwined with the start of an economic depression. As restaurants, bars and stores are forced to close to curb the progression of COVID-19, hundreds of thousands in Washington State are losing their jobs. According to official statistics, nearly 630,000 Washingtonians filed for … Continue reading "Society will reopen one day. When that happens, we need free public transit"

Overview of Sound Transit construction in a pandemic. ST piloting fares below ORCA LIFT. Take the park and ride survey. Now the Overlake garage ($) is cracking. Steam locomotives on display in Washington. This is an open thread.

Parking garages and opportunity cost ST3 cuts (17:00) Future metro ridership (25:56) West Seattle bridge (34:19) Musings on a work-from-home future (42:07) Download link (Apologies for the audio quality on this one. We had an unexpected gear change before recording.)

Metro service in South King County has been the unsung hero of Seattle-area transit for many years, serving lots of lower-income people in mostly unwalkable communities but never quite getting the service improvements even Metro admits it deserves. The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted further the importance of the South End network, with virtually every South … Continue reading "KC Council considers South End service change for September"

We just got the annual report, but now there’s an update for SDOT’s 1st quarter projects (full report here). Covid-19 looms over everything, but the agency spent only about 2/3 of its budget mostly because of more quotidian delays: weather, permitting, and finding unexpected stuff underground. There’s tons of data on safety, sidewalks, bike improvements, … Continue reading "Move Seattle’s 1st quarter"

Cities: Skylines is basically the modern successor to SimCity. This guy is making a Seattle-inspired city complete with Link trains.

While light rail construction in Lynnwood is temporarily halted, the next extension to Everett will continue early planning and design as originally scheduled. Snohomish County has opened a new survey into their subarea planning for stations at Mariner (128th Street) and Ash Way (164th Street), located in the unincorporated area between Everett and Lynnwood. According … Continue reading "Snohomish County plots out light rail station area growth, wants feedback"

SDOT closing more streets to cars. A few more suggestions. WSDOT’s budget ($) is in trouble. Pierce Transit buses now serving as WiFi hotspots (!) Snohomish County picks Link station locations ($). Spokane buys some buses for its BRT line. Some construction starting again, including more for Sound Transit. Murals of Capitol Hill. Zillow going … Continue reading "News roundup: in trouble"

Yesterday, the Washington State Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge by King County and others to I-976, the initiative approved by statewide voters last November to remove car tabs. Yesterday’s decision fast-forwards the case so it moves directly from King County Superior Court to the Supreme Court without a transfer to the Court of … Continue reading "I-976 moves to the Supreme Court"