Seattle Transit Blog

The Everett City Council voted Wednesday night to approve a new low-income fare category for Everett Transit, and set the fare at $1.50. ET Transportation Services Director Tom Hingson presented data from a fare survey that also included the option of not having a low-income fare, and the option of consolidating all reduced fares at […]

Today is the last day for most bills in Olympia to get voted out of their second chamber, by 5 pm. Many important bills have already passed both houses or died. Two sit on the bubble, waiting to get voted on today in the Senate, or to die for lack of making it to the […]

Addendum: Ryan Packer live-tweeted the floor debate. The State House voted 57-41 Monday to pass Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1793, which would allow automated camera enforcement of various traffic laws, including bus-only lanes. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon (D – Burien). The bill was amended in the House Transportation Committee to be […]

Letters from businesses, government agencies, and community groups show a citywide desire for the West Seattle and Ballard Link extensions to be almost entirely tunnels. Troublingly for Sound Transit, businesses on the Duwamish Waterway made conflicting demands about where to build the bridge that will cross the river mouth, which means a costly legal fight […]

Amazon going big in Bellevue Relatedly, East Link is “50% complete” which is I guess an important milestone? Video Overview of PSRC’s latest long-range plan TriMet (Portland) eliminating paper tickets next year Transpo budget clears the state senate, still has lots of highway widening Rashomon in Wedgwood – a great piece of writing Cool transit maps […]

Trailhead Direct begins its second full year of service on Saturday, April 20, with expanded routes to two new trails with assistance from the county and state parks departments. Last year, King County Metro used additional funding from the Seattle Transportation Benefit District to run from April to October on three routes between Seattle and […]

Crossing 4th and 2nd Avenues South at their intersections with Jackson Street is a harrowing experience. The intersection is wide—four busy lanes plus a little extra—and the signal is short. Crossing the both intersections on the same signal cycle is hard, unless you’re jogging. That intersection is right in the middle of one of the […]

I am totally tempting fate here by posting this, so sorry if I anger the gods, but I wanted to take a moment to recognize that there were no mudslide-induced cancellations on Sounder North this year. Sound Transit’s Bonnie Todd noted it at the last ST ops committee meeting (video – skip to the ~13 minute […]

The free WiFi in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel is no more. Readers asked us what happened, so I followed up with Metro and Sound Transit to find out. “Our networking team reported that the equipment was past its end-of-life and was expected to be taken down after March 23rd when Metro exited the tunnel,” […]

When it comes to commuting, we may be winning the War on Cars in Seattle proper, but pretty much everyone else in the Puget Sound region is still driving to their free parking at work every day. According to the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC), 63 percent of commuters drive to work alone. The figure […]

Community Transit’s Board of Directors approved a proposal Thursday afternoon to create a low-income fare category, and make the fare half the regular fare, rounded down to the nearest quarter. The new fare category will take effect July 1. CT will be only the second agency in the ORCA pod where low-income ORCA users will […]

The 830 Northern Dalesman is an inter-city bus route in the Yorkshire Dales of northern England. It takes two hours to complete its 40-mile journey from Richmond to Ingleton, and the BBC decided to film one of its daily runs. This is an open thread.

Mayor Jenny Durkan wants Sound Transit to study more alignments in the West Seattle and Ballard extensions. The City asked for “additional study, problem solving, and refinements in West Seattle, Chinatown/International District, SODO, and mid-town segments” in a letter to Sound Transit signed by Sam Zimbabwe, the new director of SDOT. Chinatown/International District (CID) residents […]

Sound Transit is pushing ahead with fare enforcement reform. At last week’s Board meeting, CEO Peter Rogoff announced that the agency has formed a working group that will study changes to the existing fare enforcement process. He updated a Board committee on the goals of the working group in comments at a meeting yesterday. “[We] […]

UW Station stairs now always open. Latest Bike Master Plan is substantially less ambitious. ECB with more. The backlash is immediate. ST Board not wild about current fare enforcement policy. Kent Maintenance Facility battle escalates to the dueling consultant phase. House approves highway-intensive 2019-21 transportation budget. Praise for hero Metro driver. With more supply coming […]

While West Seattle and Ballard (and Eastside BRT!) have been getting all the media attention, Sound Transit continues to refine Tacoma Dome Link extension, a 4 station, ~10 mile connection that will complete the southern end of the light rail spine by 2030. The Tacoma Dome Link extension is not to be confused with the […]

Sound Transit has significantly refined the design for I-405 BRT which is anticipated to begin service in 2024. The final set of refinements from Phase 1 of design were shared with the System Expansion Committee at their March meeting. The design changes reduce travel times on the corridor and improve reliability. The shorter travel times […]

On Sunday, Community Transit capped six years of planning and construction on the Swift Green Line with an opening ceremony and a full day of joyriding by hundreds of people. The opening of the Green Line and its northern terminal at the new Seaway Transit Center also triggered a restructure of routes across the Community […]

Re-timed video with added sounds.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and other Seattle elected officials sharply questioned Sound Transit officials at a public meeting about the West Seattle and Ballard Link extensions yesterday. Sound Transit convened the meetings to address the Chinatown/International District (CID) and Delridge stations. The agency probably hoped to lower heat on simmering discontent about the Seattle extensions’ […]

Mayor Durkan kills the permitted and planned bike lane on 35th Ave NE Good account from the folks who spent the last decade planning for the future of 35th Ave On a related note, sometimes it feels like articles written about Seattle are describing an entirely different city The Times recaps the first week of […]

Yesterday’s Sound Transit Board meeting featured lots of talk about bus drivers and Rob Johnson. Board members, Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff, and union officers praised the heroism of Metro bus operator Eric Stark, who delivered dozens of passengers to safety after a gunman opened fire on Stark’s bus and general traffic on Lake City […]

So much good stuff in this Mike Lindblom piece on First Avenue buses (including the title!) in the Times: The C Line is the busiest of 12 former Alaskan Way Viaduct routes that serve nearly 30,000 passengers from West Seattle, White Center or Burien. They moved last month to the Highway 99 tunnel’s new stadium-area […]

On Tuesday, SDOT announced an ugly split-the-baby solution to community deadlock over the planned redesign of 35th Ave NE, the central neighborhood arterial of Wedgwood and Bryant. The solution seems custom-designed to upset everyone in the debate, sacrificing both the bike lanes recommended in the city’s own Bike Master Plan and the street parking that […]

Two people were killed when a gunman opened fire in NE Seattle tonight. Our thoughts are with the victims’ families. Thanks to the quick-thinking bus driver who managed to drive passengers to safety.

With the Spring 2019 service change, routes 21X, 55, 56, 57, 113, 120, 121, 122, 123, 125, and C Line began serving two stops on 1st Ave. This will be the first time this century that [ed: some of these] southwest Seattle routes will connect directly to Pioneer Square. Both stops are centered on King […]

Sound Transit and King County Metro provided an update to the Mercer Island City Council on East Link’s construction progress on Tuesday, March 19. The presentation also included information about the future Mercer Island Transit Interchange, which is the new name for the project formerly known colloquially as the bus intercept. The general concept remains […]

In our last post we asked the Sound Transit Board to focus on elevated West Seattle options for ST3. A tunnel would lessen impacts but $700 Million in Seattle transit funding is far better spent on transit expansion. The focus for the ST3 planning process should therefore be to craft the best possible elevated option. […]

How’s the first PM commute with buses on surface streets?

As a transit fan and lover of maps, I’ve always been captivated by the screens in control rooms that show the status of every vehicle in service.Those maps inspired me to use the real-time data provided by transit agencies to create one of my own. Before long, a simple set of pins on a map […]

This is an open thread.

Whole lot of construction going on (source) The state of congestion pricing in U.S. cities Sound Transit is looking for feedback on upgrades to Edmonds Sounder station MHA finally crosses the finish line. Good recaps from Crosscut and Erica C. Barnett and a nice op-ed from the Sierra Club What’s next on the housing agenda? […]

With buses leaving the tunnel Saturday, there is no particular reason to be on the platform without a paid fare. Therefore, Sound Transit will consider the platform a fare-paid zone beginning Saturday. “ORCA readers will be removed later, during the rollout of Next Gen ORCA,” said ST’S Kimberly Reason. As trains get ever more crowded, […]

Each of the three potential Delridge Link station sites has substantial tradeoffs, including varying amounts of resident displacement and housing demolition. Like the Chinatown/International District (CID) station, the Delridge station is controversial. Each station has drawn the attention of Seattle elected officials, who will dig into both stations at a special meeting on March 29. […]

New letter today from the multimodal MASS Coalition, of which STB is a member: On Saturday, buses will permanently move out of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT) leading to 830 new bus trips on already crowded surface streets in Downtown Seattle. The city has made important improvements with the new 5th/6th Avenue bus lanes […]

by Dale Menchhofer tl;dr: This post proposes a new option for the Interbay – Ballard segment of the West Seattle – Ballard light rail project that is measurably and significantly better than any of the remaining official options. The major components are (1) an aerial bridge over the BNSF rail yard, (2) an optional station at […]

Two of our most anticipated events of the year are coming up this weekend, providing Seattleites with a chance to celebrate transit and the start of spring. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, the final bus will run through the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel before it is handed over to Link light rail trains […]

Great scoopfrom Mike Lindblom and Daniel Beekman in the Times: Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff is considering hiring private contractors to drive four Sound Transit Express routes between the Eastside and Seattle, prompting quick outrage from labor leaders who called the move a threat to existing union jobs. A few quick thoughts. First, it’s amazing that once-beleaguered Metro […]

It’s been almost a year since our last photographic update of the Northgate Link stations, and a substantial amount of progress has been made. Sound Transit still has its eyes on a September 2021 opening date for the line, but there is plenty of float time to burn while the most challenging construction has wrapped […]

One of the most contentious aspects of the ST3 Link extensions is the Chinatown/International District (CID) station and alignment debate. In the simple version of the argument, CID activists oppose a 5th Avenue South alignment because of worries that the station will cause interminable construction impacts, and, in doing so, strike a decisive blow of […]

Tomorrow is Transit Operators Appreciation Day. This is an open thread.

The Seattle Times has a spreadsheet tracking every Transportation-related bill in Olympia A good chunk of the latest proposed highway bill pays for fish culverts. Here’s why WSB has detailed notes from a Sound Transit open house in West Seattle Why Portland shouldn’t be widening freeways Provocative research paper looks at Seattle and contends that […]

Green, pro-transit legislators like Senator Rebecca Saldaña (D-37, Seattle) drew criticism from their allies when they voted last week in favor of a committee bill to implement a carbon pricing program—and spend its revenues on emissions-generating highway projects. However, it’s not that simple, according to Saldaña. She says that voting for highway projects now creates […]

Orange and white Rider Alert signs are sprouting around the city like early March crocuses, which must mean it’s time for another Metro service change. Not so long ago, we dreaded these. Now we look forward to them. We’ve now had four years of improvements without any significant pain, as a combination of continued sales […]

As we mentioned yesterday, HB 1793, a bill that would authorize automatic cameras to prevent bus lane cheating and blocking the box, is in danger of failing. The bill, sponsored by Representative Joe Fitzgibbon (D-34, Seattle), would allow Seattle to install cameras that would take photos of a violator’s license plate when a driver blocks […]

Car tabs in the legislature Transportation bill in the legislature (5:05) ST3 costs (22:39) Note: after recording, Sound Transit verified that the cost estimate applies to the representative alignment. Next steps for housing affordability (30:50) Delridge, Rainier, and the state of RapidRide (37:23) Download link

Update: Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 1110 passed 53-43-0-2 this evening after 9 amendments and hours of debate. It now goes to the Senate, where it faces an even tougher audience. 5:00 Wednesday is the deadline for bills to get voted out of their original chamber. Second Substitute House Bill 1110, which would bring Washington […]

At its March meeting Monday, the Regional Fare Coordination Committee, a.k.a. ORCA Joint Board, unanimously approved an agreement that would allow the Seattle Center Monorail to start accepting ORCA payments. The estimated start date for ORCA on the monorail is Metro’s September service change. In the meantime, the monorail has started accepting debit/credit card payment. […]

Graham Johnson’s KIRO report on ST3 cost escalation was notable for its literate discussion of inflation adjustment: Sound Transit says the estimate in ST3 was $5.8 billion in 2014 dollars, which the agency considers equivalent to $6.8 billion in 2018 dollars. The newest estimate is $7.5 billion in 2018 dollars. First of all, good for […]