Seattle Transit Blog

Two big proposals from the Mayor on affordable housing: MFTE reform and more permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness The King County Council approves paid spots at some popular park-and-rides Sound Transit starts construction on the innovative I-90 light rail tracks Not good: injuries and collisions on Seattle streets are at a nine-year high Self-driving … Continue reading "News Roundup: Eastrail"

In case you haven’t heard, Link celebrated its tenth birthday last week, bringing back memories of the long-past era of 2009. Since the first trains left Mount Baker Station on the morning of July 18, 2009, Link has carried over 125 million passenger trips and has become the single busiest transit corridor in the state. … Continue reading "The next 10 years for Link"

Metro is continuing to adjust routes and frequencies with the closure of the bus tunnel and, more recently, the Montlake freeway ramps. Route 41, one of few routes with over 10,000 daily riders, was moved to surface streets and has been stuck using the punctuality-melting Stewart Street I-5 offramp ever since. In an effort to … Continue reading "Metro tweaks the 41 & 271 as “Seattle Squeeze” gets real"

Transit integration at Mercer Island continues to move forward, but rough water appears to be on the horizon. When we last checked in, Sound Transit and King County Metro had presented three infrastructure options, the Limited, Improved, and Optimal Configurations, which could facilitate 12, 16, or 20 buses per hour, respectively. Since that time, the … Continue reading "Mercer Island bus-rail connection still in flux"

Two years ago I wrote a piece about the frequency and duration of Link service interruptions (blockages, accidents, power outages, etc). Given the recent, high-profile service meltdown on June 12, it makes sense to revisit the issue. How often do interruptions occur? How long do they last? Have they become more frequent or longer in … Continue reading "Is Link light rail seeing more service interruptions?"

On July 10, the King County Council formally approved March 2020 service changes for Metro. The service change implements the North Eastside Mobility Project with extensive changes to service in the Kirkland area. The service change had passed unanimously out of the Council’s Mobility & Environment Committee on July 2. Kirkland’s peak commuter services are … Continue reading "North Eastside buses will be restructured in March 2020"

The Moving All Seattle Sustainably Coalition, the Housing Development Consortium, and Tech 4 Housing recently held a forum for candidates for Seattle City Council District 6. Rooted in Rights produced the video and has provided a transcript. Participating candidates included, from left to right: Jay Fathi Sergio Garcia Melissa Hall Kate Martin Joey Massa John … Continue reading "Sunday Open Thread: Seattle District 6 MASS Forum"

The STB Editorial Board had less information to work with in District 5 than in the five races where the Move All Seattle Sustainable Coalition held forums. But between Councilmember Deborah Juarez’ record, and what the other candidates had to say, we had more than enough to see the clear differences. Excellent City Councilmember Debora … Continue reading "Seattle District 5 candidate ratings"

Puyallup planning downtown development ($). It looks like the Renton Water Taxi is going to happen. Previous report here. BC leaders lukewarm on HSR. TriMet trying attention-grabbing lights on buses. Farewell ReachNow ($). A rundown of Council candidate bike positions. Uber supports congestion pricing for all ($). The same, but for housing. Philadelphia fed study … Continue reading "News roundup: attention-grabbing"

Ten years ago today, some 45,000 riders boarded Link light rail for the first time and celebrated a new era in Seattle’s transit history: the long-awaited start to a real rail transit system. STB was there to cover every angle of the opening weekend (and the first days in revenue service), which are chronicled in … Continue reading "Happy 10th birthday, Link!"

Voters in District 4 are spoiled for choice. Almost all of these candidates might win our sole endorsement if in certain other districts. In this race, it’s almost a given to support more transit, bike lanes, and upzoning single family neighborhoods. To be excellent in this race, candidates have to show both relevant political experience … Continue reading "Seattle District 4 candidate ratings"

Last week we discussed Limebike raising its prices to 30 cents per minute. Numerous people have, using their apps, since reported a 25-cent rate. A spokesperson for Lime explains that “As we enter the busy summer travel months, we’ve adjusted our pricing in some markets to ensure that our service is reliable and that we … Continue reading "Clarification: Lime Prices"

After a series of community meetings the Washington State Transportation Commission (WSTC) and its “Ferry Advisory Committee – Tarriff” (FAC-T) hold every two years, the WSTC is proposing a schedule of fare changes. Various options were presented to the WSTC at its June meeting, before the Commission settled on its proposal to go to the … Continue reading "State Transportation Commission proposes low-income pilot project for Washington State Ferries, surcharge to build electric ferry"

In 2017, WSDOT published a feasibility study of high-speed rail (HSR) in the Vancouver-Seattle-Portland corridor. It estimated a $25-42 billion capital cost for a rail line that would carry about 5,000 riders a day in 2035 and would just cover operation costs by sometime in the 2040s. This hardly appeared promising, but was enough to … Continue reading "The business case for high speed rail"

As the last sections of the viaduct are removed, let’s remember another defunct waterfront fixture. This is an open thread.

Feds send $100m for Federal Way Link. Mike Lindblom has a great article on why Link takes so long ($). See also Zach from 3 years ago. Minor changes to Madison BRT, open house coming soon. First Hill Streetcar improvements watered down due to local opposition. Kirkland may add “missing middle” housing. A low-income fare … Continue reading "News Roundup: Minor Changes"

Housekeeping (1:04) Expedia (7:45) Endorsements (21:25) Next train signs (28:38) Community Transit restructures (32:48) Third Avenue (41:51) http://traffic.libsyn.com/seattletransitblog/STB_podcast_79.mp3 Download

King County Council will vote on a Park and Ride permit program next week. by HESTER SEREBRIN, VICKY CLARKE, ALEX BRENNAN, and TIM GOULD In Seattle, many of us are privileged with easy access to great bus service at any time of day. But the regional reality is pretty different for most folks. Until we … Continue reading "Permits will make park and rides more reliable and accessible"

Link service to Everett remains 17 years away from its estimated completion date, but the narrowing of station options is already progressing at the county level. Snohomish County is soliciting another round of public comments for its light rail station subarea plans, which cover the two stations in unincorporated area between Lynnwood and Everett: Ash … Continue reading "Snohomish County narrows down light rail station options for Mariner and Ash Way"

Regional leaders are nearing agreement on Vision 2050, a growth plan for the Puget Sound area through 2050. On Thursday, the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) is likely to approve the release of a Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (FSEIS). The new plan significantly shifts the distribution of regional growth to concentrate around high-capacity transit … Continue reading "The next regional growth plan will be transit-focused"

[CLARIFICATION 7/15/19: anecdotal evidence suggests that most people are quoted a rate of 25 cents a minute.] Last week, frequent commenter asdf2 made an important observation: On another note, the per-minute price to ride a Lime bike has now gone up again to $0.30/min., exactly double what it was just 6 weeks ago. Assuming 6-8 … Continue reading "Comment of the day: bikeshare"

I spent much of my childhood weekends playing Transport Tycoon. There is now a free version of the game called OpenTTD. This is an open thread.

SDOT is planning two more bus lane additions under their “spot improvements” program. This winter, SDOT plans to add a half block or so of westbound bus lane along N 45th St west of Stone Way. Only the 44 uses that stretch of road, around six buses per hour, just before it slips over to … Continue reading "Two small gifts for bus riders"

Community Transit has long discussed its plans to radically restructure its commuter and local bus networks in anticipation of Lynnwood Link, and its first concepts were presented to the Snohomish County Council this week. First noticed last month by The Urbanist, the agency briefed the County Council on its preliminary plans for its 600,000 annual … Continue reading "Community Transit begins study of Link-based restructure for 2024"

625 more battery buses ($), and a new base for them. Kent charging ST $6.7m for permitting work. Mountlake Terrace permitting in its last throes. Open House about a North Sammamish Park and Ride on July 11th. Seattle approaching 750,000 residents, is the fastest-growing large city in Washington on a percentage basis (!) Amazon to … Continue reading "News Roundup: Happy Fourth"

District 3 has six candidates running for the Seattle City Council, including incumbent Kshama Sawant. For some background on how our ratings work, read this. Excellent Among the candidates, one stands out as being unabashedly with us, full-tilt, on pretty much every issue. Logan Bowers is a small-business entrepreneur whose platform is entirely about urbanism. … Continue reading "Seattle District 3 candidate ratings"

Danny Westneat, in a very good Seattle Times column last week, tears into the hypocrisy of parking being built at downtown and SLU corporate campuses, particularly Expedia: This two-step between quietly nodding to our car-focused reality while espousing the greenest dreams perfectly captures what passes for transportation planning in the Emerald City. We wish you … Continue reading "On transit priority to Expedia"

Community Transit and Everett Transit are rolling out new low-income fares today, expanding the reach of the ORCA LIFT program that debuted in 2015, and expanded upon Kitsap Transit’s low-income fare program in place since 1985. Meanwhile, Everett Transit regular fares climb to $2 (and remain $2.50 on route 70). If your household income is … Continue reading "Snohomish County agencies roll out low-income fare today; Everett Transit regular fare goes up again"

There is a real estate bubble growing in China and massive cities of mostly empty buildings are going up. This is an open thread.

Some time ago I contemplated whether our buses—wherever they are on Coast Salish lands—would bear place names in dxʷləšucid (Lushootseed), the language of indigenous Coast Salish peoples from Nisqually all the way to Skagit. It was early winter of 2018 when I began packing for my trip to the Samoa archipelago. Something caught the corner … Continue reading "dxʷləšucid signs"

In 2009 the City of Seattle commissioned a study that called Third Avenue “uninviting, unattractive and generally a dreadful place to walk, shop or wait for a bus.” In 2014 Metro commissioned a design study on ways to fix the street. That led to the Third Avenue Transit Improvements Project, and will eventually result in … Continue reading "The Downtown Seattle Association wants to re-imagine Third Avenue"

After years of protests that it couldn’t be done, and six years of study and work, Sound Transit has finally found a way to put next train arrival times on the existing message boards at stations that opened in 2009. Capitol Hill and UW Station opened with this capability in 2016. Between Angle Lake and … Continue reading "Next train signs are finally here"

by SEATTLE SUBWAY People love riding Link. The more Sound Transit builds, the more Seattle votes with our feet. But planning and building expansions can take decades. It’s clear that we need Link expansion beyond what is currently planned, and our rapidly growing city and the burgeoning climate crisis demand we take action without delay. … Continue reading "Seattle: It’s time to start work on ST4"

District 2 has seven candidates for an open seat on the Seattle City Council. While none of them are uniformly outstanding on transit and land use issues, some are much better than others. As a reminder, here’s our rating system. Excellent The two candidates in this tier share a lot of common ground. They are … Continue reading "Seattle District 2 candidate ratings"

The Moving All Seattle Sustainably Coalition held a candidate forum for the Seattle City Council’s 4th District on May 30, 2019. Rooted in Rights made the video, and provided a transcript. Candidates attending included, from left to right: Cathy Tuttle Frank Krueger Beth Mountsier Joshua Newman Ethan Hunter Heidi Stuber Shaun Scott Emily Myers Sasha … Continue reading "Sunday Open Thread: District 4 MASS Forum"

The long-awaited second generation of Link light rail trains has arrived at Sound Transit’s OMF in SoDo. The Siemens-built S70 car was put on display for local media on Wednesday, giving a small look into the future of our light rail system. The display car, number 202, is the first of 152 Siemens light rail … Continue reading "Sound Transit shows off new Siemens light rail vehicles"

I recently returned from a week-long trip to three of Canada’s great cities, of which two have already been covered by previous Transit Report Cards (Vancouver and Montreal). While I may return to write about the latter, which has since undergone some significant changes in wayfinding, today’s transit report is focused on the third and … Continue reading "Transit Report Card: Ottawa"

Earlier this year, the King County Council ordered a review of funding options for Metro Connects. This Wednesday, the Regional Transit Committee receives a status update on the effort. It considers a $220 million increase in annual funding for Metro, enough to get Metro to its long-range service goals. Metro Connects is Metro’s long range … Continue reading "A funding plan for Metro Connects comes into view"

It appears Seattle may finally allow various types of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) in most of the city. These units generally provide inexpensive rental opportunities, but are frequently illegal to build. For a summary of where we stand today, you can’t do much better than the City’s onepager. (A somewhat longer summary is here.) The … Continue reading "ADU legislation moves along, with new wrinkles"

The Moving All Seattle Sustainably Coalition held a candidate forum for the Seattle City Council’s 3rd District on May 29, 2019. Rooted in Rights made the video, and provided a transcript. Candidates attending included, from left to right: Logan Bowers Zachary DeWolf Pat Murakami Ami Nguyen Egan Orion Kshama Sawant (incumbent) The forum for District … Continue reading "Sunday Open Thread: Seattle District 3 MASS forum"

There are two possible futures for Cascade rail service. Are they mutually exclusive? It’s been a whiplash-inducing year for intercity passenger rail in the US. The “Green New Deal” suggests the possibility of sweeping high speed investments at the same time as California’s project is retrenching. Colorado, a growing Western state where the population is … Continue reading "Which Way for Washington’s Intercity Rail Program?"

The Moving All Seattle Sustainably Coalition held its forum for Seattle District 2 city council candidates on May 28, 2019. Rooted in Rights made the video. Go to their website if the above video doesn’t work on your platform. Rooted in Rights also provided a transcript for the forum. Candidates attending included, from left to … Continue reading "Seattle District 2 MASS forum"

Michelle Baruchman in The Seattle Times, on Metro’s new 5-year contract with MV Transportation to provide Access service: Advocates in King County say they have raised concerns about Access for more than a decade, but it wasn’t until 2015 that the county began planning for an audit of the service, said Deputy King County Auditor … Continue reading "A new contract for Metro’s Access program"

The original genius (or sin, if you prefer) of the legislation that created Sound Transit was that it yoked together the region’s high capacity transit needs. The suburbs and the cities had to work together to get what they wanted, or no one would get anything, like a municipal prisoner’s dilemma. The West Seattle – … Continue reading "West Seattle – Ballard Link staggers towards the EIS"

Overview of the current state of high speed rail in the United States. This is an open thread.