Seattle Transit Blog

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 […]

It’s not where you think, and not the kind of place you’d expect. This is an open thread.

At a City Council meeting on Tuesday, transportation and safe streets activists pointedly criticized the City’s slow pace in implementing its Vision Zero plan. They argued that the City’s progress on pedestrian and bicycle improvements lagged far behind road projects. At the same meeting, SDOT presented data indicating traffic deaths went down in 2018. According […]

In 2017 and 2018, the Move Seattle project looked at options for reallocating the five lane widths of Rainier Avenue from Kenny to Henderson St, to improve safety and speed up buses. The safest and most climate-friendly strategy would have deployed two general purpose lanes, two bus lanes, and a two-way cycle track. But given […]

More reserved parking at Edmonds and Mukilteo Stations. Sound Transit says it would cost $1.3 billion to site a maintenance facility on the Midway landfill site; Kent disagrees, so we’ll have dueling consultants. Commercial flights begin ($) from Paine Field. PSRC looking for a third airport location. Third Avenue bus boarding about to get easier. […]

Graham Johnson, KIRO: 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. That could rise even more, between about $500 million and $2 billion, if Sound Transit decides to enhance the […]

SDOT and Metro are still hoping for a 2021 opening date for RapidRide H in Delridge, but some potential utility work could delay things until 2022, according to a presentation (PDF, video) to the city’s Sustainability Transportation Committee on Tuesday. Staff seemed hopeful, however, that an agreement with Seattle Public Utilities to move the stormwater […]

Laura Bliss, at Citylab, on “Tactical Transit Lanes”: After all, the reason that more buses don’t have their own lanes has little to do with engineering. Setting up a special space for buses usually means taking it away from private vehicles and parking spots, and people literally get murdered for that. Less extreme, car commuters and their elected […]

Friday was the deadline for bills in Olympia to get out of the fiscal committees. Now, all the survivors have to get through their chamber’s Rules Committee, and get passed on 2nd/3rd reading on their chamber’s floor, by 5 pm on Wednesday, March 13. The extremely user-friendly state legislative website lists bills that have made […]

So, what are the scientists trying to tell us? Science youtuber Joe Scott offers some more dystopian solutions we may be forced to deploy if we want homo sapiens to survive. Think Operation Dark Sky from The Matrix. This is an open thread.

Yesterday, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan petitioned the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to extend the environmental impact statement (EIS) scoping period for the West Seattle-Ballard Link extension by 15 days, in order to solicit more comment on the planned second Chinatown/International District (CID) station. Durkan’s request is a result of lobbying from CID community leaders. Under […]

House Bill 2123 is on the agenda for action by the House Transportation Committee this afternoon (starting at 1:00), but is not expected to pass out of committee yet. Nor have any committee members offered an amendment to the bill by the deadline to do so in order to be part of this afternoon’s consideration. […]

Kamaria Hightower, on Mayor Durkan’s blog: At the Mayor’s direction, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) will partner with the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) and King County Metro to provide unlimited ORCA cards to 1,500 low-income Seattle residents. This partnership will leverage Seattle Transportation Benefit District (STBD) investments to create more affordable transportation choices for our […]

Although we are early in the ST3 program, some observers are already looking forward to extending Link light rail lines into the suburbs and adding more lines in Seattle. The ST3 plan funds several studies of suburban extensions. Current taxes do not support further expansions at the pace of ST3, however. Unless Sound Transit secures […]