Seattle Transit Blog

Here’s Greta’s longer TED talk. This is an open thread.

Correction: The post originally stated transit would be free after 7 pm on New Year’s Eve. Actually, only Metro buses and the Seattle Streetcars will be free during that period. BTW, Link Light Rail will be operating later hours after midnight New Year’s Eve. The last southbound train departs UW Station at 1:56 am. The […]

The failure of I-1631 has allowed Governor Jay Inslee to continue an annual tradition: he announced another climate action plan to great fanfare. The plan leaves plenty to be desired. The package’s proposed $129 million in “clean transportation” funding doesn’t invest in any land-based, local transit. There are some worthy items, but they miss the […]

Mercer Megablock is up for sale. Sen. Hobbs (D-Lake Stevens) trying to fund a new transportation package ($) with a carbon fee. Link escalators a disaster, but you knew that already. Redmond Mayor John Marchione is the new ST Board chair. He’s been pretty good on the board. Angst over Tacoma Link construction staging. Jan […]

Update: The post originally stated that Rep. Joan McBride was re-elected. Actually, she retired. The author apologizes for the error. On December 13, the House Democratic Caucus elected its new leaders and new committee chairs. Rep. Jake Fey (D – Tacoma) was elected the new Chair of the House Transportation Committee, replacing the retiring Judy […]

New SDOT director. GGW’s take. (2:00) How would ending 405 tolls affect buses? (15:30) Minimum density (25:55) The boring company’s new tunnel (38:29) http://traffic.libsyn.com/seattletransitblog/STB_podcast_71.mp3

The Swift Green Line will launch on March 24, 2019, bringing bus rapid transit service to Mill Creek and the new Paine Field passenger terminal. Community Transit’s second bus rapid transit line will have 34 stations and run from Seaway Transit Center on Airport Road, 128th/132nd Street, and the Bothell-Everett Highway (SR 527) to Canyon […]

Sounder North turned 15 years old on Friday. The line has four daily round-trips that carry an average of 1,750 people per weekday. This is an open thread.

Carpocalypse comes Monday, January 14, as the Alaskan Way Viaduct will shut down forever at 10 pm on the evening of Friday, January 11. That will leave up to 90,000 daily car trips trying to find other ways to get into and out of downtown for at least the following three weeks until SR 99 […]

In an extended press conference about the Seattle Squeeze on Thursday, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, WSDOT, SDOT, and Metro laid out their plans to mitigate the planned mobility crisis. It’s a mixed bag. The coordinated government effort does include some promising transit benefits, but doesn’t go as far as it could—by the agencies’ own admission. […]

Your ORCA beep has changed. Peter Rogoff in line for a $16,000 bonus ($). Columbia River Crossing meetings try to get over hard feelings from Washington Republicans’ irresponsibility. Jay Inslee wants light rail on the new bridge. Judge sets back Burke-Gilman “missing Link” yet again; apparently environmental impact statements are also meant to assess if any […]

In a press conference yesterday, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan named Washington, D.C. District Department of Transportation (DDOT) official Sam Zimbabwe the new Director of the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT). When Zimbabwe is confirmed by the Council—Durkan said she expects him to start work in “early January”—he will be SDOT’s first permanent director in a […]

That U.S. Census Bureau data says so probably doesn’t surprise you. However, the data pokes holes in the narrative that Silicon Valley transplants are the main reason for the Puget Sound’s explosive growth in population—and housing costs. More of the out-of-state newcomers to King County from 2012-16 were from California than the rest of the […]

On Dec. 10th Sen. Guy Palumbo (D – Maltby/Bothell) prefiled a bill to end the High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes on I-405. Although most transportation experts would line up to slay this bill, its passage — which is not likely — may actually be a good outcome for transit. The bill doesn’t return the highway to […]

This is an open thread.

Add another workaround to the list of fixes for the Period of Maximum Constraint Seattle Squeeze Carpocalypse: King County is increasing the number of Water Taxi ferry sailings between West Seattle and Downtown. The Water Taxi is adding an additional vessel starting on January 14, which will allow the following service improvements between then and […]

Fort Lawton affordable housing push rumbles on ($). Renton ahead of Seattle on the backyard cottage front. Seattle booming, not adding cars. 3 finalists for SDOT director Mountlake Terrace planning its station area. The scooter ban is indefensible. Seattle Central College doesn’t want to build any more parking. Geofencing 3rd Ave. ST has a new […]

At the Sound Transit Board’s executive committee today, ST CEO Peter Rogoff said that Sound Transit will be the sole operator in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT) starting March 23, 2019, as King County Metro vacates the tunnel. Rogoff also announced that ST will run trains in both directions on a single track for […]

This is the second of two Q&As drawing from Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff’s interview with STB. This post has been edited for length and clarity. Find Part One here, and an unedited transcript of the conversation here. STB: How is the takeover of the Downtown Transit Tunnel going, and what are the plans for […]

Various private transportation entities have caught on to the Big Deal that is the Period of Maximum Constraint, starting with the permanent closure of the Alaskan Way Viaduct on Friday, January 11 at 10 pm, three weeks before the SR 99 tunnel under downtown opens. Lyft and Uber both rolled out $2.75 discount deals Monday […]

To help West Seattle residents and commuters cope with the upcoming closure of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the subsequent changes to the area’s bus routes, King County Metro is expanding its “Ride2” on-demand shuttle service to serve the Alaska Junction bus hub and the West Seattle Water Taxi terminal at Seacrest Park. Ride2, which […]

With the closure of the Alaskan Way Viaduct next month, the “period of maximum constraint,” now known, apparently, as the “Seattle Squeeze” is officially upon us. Five years of construction as we rebuild the Waterfront, expand the convention center, and (maybe? hopefully?) build a streetcar on First Avenue and bus rapid transit on Madison St. […]

Last week, Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff sat down for a wide-ranging interview with STB. We’re posting the first part of that conversation today. This post has been edited for length and clarity. We’ll post an unedited transcript of Rogoff’s remarks with Part 2. STB: Executive Somers and some other folks from Snohomish and Pierce […]

Last month, alert readers noticed that ST’s quarterly ridership report showed a steep jump in cost per boarding. With boardings up a bit and the number of trips essentially flat, this implied an alarming increase in ST’s unit costs. The good news is that a big chunk of this is a mere accounting illusion. The […]

The series in which STB writers travel around to other cities and make wild generalizations about their transit and land use is back, with a slight change in venue. I visited Columbus and Detroit in mid-October for a Wikipedia conference and spent plenty of time on the buses and bikeshare in the cores of both […]

Fare enforcement Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (1:10) ST3 Level 3 (STB, Seattle Subway) (17:51) JUMP Bike review (26:02) From the archives: Is bike share good business? Prospects for climate change legislation (31:33) Seattle TBD in review (35:08) Passenger rail (48:05) http://traffic.libsyn.com/seattletransitblog/STB_podcast_70.mp3

Single-family zoning is indefensible. Massive city report ($) goes into extraordinary detail about why. Council Candidate Shaun Scott reacts properly. SDOT delivered 4% (!) of its 2018 bike lane plan. Taking LimePods on a test drive. Mayor thinks scooters are too dangerous, auto carnage is just dandy. Private transit center near Expedia. Driver Nathan Vass […]

Mayor Jenny Durkan retained Anne Fennessy, of public affairs firm Cocker Fennessy, to represent the City of Seattle in planning for the final alignment of ST3’s West Seattle and Ballard Link segments. Durkan’s office also told STB that the search for a new, permanent SDOT director is “underway,” started “earlier this fall,” and that the […]

SDOT last week released its updated workplan (PDF) for the Move Seattle levy, the 9-year, $930m program that includes everything from streets and sidewalks to buses and bikes. While the original levy included 7 “RapidRide+” corridors, it became apparent in April that SDOT didn’t have the money to do all 7 and would be scaling […]

El Paso once had streetcars running across the border to Juarez.

Metro testing electric buses with 140-mile range. Between 80 and 91 low-cost housing units ($) coming to Lower Queen Anne. Seattle Transportation Budget: done. Rich Smith continues his quest for Light Rail signage that is comprehensible to humans. Apply for an opening on ST’s Citizen Oversight Panel. Trailhead Direct, now done for the year, served […]

Lynnwood Link is inching closer and closer to a firm date for the start of construction, thanks to the submission of the project’s full-funding grant agreement (FFGA) by the FTA lat week. The agreement has been held in limbo by the FTA for several months, but lobbying by Sound Transit and the state’s congressional delegation […]

Last week was surprisingly interesting for passenger rail news. Alon Levy writes that the Federal Railroad Administration has finally published its new rules for train procurement, allowing US transit agencies to buy lighter, cheaper, European-style train sets for operation on American freight railways. Long-time readers will know we got excited when these rules were first […]

Thank you to every last person that played a role in this campaign – big or small. It is a honor and privilege to have the opportunity to serve my community. I am thrilled to be your next State Senator in Washington’s 30th Legislative District. pic.twitter.com/wbZtLFOPff — Claire Wilson (@ElectCWilson) November 8, 2018 Sound Transit […]

FTA awards $1.2 billion to Lynnwood Link. More on this next week. Metro operations will briefly pause Friday to commemorate the 1998 Aurora Bridge crash. Seattle tries grassroots pedestrian improvements where sidewalks will never come. Hilltop Tacoma Link extension breaks ground. Seattle budget maneuvers take some money from Safe Routes to School. Mudslide science ($). […]

Sound Transit’s latest quarterly service report, released on November 15, shows continued growth in Link ridership. In Quarter 3 (Q3), Link enjoyed 8.2 percent more weekday boardings than in Q3 of 2017, or 81,022 boardings on a typical weekday. Sounder (+2.5 percent) and paratransit (+6.6 percent) also experienced ridership growth compared to Q3 2017. ST […]

Kitsap Transit showed off its newest fast ferry, MV Finest, as part of Monday’s pre-launch celebrations for the Kingston–Seattle fast ferry route. The ferry will begin regular weekday service on November 26 and run six round-trips between Pier 52 in Downtown Seattle and Kingston on the Kitsap Peninsula, taking approximately 40 minutes. This is a […]

Councilmember Rob Johnson retires IDS/Chinatown station (7:08) Why the rent is so high (22:33) Decongestion pricing (28:06) 1631/election fallout (38:57) Kirkland restructure (47:04) http://traffic.libsyn.com/seattletransitblog/STB_podcast_69.mp3