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by Dan Ryan on (#35V6J)
WSDOT’s express toll lanes on I-405 opened in September 2015. Having recently passed the two-year mark, the Legislature may consider next year whether they should continue. At stake is not only the improved efficiencies of the managed lanes. As Peter Rogoff highlighted last week, an end to tolling would force a rethink of the Sound […]
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Seattle Transit Blog
| Link | https://seattletransitblog.com/ |
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| Updated | 2024-11-22 22:45 |
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by Dan Ryan on (#35RKS)
Dublin’s Luas is a light rail tram system with two lines in service. Luas Cross City is an extension through the core of the city that will also connect the existing lines. It is anticipated to open for revenue service in December.
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by Martin H. Duke on (#35P98)
Last month, Sound Transit announced an ambitious plan to wrap up alternatives analysis in 18 months for the Ballard-to-West Seattle ST3 plan. They’re not promising that this will actually bring delivery forward from 2030 for West Seattle and 2035 for Ballard, but it should reduce risk of further slippage. We have a pretty good idea […]
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by Dan Ryan on (#35JKV)
Metro will no longer operate shuttle service from several park-and-rides to Seahawks games at CenturyLink Field. The news came in an email from the Seahawks to season ticket holders: The Federal Transit Administration has ruled that Metro Transit is no longer permitted to operate its game day bus service from the Eastgate, South Kirkland and […]
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by Bruce Nourish on (#35H2Q)
Portland for Everyone has an in-depth piece on an “anti-McMansion compromise†rezoning currently before their city council. It’s thoughtful and well written, and it makes me sad that our political leaders ran headlong away from a much more timid duplex proposal, at the first sign of NIMBY homeowner backlash. Portland sets priorities for how to […]
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by Lizz Giordano on (#35GFG)
Building transit doesn’t automatically bring growth and development. Just look at the Rainier Beach Station: eight years after opening, there are still are no multi-story apartment buildings towering over the track or mixed-use retail lining Martin Luther King Drive. Instead, there is little new development aside from a series of townhomes to the northwest. In […]
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by STB Editorial Board on (#35DSP)
These are Seattle Transit Blog’s endorsements for the November 7, 2017 elections outside Seattle. In Seattle, we endorsed Cary Moon for Mayor; and Teresa Mosqueda and Lorena González for City Council. As always, we choose candidates entirely based on their positions and record on transit and land use. . 45th Legislative District, Senate: Manka Dhingra […]
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by Bruce Englehardt on (#35D6M)
Everett Transit’s ongoing work on a 20-year Long Range Plan has reached its halfway milestone, marked by the presentation of service options for the public to discuss. The service options will be up for public feedback until the end of the month, either in person or via an online open house. A draft Long Range Plan […]
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by STB Editorial Board on (#35ACW)
Although the stated transit and land use policy differences in the Seattle mayor’s race are small, we believe that urban planner Cary Moon has the stronger commitment to transit priority, bike and pedestrian infrastructure, and adding all types of housing stock to serve all who would like to live in Seattle. Much more than allied […]
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by Dan Ryan on (#359W5)
The Seattle City Council is considering the city’s 2018 budget this week, and may consider an amendment to remove funding for the Center City Connector streetcar. A key procedural deadline is on Thursday. At a Select Budget Committee meeting Monday, several members voiced skepticism about the project. The CCC connects the South Lake Union and […]
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by STB Editorial Board on (#3578G)
STB endorsements for Seattle Mayor and other races will be out this week. If there is a campaign somewhere in the region that you think merits STB’s endorsement, this post is a chance to make your plug. As always, STB endorses solely on the basis of candidates’ records and positions on transit and land use. […]
by Lizz Giordano on (#356MF)
As high-capacity transit expands across the region, new data shows transit communities are growing at double the rate of the region as a whole, according to the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC). The PSRC defines “transit communities†as areas one-quarter to one-half mile away from current or future (by 2041) high-capacity transit such as light […]
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by Martin H. Duke on (#353K5)
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by Brent White on (#351DZ)
In September, King County Metro route 169, which serves a major business corridor on Kent East Hill, got a serious investment, going from half-hourly all day to running every 15 minutes from 7 am to 6 pm on weekdays. Its north terminus is Renton Transit Center, from which riders have to transfer to route 101 […]
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by Martin H. Duke on (#34YDS)
[post updated with additional information about publicly accessible data feeds]. Out on the Pacific Coast, Grays Harbor Transit (serving the county around Aberdeen) is rolling out two major information technology projects: one for real-time information and one for mobile phone payment. In both cases, they’re contracting with companies that market to small transit agencies. Real-time information […]
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by Bruce Nourish on (#34W30)
Seattle tops nation in new apartments — and they’re expensive ($) and full of millennials. NY MTA refurbishes subway cars with fewer seats, more preschool wallpaper; at least one of those seems like an improvement. Crown Hill pedestrian overpass to stay, but people on wheels will still get a crosswalk. Alon Levy tells DC and […]
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by Bruce Englehardt on (#34VD7)
After 16 months of construction, the Yesler Way Bridge over 4th and 5th avenues has been reopened to traffic on Tuesday. Several bus routes that were affected by the long-term closure have resumed normal operations. Bus stops at Yesler Way & 3rd Avenue and Terrace Street & 5th Avenue have been re-opened. Although it won’t […]
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by Dan Ryan on (#34RS0)
Bellevue is planning a permanent men’s homeless shelter in the city. After a proposed location in the Eastgate area drew controversy, the City considered two alternative locations including one near the planned Sound Transit Link maintenance facility in the Bel-Red area. Sound Transit has opposed this because it is within an area to be marketed […]
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by Bruce Englehardt on (#34R0J)
The promise of an eastbound bus lane on Denny Way made waves last month, but the September deadline has come and passed, with not a hint of red paint on the street’s asphalt. So, what gives? Mike Lindblom at The Seattle Times reports ($) that the announcement was premature and came about due to a misunderstanding between […]
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by Frank Chiachiere on (#34NM2)
This week we sit down for an interview with Mayoral Candidate Cary Moon. http://traffic.libsyn.com/seattletransitblog/STB_podcast_048.mp3
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by Lizz Giordano on (#34MWA)
With the Tacoma Link Extension design at 60 percent, the Sound Transit Board has approved a baseline budget of $217.3 million for the light rail expansion project, 25% more than previously estimated. By 2015, Sound Transit had already grown the project from a 1.3-mile expansion with two new stations in 2008 to a 2.4-mile extension with six new stations. At the […]
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by Bruce Nourish on (#34JBK)
A couple of months ago, I blurbed a survey for King County Metro’s Community Connections project, which was seeking input from people who work in Seattle’s SODO district, a mostly-industrial and commercial area immediately south of downtown. I noticed that the SODO Connections project seemed very focused on alternative service — i.e. not fixed route […]
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by Lizz Giordano on (#34HNT)
The second day of the Sound Transit investigation, by the Senate Law and Justice Committee, concentrated on the improper disclosure of over 170,000 ORCA cardholders’ email addresses by the transit agency leading up to the ST3 campaign. Sound Transit doesn’t dispute a mistake did occur when the agency was fulfilling a public records request for […]
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by Oran Viriyincy on (#34F7T)
Yes, when it’s busy and the escalators are so long most don’t walk.
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by Lizz Giordano on (#34CTN)
Addressing the ORCA Joint Board Monday, Cheryl Huston, ORCA Regional Program Administrator, said there was agreement among ORCA’s participating agencies to keep the card fee for adult and youth riders but reduce the one-time charge from $5 to $3. Currently, each ORCA card costs an agency $1.92 plus tax, according to Huston. King County Metro […]
by Martin H. Duke on (#34APM)
In August Frank reported that “by the end of the year†the Pt. Defiance Bypass would open to Cascades trains, shaving 10 minutes off the trip to Portland and allowing a 13% increase in on-time arrivals. WSDOT is also using this occasion to deploy its new locomotives on two daily round trips to Portland. Now we […]
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by Dan Ryan on (#349YJ)
The ST3 program included, at the suggestion of the City of Renton, a new transit center with a 700 stall park-and-ride in South Renton near the intersection of I-405 and SR 167. Relocating the downtown transit center, however, left observers questioning how much transit would serve downtown in future. Mayor Denis Law, among others, viewed a […]
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by Bruce Nourish on (#347B7)
Minneapolis gets a $1 low-income fare. Helsinki is in the vanguard of the war on cars, and I’m jealous. Bremerton fast ferry still struggling with mechanical issues. Tacoma planning for growth in the Tacoma Mall area. Transit is a key part of not loving city-accessible trailheads to death. Tri-Met contemplating a $1.7b property and vehicle […]
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by Dan Ryan on (#346MA)
In 2014, Kirkland embarked on an effort to reform over-sized residential parking minimums that were much higher than neighboring cities. The effort was a failure, raising minimum requirements for many buildings where they should have been lowered. Just two years after the revised requirements were enacted in 2015, a series of failed developments are forcing […]
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by Frank Chiachiere on (#3443K)
West Seattle and Ballard are go Senate Republicans play dumb on ST financing Ed Murray City budget http://traffic.libsyn.com/seattletransitblog/STB_podcast_047.mp3
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by Lizz Giordano on (#3434W)
Progressing 3.5 to 5 feet a day on average, crews working on the East Link light rail tunnel have completed 700 of the 2,000 feet of tunnel that will eventually connect the future East Main and Downtown Bellevue stations under 110th Ave. Due to the short tunnel length, approximately one-third of a mile, the tunnel […]
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by Eric Wright on (#3434X)
Link Light Rail has had some rough patches over the last month with a couple of major incidents occurring during peak commute times. The first was a Link-involved accident on MLK at the tail end of the Sept. 15 afternoon commute. A week later, Link was disrupted by a drive-by shooting in Columbia City that resulted in a crash […]
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by Martin H. Duke on (#3434Z)
Metro has already lapped the field compared to its regional partners in the race for real-time data. They have long exported that data to a multitude of apps (and text services!) and posted it on signs at many of the most important bus stops. However, underlying problems with real-time data have typically limited the usefulness […]
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by Bruce Englehardt on (#34350)
The International Rail Journal and El PaÃs reported this morning that SDOT will award a $50 million contract to CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles), a Spanish rail manufacturer, to build ten “Urbos†streetcars for the Center City Connector project. Three of the streetcars in the order will be used to replace the oldest cars on […]
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by Brent White on (#34352)
King County Metro’s fare restructure proposal got its first formal vetting, and approval, at the King County Regional Transit Committee last week. The proposal consists of: a $2.75 regular fare on Metro, regardless of time or distance a reduction in the regular and youth ORCA card fee from $5 to $3. elimination of the $3 […]
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by Oran Viriyincy on (#34353)
With guest appearance of our favorite parking economist Donald Shoup.
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by Bruce Englehardt on (#34354)
On Thursday, the Sound Transit Board signed off on a $285.9 million budget for preliminary engineering for the West Seattle and Ballard Link Extensions Project, as well as a $24.4 million contract with HNTB to start project development. The project will include both extensions, despite their planned operation as separate lines, and will be the first ST3-original […]
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by Bruce Nourish on (#34356)
A bonanza of ST hearing coverage in the media: King5, Seattle Times ($), Tacoma News Tribune, KIRO, Q13 Fox, KOMO. ST head Rogoff op-ed in the Tribune. More on the history and revitalization of Spokane’s East Sprague neighborhood. Old streetcar maps of Spokane. Boise downtown keeps growing, could get a 5,000 seat soccer and baseball […]
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by David Lawson on (#32K40)
A few weeks ago, Lizz reported that the union representing Metro bus drivers, mechanics, and service supervisors (among others) approved a new collective bargaining agreement with significant changes to work rules. The most notable of these changes is that part-time Metro drivers can work on weekends. In exchange, union negotiators secured two big concessions from Metro. […]
by David Lawson on (#32FNN)
The south half of downtown, set on a steep hill, has always presented accessibility problems. With elevation changes of as much as 50 feet per block, people with impaired mobility frequently have difficulty traveling even one block in the east-west direction. For the transit network, this results in an intermodal transfer challenge: there is more […]
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by Frank Chiachiere on (#32D70)
Mayoral candidates Jenny Durkan and Cary Moon debate how Seattle’s next mayor would address our city’s most pressing issues: growth, affordable housing, and homelessness (via Seattle Channel). This is an open thread.
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by Lizz Giordano on (#32AT3)
The latest iteration of the One Center City plan considers 3rd Ave transit-only all day, a cycle track on 4th, and some 4th Avenue buses moved to 5th and 6th. A delay in the convention center project gave bus riders a reprieve, as buses can use the Downtown Transit Tunnel until 2019. But as the “period of maximum […]
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by Frank Chiachiere on (#328QN)
Taking questions from the reader mailbag. http://traffic.libsyn.com/seattletransitblog/STB_podcast_046.mp3
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by Matthew Johnson on (#327XP)
Sound Transit has released their July Ridership Report and Link is still going strong, up 16.7% overall. Average daily ridership for Link in July was: Weekday: 77,081 (+16.8%) Saturday: 57,037 (+15.2%) Sunday: 45,017 (+17.7%) Other weekday modal ridership stats: Sounder: 17,355 (+6.7%) Tacoma Link: 2,839 (+2.0%) ST Express: 66,411 (+0.5%) Sound Transit Systemwide, +8.3% Weekday, +9.2% Total Boardings My […]
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by Martin H. Duke on (#325BR)
At the beginning of the summer, Sound Transit inverted the weekday Link schedule. Instead of two-car trains all day with a few three-car trains during rush hour, three-car trains would run all day and a few two-car trains would supplement peak capacity. This increased the proportion of three-car trains during rush hour from about one-third […]
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by David Lawson on (#324EZ)
It wasn’t so long ago that Metro service changes arrived in the dead of night, accompanied mainly by dread about whether your favorite route would be on the chopping block. But it’s amazing what a few years of explosive economic growth will do. County Executive Dow Constantine trumpeted Metro’s service changes starting next Saturday, September 23 in […]
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by Martin H. Duke on (#32246)
Erica Barnett explains why development around Rainier Beach Station is anemic. Seattle Council Candidate Pat Murakami is not going for the STB vote. Pierce Transit now has a pay-by-phone app. It is not <facepalm> integrated with Metro’s pay-by-phone app. Seattle working to rezone Uptown, simplify design review. You may have heard: Amazon is seeking a […]
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by Lizz Giordano on (#321B2)
When cars began rolling off assembly lines a hundred years ago, cities were reshaped to accommodate the automobile. Sidewalks narrowed to widen streets, parking garages appeared, transit systems disappeared, and eventually Interstate 5 splintered downtown Seattle from neighborhoods to the east. This resulted in a city that is unfriendly and at times a dangerous place to […]
by Seattle Subway on (#31XVD)
Sound Transit is currently developing a consulting contract to oversee the process for selection of West Seattle and Ballard route alignments as part of Sound Transit 3 (ST3) light rail expansion. They’ve concluded that by selecting a preferred alternative prior to the technical work of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), they are able to simplify […]
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by Martin H. Duke on (#31V78)
It’s been a while. If you’d like Frank and I to try to answer your question on the next podcast, submit it in this comment thread by Wednesday evening. As always, try to keep it to one, answerable question.
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