Seattle Transit Blog

Yesterday Mayor Durkan announced her 2019-2020 budget proposal, to be presented to the City Council, which will have an opportunity to weigh in. In the context of an overall effort to control spending city-wide, the SDOT budget increases by $128m over 2018 levels. Here are some transit highlights: The Streetcar lives! The budget includes $9m […]

Gene Balk has a typically informative column ($) about who is taking to transit to work these days. University professors, housekeepers, and computer programmers have the highest transit share of any professions in Seattle. He astutely points out how much this has to do with where jobs are located. Seattle is incredibly fortunate that Amazon […]

Everett Transit, on the verge of a major network restructure, brought its first electric battery bus into service earlier this week. The bus, a 42-foot Proterra Catalyst E2, is identical to the newer generation of electric battery buses operated by Metro in Bellevue and has been one of the most popular electric models for the […]

Sound Transit is currently gathering public input on the ST3 Level 2 Planning options they presented a few weeks ago. As we noted early this year, this is an opportunity to make light rail exceptional and the difference is all in the details. At this phase it’s time to apply the concepts of reliability, expandability, […]

SeaTac international arrivals terminal soars to $1B City Council looking at using public land for affordable housing Downtown Seattle Association argues for the CCC Parking-light TOD going in near Tacoma’s Freighthouse Square Minneapolis’ ambitious housing plan is facing the inevitable headwinds A mediator will be brought in to try and appease opponents of bike safety […]

Rainier Freeway Station, at I-90 and Rainier will close for 5 years beginning Monday, September 22, for East Link Construction. You can read Sound Transit’s explainer for more details. Most routes (111, 114, 212, 214, 216, 218, and 219) will bypass the station and head into downtown, while the 554, 217, and some 212 trips […]

This is the third and final post in our series about the latest designs for the West Seattle and Ballard Link extensions. This post covers West Seattle. On September 5th, Sound Transit released its latest concept work on the West Seattle and Ballard light rail extensions. We’re examining each segment in-depth, from north to south, […]

This is the second of three posts in our series about the latest designs for the West Seattle and Ballard Link extensions. This post covers Uptown and South Lake Union. Last Wednesday, September 5th, Sound Transit released its latest concept work on the West Seattle and Ballard light rail extensions. We’re examining each segment in-depth, […]

Dublin is reimagining its bus network.

Over the last three years, we’ve gotten used to a continuous stream of service improvements from Metro. The pattern continues with this fall’s service change, which starts next Saturday, September 22. There are almost no substantive changes to Metro service this time around. The big picture is a peanut-butter-style scattering of new trips throughout the Metro […]

The Sound Transit Board’s capital committee on Thursday made the early construction of the North 130th St. more likely. The agency’s staff and elected leadership also continued to express concerns about the Trump administration’s hostility to transit projects. The committee also voted to elevate Downtown Redmond’s new Link station, change the Federal Way Link federal […]

Mike Lindblom writes a fair deep dive on the 85th St BRT Station ($). ST to talk with Lower Queen Anne about station locations Sep. 20. The pro-CCC coalition ($) is impressively broad. The bus stop improvement plan was scuttled by privacy concerns. “Adaptive signals” are not great. Nuisance lawsuit against ST3 car tabs thrown […]

Possible good news for North Seattle: the Sound Transit board’s capital committee will vote Thursday on a resolution to move forward with preliminary engineering for 130th St station, meaning it could open years earlier than originally planned. We started writing about 130th back in 2013, touting its potential for east-west connectivity and transit-oriented development. 130th […]

Sound Transit’s new schedule books are out. The September 22 service changes include some bad news and little bits of good news. Seven ST Express bus routes, including the two with the highest ridership (routes 550 and 545), are losing trips. Routes 511 and 580 are the only routes gaining trips. Some routes are losing […]

Answering your questions Elected boards (2:31) Earthquakes (9:20) Fare evasion (9:50) Streetcar alternatives (11:20) Light rail to Laurelhurst (19:00) East link frequency (22:00) Center platforms (24:20) Fare evasion and ORCA (28:20) Post-viaduct transit from the South (30:20) 4th avenue CID station (31:20) Seattle Circulator (32:59) City council (36:01) Post-viaduct transit from the north (40:55) Real […]

This is the first of three posts in our series about the latest designs for the West Seattle and Ballard Link extensions. This post covers Ballard and Interbay. Last Wednesday, September 5th, Sound Transit released its latest concept work on the West Seattle and Ballard light rail extensions. We’re examining each segment in-depth, from north […]

When you have no room to turn a bus around…

The Federal Transit Administration approved $2.6 billion in Capital Investment Grants funding this week, including $100 million for the Lynnwood Link Extension. The installment in the second granted to Sound Transit for the project, but can’t be used until the signing of a full funding grant agreement (FFGA) between the FTA and Sound Transit, which […]

On Wednesday, Sound Transit released the latest design work on the West Seattle and Ballard Link extensions. We’ll have more detailed analysis of each segment next week, but here are the major takeaways from the presentation. More cost concerns ST staff opened the meeting with a warning about cost control, which is an increasingly common […]

A twitter thread, since deleted, questioned which dollars the new Center City Connector cost estimates were expressed in. If the study counts year of expenditure (YOE) dollars, then simply deferring the project balloons the cost. Absolutely obsessed with questions about YOE vs. constant dollars during the ST3 campaign, I was embarrassed not to think of […]

If you missed the Friday night news dump, it was a doozy. Lizz Giordano says they’re Upzoning downtown Everett ($). Bus lane coming to Columbia Street. Open Houses for the Link extension to Tacoma begin next week. RFP for Northgate TOD reissued; delay turns out to have been mostly a waste of time. Another for […]

Sound Transit will brief the public and stakeholders on the latest West Seattle-Ballard concepts tonight, and what it shows could make a ruckus. So far, ST has tipped a preference for siting the Chinatown station and segment on 5th Avenue South. But a coalition of neighborhood groups and transit advocates is rooting for a 4th […]

Frank and I will tape another mailbag for our podcast as early as Wednesday night. Please fill this comment thread with your questions in the next day or so.

In the 2018 primary election, STB endorsed three state senate candidates, including one devoutly-pro-transit incumbent (Sen. Marko Liias), one open-seat candidate (Joe Nguyen), and one challenging an entrenched incumbent (Jesse Salomon, challenging light rail opponent Sen. Maralyn Chase). All three of our endorsees came in first in the primary election. We’re hungry for more. Or […]

In 2017, Metro began a pilot where it allowed employee shuttles from Microsoft and Seattle Children’s Hospital to use nine public bus stops scattered around Seattle, in exchange for a fee. Aside from money, sharing stops might improve inter-system transfers and foot traffic. But beyond global concerns about how the shuttles impact public transit ridership, […]

The all-door boarding challenge: equal time ? at getting on the bus, SF vs NYC #SlowSummerVidSpecial pic.twitter.com/THZJk4cymL — TransitCenter (@TransitCenter) August 10, 2018

In a classic holiday-Friday news dump, yesterday afternoon Mayor Jenny Durkan’s office released a summary of the long-awaited third-party report on the Center City Connector. The summary, prepared by Big Four accounting firm KPMG rather than a consultant with specialized transit expertise, brings both good and bad news for the CCC project. The headline number that […]

Sound Transit systemwide ridership went up 2.9 percent in Q2 of 2018, when compared to Q2 of 2017, according to the latest ST ridership report. Riders boarded ST vehicles 12,442,840 times. The average weekday saw 163,681 boardings, a 2.4 percent increase from Q2 2017. Link (6.2 percent more boardings) and Sounder (5.1 percent) both saw […]

Thank goodness: the Denny Way bus lane is finally here. There’s more to do. Mayor Durkan also stalling improvements to the First Hill Streetcar. Capitol Hill is better than ever. Photographic evidence at least some Waterfront Shuttle trips are well-used. SBB’s bikeshare guide is up-to-date now. This David Gutman article ($) is a little quick […]

“First and Yesler, Pioneer Square. James Street, Cherry Street, Pioneer Square Station, courthouse, Downtown Emergency Service Center.” As my words rolled through the microphone and the rest of the slowing bus, competing as always with engine noise, I was already focused on the people waiting at the bus zone in question. On this average May […]

Mike Lindblom, in The Seattle Times: Federal money for Madison Street bus-rapid transit is on hold because Seattle and King County Metro can’t get the trailblazing electric vehicles that officials promised. The agencies sought clean, wire-powered trolleybuses since voters approved the Move Seattle property-tax levy in 2015 and the Sound Transit 3 ballot measure in […]

In his years on the Seattle City Council, Nick Licata consistently supported running more buses in traffic. He was also a frequent opponent of capital investment for higher-quality transit. Never a leader on bus lanes, he engaged in a little concern trolling about Move Seattle before ultimately supporting it. He opposed light rail until its opening made […]

Everett Transit, like the rest of the region, is going through growing pains. For years, the city-run department had operated about a dozen routes on a small budget with a small fare to match, and it even withstood the recession with only minor cuts to service. But times have changed and Everett’s good fortune has […]

Thursday’s Sound Transit Board meeting didn’t have any Earth-shattering news, but it did feel a lot like summer school. Agency staff presented some updates on ongoing projects, but the board didn’t do much: too many elected officials cut class to move along the day’s most substantial agenda item. Fare enforcement Metro rolled out a new […]

51,000 bus boardings on 3rd Avenue every day! If you missed it, there was an important update to the Madison BRT story. We’re still looking into it. Grist rides along with the people that keep LimeBikes running and properly positioned. Study says private shuttles can easily share stops with public buses. The Oregonian travels to […]

A project to improve safety at the confusing and pedestrian-hostile intersection of 15th Avenue South and South Columbian Way in Beacon Hill, adjacent to Mercer Middle School, has been on SDOT’s radar for many years. (UPDATE: Seattle Neighborhood Greenways’ Gordon Padelford correctly points out in comments that Beacon Hill Safe Streets has played the lead […]

Madison BRT, also known as RapidRide G, is running into problems with bus procurement. Although the Trump Administration’s foot-dragging isn’t good for any transit project, it is these procurement delays that threaten to delay opening. At the moment, is unclear if these problems will actually delay the planned 2021 delivery. RapidRide G will use special […]

Smoke! (0:00) Bikeshare out, bikeshare in (8:04) Time for a fare cut? (17:14) Waterfront shuttle (31:26) Metro is Number 1 (38:00) L’affaire Showbox(46:00) Upzoning the ‘burbs (57:01) http://traffic.libsyn.com/seattletransitblog/STB_podcast_65.mp3

On Monday, the King County Council unanimously voted to separate Metro from the Department of Transportation and make the agency an autonomous, cabinet-level department. In the same meeting, the council unanimously voted to keep Rob Gannon as the director of the agency; as an autonomous department, the Metro director is now a political appointee, rather […]

Within one month of Seattle imposing new regulations and a $50 per bike per year permit fee, Sarah Anne Lloyd reports that both Ofo and Spin are on their way out. When Ofo first announced its departure, the company attributed the decision to the new fee structure, which adds up to $250,000 for a fleet […]

While King County Metro may be the #1 transit agency in North America, it’s also one of the most expensive to ride. While it’s great that the agency is on surer financial footing than a decade ago, and it’s great that ridership is booming, perhaps it’s time to consider a fare cut. Such a move could […]

If you’re new-ish to Seattle, The Economist‘s digest of the state of housing in Seattle ($) is about as concise and accurate as you can get. But Uber and Lyft are still here — and they’re adding to total miles driven ($). UW Station escalators fail again ($), not quite as catastrophically as last time. Paine […]

Sound Transit announced on Wednesday that construction crews are nearly done with their work retrofitting the I-90 bridge for East Link. Crews have worked for more than a year to post-tension the bridge’s pontoons. ST reinforced the bridge to help it carry the load of Link’s tracks, overhead lines, and vehicles. The retrofit also improves […]

The Downtown Seattle Association is running a two-month “Waterfront Shuttle,” starting August 1st and running through October 1. It is free to ride and serves the stops shown on the map. It is clearly aimed at tourists, although this month is a little late to start serving that market. It runs from 10am to 8pm, […]

Join Seattle Children’s innovative Transportation & Sustainability Department in one of two newly created, TDM-focused positions: a Parking & Valet Systems Manager and a limited-term Transportation Systems Coordinator. Parking & Valet Systems Manager This leadership role will manage Seattle Children’s new 24/7 patient and family hospital valet operation, the organization’s parking system, and other roadway […]

It’s safe to say that Seattle transit advocates are uncertain about Mayor Jenny Durkan’s commitment to transit. The fate of the Center City Connector continues to grow murkier. The Mayor told a large, powerful coalition of CCC advocates to talk to the hand. Several transit and safe streets projects throughout Seattle have been delayed or […]