Seattle Transit Blog

Despite having all the necessary equipment for positive train control (PTC) operation installed between Everett and Tacoma, the safety system is not fully operational on all Sounder trips, Sound Transit said Wednesday. In a letter to boardmembers, CEO Peter Rogoff said that currently, due to technical issues associated with new deployments, only about 56% of […]

Over a year and a half after the new State Road 520 bridge opened to car traffic, pedestrians and cyclists will finally be able to cross Lake Washington using the floating bridge. The new 2.7-mile 520 bridge shared-use path, linking Seattle and the Eastside, is set to open at 3pm on December 20. Not […]

Amtrak Cascades #501 south from Seattle derailed this morning, while crossing over I-5 in the vicinity of Mounts Road, west of Dupont. There are at least three casualties, many injuries, and some carriages are a total loss. Our thoughts are with survivors, and the families of everyone on board. No root cause has been established, […]

Yellow shirts filled Seattle City Council chambers, holding posters with hundreds of hand-signed petition along the walls. Members of the Transit Riders Union were out in force to voice their opinions to councilmembers, but the topic this time wasn’t potential bus cuts or a push for a low-income transit pass. Instead, the grassroots organization was […]

This is an open thread.

Change is quickly coming to Bellevue as Sound Transit ramps up construction on the East Link Extension. Most recently crews on Monday night began work on the first elevated section of the 14-mile light rail extension, placing two girders that span 112th Avenue Northwest near the future Bellevue Downtown Station. These 117-foot precast girders are […]

When the Alaskan Way Viaduct undergoes demolition next year, WSDOT plans to use the Battery Street Tunnel as a disposal site for the Viaduct’s debris, but a group of residents is pushing for a second life for the 65-year old tunnel. The group Recharge the Battery says anything is better than the current plan to […]

Seattle City Council Member Rob Johnson joins the podcast to talk ST3, HALA, Key Arena and more. ST3 – Crossing the ship canal (1:30) ST3 – West Seattle (5:57) ST3 – Permitting (8:50) 130th Street (14:47) Car tabs (18:46) HALA (23:52) Parking (27:40) Beyond HALA (31:21) Move Seattle Levy (33:29) Key Arena (38:58) http://traffic.libsyn.com/seattletransitblog/STB_podcast_052.mp3

Charles Mudede is latest in a line of columnists (see here, here, here, and here) drawing comparisons between the rapidly appreciating housing markets in Seattle and Vancouver, BC: The forces at work in Vancouver BC’s housing market seem unrelated to those at work in, say, Toronto’s—a city that, like Seattle, has a real economy and […]

Sound Transit will extend its paid permit program at park-and-ride facilities to include solo drivers. The assurance of a guaranteed spot could cost commuters as much as $90 a month if Sound Transit charges the average market rate for these spaces. Currently, carpools with two or more riders are eligible to purchase a $5 parking […]

A new exhibit presents a vision of a fossil-fuel-free mobility system in a city not designed around cars. As automobiles began taking over cities in the early 1900s, an exhibit at the 1939 New York World’s fair titled “Futurama” gave visitors a glimpse of a city twenty years in the future where cars ruled the […]

New York gives pedestrians a head start ($) at key intersections. New York City’s Comptroller describes a bus system in crisis ($). Classic NYC finger-pointing ensues. Civic and business leaders describe a subway system and transit agency in crisis ($). Read Ben Kabak’s take (and visit London) if you want to get really depressed. It […]

As a result of Manka Dhingra’s election, giving Democrats a solid majority in the State Senate (with Sen. Tim Sheldon caucusing with the Republicans), the Senate Democratic Caucus has had to choose new Senate leadership and committee leadership, and redo committee assignments. The new assignments were announced on November 14: Of particular interest to all […]

With a backlog of over 550 lane-miles in need of major maintenance, estimated to cost $970m, and a rapidly growing city, the Seattle Department of Transportation says its 2018 budget attempts to balance the mobility needs of the city while maintaining existing streets and sidewalks. Next year’s city budget, approved November 20, increases SDOT’s budget by […]

When the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel finally got cellular phone service last March, the tentative expectation was that the Beacon Hill Tunnel would follow later this year. University Link has long had it, so Beacon Hill is the last segment that drops calls and freezes page loads. ST spokesperson Kimberly Reason told me earlier this […]

Streamlining ST Express Fare Collection (2:00) Load factors on Link (7:24) Parking Hypocrisy (15:55) The Regional Housing Gap (24:55) Mailbag (29:30) PS: by listener request, the podcast is now available on Google Play as well as iTunes. http://traffic.libsyn.com/seattletransitblog/STB_podcast_051.mp3

Behind every bus driver and Link light rail operator is a team huddled behind a crowd of computer screens, monitoring buses and trains as they traverse the region. Sound Transit’s Link Control Center (pictured above) and King County Metro Transit’s Control Center (TCC) are collocated inside Metro’s Transit Control Center Building on the south side […]

Frank and I are taping soon, so please leave your questions for us in the comments. As always, try to keep it to a single question, and we’ll do the best we can (given no prior preparation) to answer it. We may tape as early as tonight, so don’t dawdle.

Warning: mature subject matter Also, a little background reading: The Guardian reported on how well the campaign has worked. The Telegraph reported in April of 2015 that 100% of women surveyed regarding their experience riding transit in Paris had experienced sexual harassment. Last but not least, a stakeholder trashes the idea of gender-segregated train cars. […]

Last week’s Seattle Times profiles some Phinney activists ($) who are fighting some relatively affordable apartments because the project doesn’t include parking. A McGinn-era policy relaxed parking requirements in frequent transit corridors. The current standard is 15-minute intervals, which nearby Route 5 doesn’t meet due to unreliable trips, and a few schedule adjustments to time transfers […]

The Sound Transit Service Implementation Plan (SIP) is a goldmine of great data. Lizz has already reported on some of the big-picture stuff, but check out this graphic depicting load factors on Link. As one who experiences Link’s load factors daily, I’m fascinated by the patterns that I can recognize. We see the two rush […]

The extension of Tacoma Link to the Hilltop neighborhood is nearing the start of construction, slated for next year, and Sound Transit has recently finalized several key details, including an order for new light rail vehicles, the permanent names for the stations, and the final design of the stations after public feedback. Vehicles On Thursday, […]

On Thursday, the Sound Transit Board approved a zero-cost land transfer to two affordable housing developers for a parcel of land in the First Hill neighborhood valued at $8.6M. In a joint project, Bellwether Housing and Plymouth Housing Group propose building a high-rise apartment with 308 subsidized units on a half-acre parcel near the corner […]

The New Bus Campaigners from STREETFILMS on Vimeo.

The 4.7 mile Link extension isn’t scheduled to reach West Seattle for at least another 13 years, but residents aren’t wasting any time preparing for light rail expansion. Not wanting to wait for Sound Transit to launch the formal public process scheduled to begin in early 2018, on Wednesday the Junction Neighborhood Organization hosted the transit […]

Sound Transit is finally moving forward with improvements to two Sounder stations promised in the 2008 ST2 ballot measure. Postponed by the recession, the projects will add a new parking garage to both the Auburn and Kent Station, each containing roughly 500 stalls and not yet-defined non-motorized improvements. ST predicts ridership on Sounder will double […]

With the current ORCA system “near end of life,” upgrading the ORCA card system is estimated to cost roughly $125m, according to Scott Gutierrez, a King County Metro Transit spokesperson. The ORCA agencies are predicted to share the entire cost, with $95m predicted to be the region-wide cost with the other $30m related to agency-specific […]

The concept and design for Next Generation ORCA (ngORCA) has not changed from when it was announced as ORCA2 in 2015 but we now know in greater detail how it will work. Specifications for Next Gen ORCA have been published on the project’s website for people who want to dive deep into the system. As […]

On Monday, the King County Council unanimously approved a fare simplification proposal for King County Metro Transit which eliminates higher zone and peak fares — establishing a flat rate of $2.75. In August at a press conference Dow Constantine, King County Executive, announced the agency’s intention to streamline fares. Constantine said this change would speed […]

Beyond 2018, Sound Transit plans to stop expanding ST Express and Sounder services to focus on light rail expansion and bus route restructures, according to the recently released 2018 Sound Transit’s Service Implementation Plan (SIP) draft. “The extensions will be the catalyst for changes in the bus network around the light rail extension and its […]