Seattle Transit Blog

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Generated by Will Geary using an open-source data repository known as Transitland. Other cities available here. While it doesn’t seem to include Sounder, it hits just about every other regional bus system. This is an open thread.

Automatic cameras have been approved by the state legislature to monitor speeds, discourage drivers from running red lights and penalize cars not yielding to stopped school buses. But so far, they are not authorized to keep cars out of transit-only lanes by consistently ticketing offending vehicles. (A previous STB post explored the path to using automatic […]

Tuesday Metro presented a list of proposed services changes slated for next March to members of King County Council’s Transportation, Economy and Environment Committee. The proposal includes adding over 50,000 hours of service and eliminating bus Route 99. As the proposal added service to only one Eastside bus route, Councilmember Claudia Balducci criticized the proposed […]

WSDOT has posted some new information about the high speed rail study funded by the legislature this session to the tune of $300,000. The final report is due on December 15, just three months from now. Five “conceptual corridors” will be studied between Vancouver and Portland. The team of consultants is led by CH2M and includes […]

After hitting an all-time low in 2010, bicycle deaths have risen 12 percent nationwide, the largest increase in two decades and outpacing the overall rise all traffic fatalities, according to a new report by the Governors Highway Safety Association. But contrary to four decades ago, adults rather than children are more likely to die in […]

The $2.75 flat fare just proposed by County Executive Dow Constantine is a big step forward for the simplicity of King County Metro’s fare system. But consider if the cash fare were $3 instead, with the electronic fare left at $2.75. Paying $3 is simpler and faster than paying $2.75. You just pull out three […]

Last week Sound Transit released its 2nd Quarter ridership numbers. While agency ridership was up 6.8% overall over the same quarter last year, that masked a lot of variance. Link was up 14.5% (over a quarter that had U-Link stations but not Angle Lake), but ST Express actually dropped 0.6%, a setback ST blames on […]