Seattle Transit Blog

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 […]

Last week, Geekwire broke the story that the developers of Renton’s Southport office project will fund a foot ferry pilot program from its Lake Washington location to South Lake Union. Estimated to take 45 minutes, this would be competitive with driving (30-60 minutes) and considerably faster than current transit options (about 1:15). The service would […]

Yesterday, the City of Seattle published the final Environmental Impact Statement for its citywide Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) rezone proposal. Citywide MHA is the key to the “Grand Bargain” at the center of the city’s Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA). In a nutshell, Citywide MHA would upzone many of the more urban parts of […]

King County Spokesperson Scott Gutierrez has provided some additional information relevant to the fare restructure and card fee proposals working their way through the county council process. One of those pieces of information is the revenue for the county from charging $5 for the youth ORCA card: Our total card fee revenue for youth cards […]

Unveiling the $2.2 billion 2018 proposed budget, Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff told the board the potential elimination of federal grants, specifically a $1.17 billion grant for the Lynnwood Link extension, is one “key challenge” to Sound Transit’s future financial plan. Other funding in peril includes $3.3 $3.7 billion in grant money for various Full Funding Grant […]

With no plans to add any new service in 2018, it’s back to maintenance mode for Sound Transit. Instead, the agency will concentrate on two large-scale Eastside bus restructures to be implemented in 2018 and 2019, according to the recently released draft of 2018 Sound Transit’s Service Implementation Plan. The plan combines five-year service planning […]

In January, Metro rolled out free carpool parking permits at 6 park-and-rides around the County. Like the 9 park-and-rides under a similar Sound Transit program, the permits reserved spaces for permit holders until 8:30am. The program is meant to increase parking predictability and increase the yield of riders per parking space by encouraging carpools. In […]

Distance-based fares have a lot of fans among transit nerds, for a number of reasons, from practical – raising more revenue when the train lines become really long – to the patently absurd, such as that they will incentivize people to live closer to their jobs or incentivize Sound Transit not to build really long […]

In a tight workspace with barely enough room to turn around, light rail operators enjoy some of the most unusual views of Seattle from their cabs as they traverse the city. Like all Link operators, Kevin Gumke started out driving for King County Metro Transit, before transferring over to the light rail side in 2010. […]

This week Seattle kicked off planning for the North Downtown Mobility Action Plan to identify and prioritize transportation improvements in the Uptown, Belltown, and South Lake Union neighborhoods. Potential changes are coming to the area, including the redevelopment of Seattle Center Arena and a new downtown public school on the Memorial Stadium site. SDOT is […]

It’s a routine pastime among local pundits to trash opinion in The Seattle Times for being banal, internally inconsistent, factually inaccurate, disingenuous, morally repugnant, or all five at once. That’s easy, and at this point no longer news. It’s still news, however, when some of these afflictions reach the newsroom. For the latest example, see […]