Seattle Transit Blog

Sen. Steve O’Ban (R – University Place) has been on the warpath against Sound Transit, prime sponsoring a series of Eymanesque bills. Substitute Senate Bill 5001, as reported on at length on this blog, would replace the Sound Transit Board with a directly-elected board, gerrymandered so as to get an anti-transit majority on the board. […]

On March 1, Seattle Monorail Services and the Seattle Center proposed a fare increase for the Seattle Center Monorail. Current Proposed Adult 13-64 One-Way $2.25 $2.50 Youth 5-12 / Senior 65+ / Disabilities / Active US military One-Way $1.00 $1.25 Adult 13-64 Monthly Pass $45 $50 Youth/Senior/Disabilities/Active US military Monthly Pass $20 $25 Low-Income not […]

The media are full of stories of people mad about car tabs. Even though voters just approved them, and ST is applying them in accordance with existing law, there is no shortage of people that never wanted to pay higher taxes for transit in the first place. Olympia is anxious to respond, partly because their electorate is considerably more […]

Sound Transit has released its list of Sounders football matches and Mariners baseball games that will be served by special Sounder trains, through early July. Leading off will be rare late evening service Sunday to the Sounders’ home opener against the New York Red Bulls, which will feature the raising of the MLS Cup Championship […]

If you work in an office, you probably take for granted the little things. Standing up to walk to a coworker’s desk. Multiple runs to the coffee machine. Off-site meetings to stretch your legs. The ability to use headphones. Availing yourself of legal pot. But being a transit operator affords you none of those things. […]

The news out of Washington Thursday morning was terrible for urbanists and transit advocates. President Trump’s 2018 budget request intends to pay for his priorities – increased defense spending, border wall construction, etc – partially on the backs of cities. Worse than percentage cuts to grant formulas, Trump’s budget goes further to propose wholesale federal disinvestment from transit projects. The […]

Slowly zooming in and dialing up the resolution, SDOT is out with its latest designs for Rapid Ride G (formerly Madison BRT), and is accepting public comment through March 22nd. Assuming the ink dries on a finalized Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grant, construction on the $120 million project should start in February 2018, with start of […]

Imagine going to a car rental counter and being told that all they have available are SmartCars and Ferraris, and nothing in between. Ridiculous, right? That’s how bike rental has been in North America for decades. Cheap beach cruisers abound in tourist hotspots, and specialty shops provide high-end carbon racing bikes for those willing to […]

Erica Barnett had the scoop late last night that an agreement has been reached in the dispute over the future Alaskan Way surface street. Prior conflicts included those wanting a narrow roadway (bike/ped advocates), fewer or no bus lanes (Alliance for Pioneer Square), and/or more surface parking (Historic Waterfront Association). Appeals to the Final EIS […]

Nine bills related to housing supply survived Wednesday’s cutoff to get out of their original chamber, from the list of 24 that survived the first committee cutoff. All bills are technically still alive, but if they don’t defund or otherwise knee-cap transit, they are unlikely to get much interest for having the rules waived for […]

In Part 1 of this series we looked at the Seattle-Everett segment of a potential high speed rail (HSR) service between Seattle and Vancouver B.C. We looked at the paucity of available right-of-way, the likelihood of repurposing the I-5 express lanes, and the topographical challenges involved in descending from 500′ in South Everett to a sea-level […]

In recent years, the Seattle Times has published many editorials and columns skeptical of transit, or any transportation mode except private cars. STB hasn’t usually responded, because events have shown amply that every day the Times gets more out of step with citizens’ increasing desire for alternatives to sitting in traffic. And the Times gets credit for consistently […]

On Labor Day Weekend 2010, my partner Sarah and I traveled to Nanaimo, B.C. the cheap and lengthy way: via the Bainbridge Ferry, Kitsap Transit #90 to Poulsbo, Jefferson Transit #7 to Four Corners, Jefferson Transit #8 to Sequim, Clallam Transit #30 to Port Angeles, the Black Ball Ferry, and the former VIA Rail Malahat. We returned […]

Sound Transit has released their fourth quarter ridership data which wraps up 2016 as well as the January 2017 numbers. Average daily ridership for Link in January was: Weekday: 66,060 (+89.0%) Saturday: 49,853 (+134.7%) Sunday: 31,741 (+63.0%) Other weekday modal ridership stats: Sounder: 17,057 (+2.5%) Tacoma Link: 3,072 (-7.2%) ST Express: 63,144 (+0.7%) Sound Transit […]

King County Metro’s spring service change begins next Saturday, March 11. There are few major changes this time around, but quite a few incremental additions to service. Full service change information from Metro is here; the following are a few highlights. Routes 3 and 4 to serve SPU The sole major routing change affects the Queen […]

Five Democratic Senators, including Bob Hasegawa (who represents parts of Renton, Tukwila, and Sodo), yesterday teamed up with all 24 Republicans to pass SSB5001, which would govern Sound Transit with an elected board. Mr. Hasegawa apparently thinks that this Republican plan is inspired by a better way to get high-quality transit, or perhaps he doesn’t […]

STB has done a deep dive into the street overhauls and bus service restructures being considered by the One Center City project. If you haven’t already done so, please Participate in the online open house, and Comment at the site. The comment form is just an open-form text box, and there are no surveys to complete. As […]

Since its launch a year ago, the First Hill Streetcar (FHSC) has struggled operationally. It takes a wildly variable 20-35 minutes end to end, barely besting a walking pace. Being in mixed traffic, except for a short section of 14th Avenue, renders it useless during periods of gridlock. Its frequency is poor and unreliable. The many compromises […]

Seattle’s transit service winds down around 1 AM on most nights. The evenings of July 4th and December 31st, with big crowds (drunkenly) watching late fireworks, are two nights where that seems less than adequate. Metro is typically reluctant to add additional trips that are hard to usefully publicize, and Sound Transit sticks to its […]

Last Friday was the final day for bills in the State Legislature to get out of a committee, with the exception of fiscal and transportation committees, and bills necessary to budgets. Fifteen bills related to housing supply passed out of a House committee by yesterday’s cut-off. House Bill 1085, sponsored by Rep. Brian Blake (D […]

After a year of process in 2015 and extensive (and often heated) public participation, Metro and Sound Transit mostly bit the bullet and forged ahead with aggressive bus restructures to feed the University Link extension. Storied routes such as the 71/72/73 were deleted or shortened, the once-highest ridership line in the city (Route 48) was […]

It’s time to make Third Avenue into Seattle’s first transit mall. Tomorrow. Or, at least, late next year, once the remaining buses have to leave the downtown tunnel. The City of Seattle should ban all* non-transit motor vehicles from Third, 24/7. Banning cars completely would: Increase the bus capacity of Third Speed up bus travel Allow more efficient […]

I was as happy as anyone when SDOT installed OneBusAway kiosks at major downtown bus stops. Although getting real-time data on one’s phone is a huge advance, there is no substitute for an easy-to-read sign present at the stop. As the picture at right attests, however, the flat-panel TVs in these kiosks have significant maintenance […]