Seattle Transit Blog

This article is brought you by the 1 Line, ST Express, Sounder, and the SLU streetcar. The Link 1 Line reduction is ongoing through February 4th. Weekdays downtown service is 26 minutes; north of UW and south of SODO is 13-minutes. However, actual service has had some gaps that are 10 minutes longer than that, ... Continue reading "Open Thread 32: Rail Roundup"

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) deserves a lot of credit for adding bike lanes and various bus improvements throughout the city. They may not be building them fast enough, but they are building them. Unfortunately, far too often, the bike lanes are built right where the buses run. Quite often this limits the ability ... Continue reading "Add Bike Lanes Away from Buses"

The Link reduction starts Saturday and runs three weeks (January 13-February 4). A full Link reduction schedule is here. ST has a page of bus alternatives for various trip pairs, and tips for navigating the disruption. The reduction is for several maintenance projects, including track maintenance. In our experience with past reductions, the frequency may ... Continue reading "The Link Reduction Can Start"

The Ballard and SLU light rail segment is expected to get up to 57,000 riders. That's higher than any of the other Link projects planned for ST3 (Everett, Tacoma Dome, West Seattle, or Issaquah). Construction cost rise faster than Sound Transit's income, transit ridership has dipped, and rush-hour peaks have flattened. In this environment Sound ... Continue reading "Focus on SLU and Ballard"

With Julie Timm's departure as Sound Transit CEO, the Board today announced that they will be considering Goran Sparrman to serve in an interim capacity. The Board will hold a special meeting this Thursday, January 11th. From the press release: Goran is well-respected for his skill and knowledge in transportation and infrastructure projects," said Sound ... Continue reading "Sound Transit Board considers Goran Sparrman for interim CEO"

The fire at 9th & Madison ($) has caused several bus reroutes and road closures, and impacted RapidRide G construction. From SDOT's email alert: RapidRide G construction: We're working with the contractor to review the remaining construction schedule, adjust the timing of some construction activities, and identify other areas where we can continue safely working ... Continue reading "Reroutes on First Hill"

Three new members are joining the Sound Transit board: Dan Strauss, Seattle councilmember representing Ballard; Girmay Zahily, county councilmember representing south Seattle; and Angela Birney, mayor of Redmond. The West Seattle Blog and The Urbanist have coverage. In the latter, Doug Trumm highlights the Link issues in their neighborhoods. Another board position in Pierce County ... Continue reading "ST Board 2024 Begins to Take Shape"

Sound Transit has published a full Link-reduction schedule for January 13-February 4. All train runs are listed. although the weekend down bus shuttle is still just every 10-15 minutes". There are also regular bus routes that may help avoid the gap for certain trip pairs. Seattle Transit Map has released a night owl update (1-5am). ... Continue reading "Open Thread 31"

This article is brought to you by the numbers 3 and 2023 and the city of Montreal. Transit is free New Year's Eve all day - from 3am Sunday to 3am Monday - on Metro, Sound Transit, Community Transit, Everett Transit, the Seattle Streetcar, Seattle Center Monorail, King County Water Taxi, and Metro's van services. ... Continue reading "Free Transit New Year's Eve"

This article is brought to you by Colman Park. One Saturday this month I decided to visit Colman Park by only frequent transit (so not the 27 or 14). I'd been to Colman Park a few times before, taking the 27 to the end and and using the pedestrian underpass under Lake Washington Blvd to ... Continue reading "Open Thread 30"

It's a Link kind of week. ST has new West Seattle Link station area concepts, reviewed by The Urbanist and the West Seattle Blog. The Link reduction January 12-February 4 is still on. Othello Station will get variable information signs" installed starting December 15th. There have been announcements about these at other stations. I assume ... Continue reading "Open Thread 29"

Sound Transit CEO Julie Timm has announced her resignation, effective January 12th: Sound Transit CEO Julie Timm announced today she will be leaving the agency in order to return to the East Coast to take care of family matters. Since joining Sound Transit in September 2022, Timm has overseen a renewed emphasis on the rider ... Continue reading "Julie Timm leaving Sound Transit"

Flat-fare Link at $3 is almost a done deal. ($) Coincidentally, RMTransit has a new video on flat fares, zones, and distance-based fares. An in-depth look at Bogota's TransMilenio BRT, which was a model for several other cities. This article outlines its history, how later politicians neglected it, and follows a woman on a five-bus ... Continue reading "Open Thread 28"

While traditional steel rail works well on the surface, Sound Transit and many other transit agencies favor elevated tracks in more semi-urban areas (tunnels in the urban core). To expedite construction of elevated guideways for the 1962 World's Fair, Seattle turned to Germany for trains to run on a prefabricated monorail. Now another German manufacturer ... Continue reading "Evolution of Urban Guideways"

This article is brought to you by the letters A and E, and the number 36. Specifically, Metro is planning improvements to these routes as noted by commentator WL. Metro's RapidRide status mentions the A and E, and also has the projected opening years for the upcoming RapidRide lines: For the A, Metro is still ... Continue reading "Open Thread 27: Metro, Cascades, and Sesame Street"

Last week Martin Pagel and I walked the Longfellow Creek Trail. We took RapidRide H to 26th & Roxbury and walked to the Roxhill Park entrance at 28th. Then we went north through the park and Westwood Village and streets and the football stadium and woods. I discovered a beaver dam, which created a pond ... Continue reading "Open Thread 26: Longfellow Creek"

British Columbia has adopted robust zoning minimums around transit stations, as presented by Reece Martin of RMTransit. Currently Skytrain stations have a few highrises surrounded immediately by single-family houses. The new provincial law allows: Bus exchanges (transit centers) will allow 6-12 stories within 200 meters, and 4-8 within 400 meters, depending on the size of ... Continue reading "Open Thread 25: Vancouver Upzones"

What does transit look like from West Seattle currently? Will light rail service improve it? Let's look at getting from Alki, the Admiral District, Alaska, and Morgan Junctions, the Fauntleroy ferry terminal, or Westwood Village to other places such as downtown, First Hill, UW, Bellevue, Ballard, Columbia City, or the SeaTac airport. While housing density ... Continue reading "West Seattle Now vs Light Rail"

The initial election results are out for King County, Pierce County, and Snohomish County. What trends do you see? And ... A vote for buses! Hooray! This is an open thread.

Last Thursday, the Sound Transit Executive Committee heard a staff update on a potential restructure of Link fares, likely in 2024 if approved. Link fares haven't been touched since 2015 and - given openings of new extensions on the horizon - are due for a refresh. Alex wrote about some of his ideas back in ... Continue reading "Sound Transit mulls feedback on Link fare restructuring"

Link's N minutes to next train" displays are off again. An ST email announcement says: The most recent update to the Passenger Information Management System (PIMS) increased uncertainty for train arrival times. To avoid giving passengers incorrect information, they have been temporarily turned off in stations until the issue is resolved. The 2-minute proximity alert ... Continue reading "Open Thread 23"

Sound Transit and the city invited the public last Wednesday (Oct 25th) to the Alki Masonic Center to review their plans for station access along the West Seattle Link Extension (WSLE). Sound Transit had been planning the extensions for West Seattle (WSLE) and Ballard (BLE) together but has now separated them. Ballard planning has been ... Continue reading "West Seattle Station Planning"

When COVID hit in 2020, many transit agencies across the country paused fare collection for public health reasons. Even after fare collection resumed, much of it went unenforced, partly due to the socioeconomic complexities of the post-COVID world, and partly due to equity concerns raised after George Floyd's murder. Since then, Sound Transit has implemented ... Continue reading "Fare enforcement is back, somewhat"

Hopeful news to counteract your transit blues. RapidRide J has finished design and will now select a contractor to start construction in 2024. The email announcement didn't have any specifics on the alignment beyond what's on the project page. The J will replace route 70 from downtown to Fairview Avenue and Eastlake Avenue to U-District ... Continue reading "Open Thread 22"

The Seattle Transportation Plan has added new project proposals to the draft and extended the comment period to October 31. This is a 20-year plan. There are 42 new proposals related to transit, sidewalks, freight movement, complete streets, etc. SDOT or a future Move Seattle levy can fund only some of them in the medium ... Continue reading "Seattle Transportation Priorities"

Sound Transit has a passenger experience survey open until November 22. I'm sure readers will have plenty to say, and all of it will be positive. Respondents can participate in a raffle for a gift card, or apply to a sounding board. There's a text box at the end for free-form comments. Beware that you ... Continue reading "Open Thread 21"

by DR. KARI WATKINS Hello Seattle Transit Community - For more than a decade you have loved and supported OneBusAway. As many of you know, Brian Ferris and I created OBA as two PhD students thinking that we could make transit information better in the Seattle area. Since then, the app and backend have expanded ... Continue reading "OneBusAway Needs Help"

The Seattle Times has an analysis of ridership recovery ($) high and low areas since the 2020 pandemic lockdowns. A stop on the 7 now has higher ridership than in 2019, and the Aurora Village transit center has recovered 95% of its ridership. 2021 saw an early recovery in southwest Capitol Hill; parts of downtown; ... Continue reading "Metro Ridership Recovery"

CityNerd visits Seattle and discusses Link's Northgate station area. Bonus: He grew up in the Maple Leaf neighborhood, so this would have been his station. He also did a recent video on Portland's multimodal transit network and bicycle infrastructure.

West Seattle Link (WSLE) has an online open house now, and an in-person one October 25th. Sounder South (S Line) has a survey on potentially shifting its focus to more off-peak service. This would cancel plans to make trains longer peak hours, and reduce peak frequency from 20 to 30 minutes. Respond by October 29th, ... Continue reading "Open Thread 20"

One of the FTA's stated goals is to help metropolitan areas meet national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) by reducing overall vehicle emissions and the pollutants that create smog" and to reduce fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions." So we just need to build more transit, right? But what about construction-related emissions? The recent Seattle ... Continue reading "Environmental Impact of Transit Projects such as the West Seattle Link Extension"

Yeah, that's great and all, but how are you going to pay for it?" Such is the buzz of a rhetorical torpedo which has sunk a thousand good ideas. The problem with this question isn't its deeper truth-we live in a world of limited time and resources-but in how selectively it is deployed. Obstructionist deficit ... Continue reading "Transportation Project Spending: 2023-2029"

SDOT Asks for Input on Latest Plans around 130th Station Bike/Bus Stop Work on Roosevelt Soon Open House for New Building Next to Burien Transit Center UW Researchers Release Study of Second-Hand Drug Exposure on Transit - Transit Agencies News Release Congratulations to Lisa Nault for becoming Metro's Operator of the Year This is an ... Continue reading "Open Thread 19"

Rethink the Link: A West Seattle movement advocates the No Build" EIS alternative for West Seattle Link. This one seems to be not just nimbys but people concerned about effective transit. As this blog has discussed, existing bus routes fan out from the West Seattle Bridge in a stick-shift pattern, connecting West Seattle neighborhoods to ... Continue reading "Open Thread 18: Rethink the Link"

Globally, people rarely use public transportation because of morality; they use it because it is cheap. The reason it's cheaper to take the bus than to drive in Russia, for example, is not because the government there cares about reducing emissions. It's because transit utilizes resources more efficiently, and frees up resources to be used ... Continue reading "Inflation and Transportation"

The T line phase 2 in Tacoma opened today, with tour guides and festivities until 5pm. The original T line runs north from Tacoma Dome station on Pacific Avenue and through downtown Tacoma on Commerce Street. The extension turns west on 6th Avenue Division Street and south on MLK Way. This is Tacoma's First Hill", ... Continue reading "Open Thread 17: T Line MLK Opens"

In the 1980s, Domino's declared 30 minutes too long to wait for a pizza delivery. Is it reasonable to expect a person to wait for a bus longer than it would take for them to order and receive a pizza to said bus stop? No. Originally, I was born and raised in a car-dependent Chicago ... Continue reading "Reasonable Transit Expectations"

There is a new grass roots movement to fix the often delayed Metro 8. Jarrett Walker shares his thoughts on an automated bus pilot in Scotland. (Human Transit) SDOT is planning around the future 130th Station. (SDOT) Ryan Packer writes about potential Link overcrowding and changes to the 5. (Urbanist) Sound Transit delays the Real-Time-Arrival ... Continue reading "Open Thread 16: Normal Transit"

Now that Sound Transit has paved the way for an East Link Starter Line (ELSL) opening for next Spring, it's worth deep diving into the projected ridership numbers. At the last Sound Transit Board meeting, early ridership estimates were pegged at a modest 6,000 average weekday boardings, reflecting limited demand until the 2-Line is fully ... Continue reading "Breaking down East Link Starter Line ridership"

Metro's service cuts announced in May go into effect tomorrow, September 2nd. These are due to the driver shortage, mechanic shortage, and supply-chain bottlenecks for bus parts. Metro is shrinking the schedule to fit the available resources to minimize mid-term or last-minute cancellations. Normally new schedules are available a week ahead, but I just saw ... Continue reading "September Service Cuts"

This was in the last open thread but deserves a feature position. Glimpses of Link in a few places. This is an open thread.

RapidRide G is set to open next year as what many consider the first (and only) Bus Rapid Transit system in the state. The buses will run quickly, traveling in the center lanes on Madison for much of the way. Just as importantly, the bus will run every six minutes every day until 7:00 PM, ... Continue reading "High Frequency Network Surrounding RapidRide G"

Sound Transit is inviting anyone who rode Link during the recent 1-Line disruptions to participate in a survey. Service was reduced between August 12th and 20th to fix sagging tracks at Royal Brougham Way. 1-Line service continues to be impacted due to platform reconstruction work at Othello and Rainier Beach stations. Service disruptions are certainly ... Continue reading "Sound Transit soliciting feedback on 1-Line disruptions"

Link remains at 15-minute service with single-tracking at Othello and Rainier Beach stations through September 17. Phase 2 of the T Line opens September 16. This extends Tacoma Link to what we might call Tacoma's First Hill. Page 2 has an article on a Jefferson Street funicular in Seattle's First Hill. King County explores redeveloping ... Continue reading "Open Thread 14: Rural Transit"

The Sound Transit Board green-lighted the much-anticipated East Link Starter Line (ELSL) earlier today, approving a resolution that authorizes up to $43 million on implementing passenger revenue service in Spring 2024. Previously, the Board had approved $6 million to study the idea of a phased East Link opening, per the urging of King County Councilmember ... Continue reading "Sound Transit Board approves Spring 2024 opening for East Link starter line"

Top 10 US metros with the highest bus ridership per capita. Seattle is #4. (CityNerd video) Washington congressional delegation asks FTA to fund Cascadia high-speed rail study. ($) Trolleybuses vs battery buses. (City for All video) The advantages of green tram tracks; i.e., grass between the rails. (City for All video) A Taylor Swift fan ... Continue reading "Open Thread 13: Hope"

(Part of a series highlighting high-performing transit routes in the Puget Sound region) Metro 8 performs well at all times of the week, with its particular strength being the amount of rides it carries for its level of service. Its total ridership is eighth among Metro routes, with 4,828 rides per weekday, but it does ... Continue reading "Metro 8: Connections Comprehensive"

I've come up with a few suggestions based on the latest proposal for Metro's network following Lynnwood Link (P3). My goal was to improve the proposal while retaining as much of it as possible. As has been the case in the past, I've made a map to make it easier to understand the suggestions: As ... Continue reading "Bus Restructure for Lynnwood Link"

August is the month ot Link maintenance. Service will be reduced for five weeks from August 12th to September 16th to replace sagging tracks over weak soil at Royal Brougham Way, to replace platform tiles at Othello and Rainier Beach, to inspect high-voltage power equipment, to build track ties for East Link near International District, ... Continue reading "Link Month of Reductions"