Seattle Transit Blog

Per the New York Times, the end of retail is nigh: E-commerce players, led by the industry giant Amazon, have made it so easy and fast for people to shop online that traditional retailers, shackled by fading real estate and a culture of selling in stores, are struggling to compete. This shift has been building […]

Among advanced industrial nations, Canada is the worst in passenger rail. At least in the U.S. we already have faster trains and are building a new high speed train in California. (h/t Michael Hoffman)

Martin backpedals on zoning (1:30) Mayor’s race gets complicated (9:35) Fairness and fares (37:30) Tech shuttles and public parking spots (47:20) http://traffic.libsyn.com/seattletransitblog/STB_podcast_037.mp3

Zach Shaner, front page, above-the-fold ($) A peek at Tacoma Link’s new stations. Erica asks Mayoral candidate Mike McGinn a lot of questions about density. Governor Inslee noncommittal on car tab changes, says some good things about limiting Carbon. The “Seattle Partners” Key Arena proposal is the less car-centric ($) of the two. Move Seattle […]

King County Metro rolled out two finalist options for an upcoming fare restructure Tuesday, as Zach reported: * Option A: $2.75, any time, anywhere * Option B: $2.50 off-peak, $3.00 peak Senior, disability, youth, low-income, and Access fares would not change. Previously, Metro had offered nine options for surveytakers’ priorities for the fare structure, using […]

Sound Transit is asking the public for input on designs and names for seven new light rail stations on Tacoma Link’s Hilltop extension, via this survey. The project is expected to begin construction in 2018 and open for service in 2022, bringing trains every 10 minutes to the MLK Way corridor west of downtown Tacoma. […]

Sound Transit signs an agreement with Puget Sound Energy to make Link 100% renewable. Judge rules against Mercer Island, claiming they can’t use shoreline permits as bargaining chips for non-shoreline related issues. Today is 4/20. If you imbibe in a post I-502 world, please take transit and leave the car keys at home. A very […]

Last night, the Washington House of Representatives approved HB 2201. The bill effectively resets the valuation schedule for the 0.8% ST3 portion of the MVET to the lower of the 1999 and 2006 schedules. The outcome is lower taxes for owners of cars less than 10 years old, and a refund for those who have […]

House Bill 2201, which would reduce Sound Transit 3 funding by as much as $3 billion, has moved quickly in the legislature. In a rare move, it got heard in the House Transportation Committee and voted out on the same day Monday. (Start at 23:00 in the video.) Even more unusually, no fiscal note was […]

SEATTLE SUBWAY Democrats in the Washington State House have passed a bill out of committee that will cut $2.3 billion dollars from the voter approved Sound Transit 3 (ST3) package. Following a well worn Democratic strategy of caving to the slightest pressure from the right, this signals that Democrats intend to pass the bill out of […]

As ST3’s Motor Vehicle Excise Tax (MVET) drama continues, yesterday the House Transportation Committee passed HB 2201 by a bipartisan 20-5 vote. The compromise bill would require Sound Transit to use the newer 2006 vehicle depreciation schedule, and to offer credits and refunds to those who had already paid under the old one. In addition, […]

Last Wednesday, CH2M submitted the I-90 and Mercer Island Mobility Study prepared on behalf of Sound Transit. If you’ve not been following the drama, a quick recap: Mercer Island has been making considerable noise since 2015 about perceived loss of mobility due to East Link construction. Whereas prior complaints were more generic and white-hot, of late the complaints […]

Every morning, dozens of riders board shuttle buses one block from Eastgate Park-and-Ride. All but a handful are coming from the parking garage, after storing their cars there for the day. This particular shuttle bus travels to Amazon’s Brazil building in South Lake Union. Other companies appear also to use suburban transit parking as pickup points. […]

Nine minutes and 24 seconds of audio in the DSTT. Dark shaded areas indicate times when announcements were playing For several months, the elevator at the east end of the pedestrian overpass at SeaTac/Airport station was out of service. Riders requiring the elevator needed to ride Link to Tukwila International Boulevard station and then ride […]

A recent blog post by well-respected local meteorologist Cliff Mass, “Fixing Seattle’s Traffic Mess,” offered an anti-urbanist grab bag of bad ideas. Bemoaning the current state of traffic, Mass distills Seattle’s traffic woes to 9 problems: Road diets that “promote congestion and substantially reduce maximum throughput” Poor road conditions resulting from “Seattle Council members paying [less] attention […]

Mike Lindblom and David Gutman produce the definitive summary ($) of the Bertha experience as she prepares to break through. Mike McGinn’s quotes, in particular, strike just the right tone. Rep. Orcutt (R-Kalama) still trying ($) to stick Seattle with the overruns. Tour Angle Lake Station with Via Architecture April 22. KUOW interviews Peter Rogoff. […]

It’s nearly done. Forget the questionable process by which it came about, the undeniable lost opportunity for transit investment instead, or the coming tax bill for litigation and overruns. Bertha will likely break through in the next few days, and there will by a highway bypass tunnel underneath Downtown Seattle two years from now. It’s […]

Metro’s ongoing survey about the fare structure will generate as many different ideas as there are respondents. In his story about it, Zach observed that there is a tradeoff between fairness and simplicity. However, that greatly undersells the complexity of the tradeoff, because there is no single definition of “fairness.” To illustrate, we’ll totally punt the […]

Once more we dive into the reader mailbag. Lots of stuff to talk about: ST3 finances, streetcars, deadheads, and more. Some links: Original mailbag comments, Early Wins, Bus Branding, South Sounder Negotiations, FHSC Maintenance http://traffic.libsyn.com/seattletransitblog/STB_podcast_036.mp3

Census data released last week showed yet another acceleration of regional population growth. King County maintained a high growth rate, added another 35,700 residents in the year ended July 1, 2016. But neighboring counties saw higher growth rates. Pierce added 18,600 residents, more than twice the average of the preceding five years. Snohomish added 17,500 residents, […]

The Trouble with TransitScore. But those values correlate with home prices. Mercer Island-Sound Transit fight update. Pierce Transit service rollout a bit rushed, not all stops open. PSRC conducting a regional travel study. You can participate here. Carless millennial stereotype a little overdone. I-90 costs increase signficantly ($), but contingency fund will absorb it. ST […]

Downtown tunnel cell service is LIVE. T-Mobile customers now, Verizon, AT&T to roll in next couple weeks. Bars from IDS to UW! pic.twitter.com/5HMoVRFu4I — Sound Transit (@SoundTransit) March 28, 2017 In an afternoon tweet, Sound Transit announced that cell service has finally come to the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT) between Westlake and International District. Previously […]

We’ve devoted considerable coverage to Metro Connects, the long-range plan that Metro first published in 2016 and the King County Council adopted in January. We’ve focused mainly on the massively expanded frequent network Metro envisions, with 26 RapidRide lines and frequent service slated to serve most King County residents. But the plan’s vision goes well beyond […]

Mobile ticketing provides another option to avoid annoying your fellow passengers by fumbling cash. Perhaps it should be cheaper than paying with cash. Part of the low-hanging fruit that could help transit move more smoothly when Convention Center Annex construction and other projects reduce throughput in the Central Business District would be streamlining the fare […]

This is a sponsored post King County Metro is seeking highly motivated, detail-oriented individuals to join King County Metro Transit’s Speed and Reliability unit to fill Engineer II or III positions. This position represents Metro on technical matters pertaining to transit planning, capital project development, transportation engineering solutions, and traffic operation analysis. The ideal candidate has […]

Even though federal funding for Lynnwood Link is up in the air, Sound Transit is continuing to work on final design of Lynnwood Link and its four stations in Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood. Sound Transit has posted this survey asking the public to help name the stations at NE 145th, NE 185th, Mountlake Terrace TC and Lynnwood […]

A perceived tax burden is often less about the amount owed than it is about matching one’s prior expectations. In the recent Sound Transit Motor Vehicle Excise Tax (MVET) controversy, relatively little has been made about the quantitative burden – people generally aren’t parsing dollars – but much has been made about rate fairness. Sound Transit’s use of a […]