Seattle Transit Blog

Seattle Subway encourages all supporters of great transit in the Puget Sound region to include the following key points in their feedback to the Sound Transit board. Please email the board with your comments, as they are now due by Monday, May 2. Dear Sound Transit Board Members, Seattle Subway thanks the board for proposing […]

This morning and afternoon we’ll be at Union Station for Downtown Seattle’s only ST3 meeting, followed by the Sound Transit Board. We’ll be tweeting at @seatransitblog, and the feed will be embedded here. Follow along from 11:30am-4:00pm! Tweets by @SeaTransitBlog

On Monday night, Sound Transit held an open house at Everett Station regarding its plans for Snohomish County in ST3, mainly focusing on the light rail extension from Lynnwood to Everett via Paine Field. Over the last month, much had been said over the disapproval of county residents and politicians over the proposed 2041 delivery date for light rail […]

When Sound Transit released studies of I-405 BRT in December, many observers were surprised to observe the “intensive-capital” option produced no more ridership than the minimalist “low-capital” alternative despite a gap of up to $2 billion in capital investments. While some questioned the results, it greatly complicated the case for making a large investment in I-405. The […]

Several independent sources have confirmed that the city and Metro have come to agreement on an expanded restructure of Metro bus service in SE Seattle for the September service change. The city had balked at partially funding the initial restructure on policy grounds, with disagreements largely centering on the merits of extending MLK bus service to the International […]

Martin and Frank discuss competing criteria for evaluating transit projects, the viability of Paine Field, ReachNow’s launch, and the case for 130th Street station. http://traffic.libsyn.com/seattletransitblog/STB_podcast_015.mp3 As always, you can subscribe in iTunes. Also, if you like the show, leave us a review.

SEATTLE SUBWAY The West Seattle light rail line proposed by Sound Transit as part of the draft ST3 package will revolutionize transit on the peninsula. The proposed alignment in West Seattle is excellent, with the highest possible reliability due to a fixed 140’ bridge over the Duwamish River and no traffic crossings in SoDo or […]

SEATTLE SUBWAY Light Rail to Everett will provide a fast and reliable transportation option in a corridor where congestion is currently getting worse to the tune of a minute every three months. Business and political leaders in Everett have long favored a detour to Paine Field over a more direct line to Everett, in order […]

On an overcast Friday afternoon at a gravel lot in downtown Bellevue, Sound Transit broke ground on the East Link light rail extension, bringing rail transit from Seattle to Overlake via Bellevue one step closer to realization. The ceremony, attended by Sound Transit Board Chair and King County Executive Dow Constantine, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, current Sound […]

For the first time since the merger of Metro and King County in 1992, Metro released a draft of a new Long Range Plan (LRP) last Monday, and it will update the plan every 6 years from now on. The plan looks at two time horizons, 2025 (when ST2 will have come online), and 2040 (when […]

Kansas City is on the MOVE with the KC Streetcar from KC Streetcar on Vimeo. Kansas City seems pretty excited for its first streetcar, opening on May 6.

On Friday the The Transport Politic’s Yonah Freemark had a meditation on Sound Transit 3 and the values inherent in prioritizing projects. After a piece two weeks earlier in which he took a standard performance-first approach while arguing for the priority of Ballard over other regional projects, he then stepped back a bit and used his most recent […]

[UPDATE: PLEASE do not overreact to the original alliterative title. As the the text makes clear, I am agnostic as to whether this is a spur or a wye.] The fundamental ST3 tension in Snohomish County is between extending to Everett via I-5 or via I-5/Paine Field/SR99 (see map above). I-5 offers the cheapest construction and fastest […]

City of Seattle quickly breaking its promises to the bike community before the Move Seattle vote. Forget about whether it’s “affordable” or not — we’re just not building enough housing, period. Apple Maps finally adds transit directions in Seattle. A puff piece on Metro drivers ($) – and one in particular. Bus etiquette tips ($). Snohomish […]

After a couple weeks of staff nonchalantly dropping ULink ridership numbers in meetings, this afternoon Sound Transit released its first official tally. And ULink is already breaking records. Opening day saw just shy of 70,000 boardings, and was eclipsed only 3 weeks later. April 8 saw a record 72,000 riders, with an assist from ComicCon, Mariners […]

The Sound Transit 3 Draft Plan includes a lot of parking. Just how much? The agency plans to build 9,700 new stalls (8,300 net) in 16 new parking garages and two new surface lots. The total cost is $661m in 2014 dollars, or a staggering $80,000 per space. Taken in aggregate, each commuter using these […]

King County Metro is running a survey on late night service from now until May 4. Metro bus service nearly universally evaporates after 2 am. Even the routes that continue to run do so less than hourly, making them nearly unusable. Routes that shadow Link Light Rail trips (not including the dozens within the downtown […]

SEATTLE SUBWAY This evening, Sound Transit will be holding the first of its open houses on the ST3 draft plan. Being in Ballard, a key point of discussion will be the downtown to Ballard light rail extension. Ridership on the 7-mile line from SODO to 15th and Market in Ballard is going to be very […]

[Clarification: the post states that carsharing vehicles have “the right to park…in any legal parking spot at no charge”. While users do not pay for street parking at the point of use, the city does charge a flat annual fee of $1,730 per vehicle, amounts are adjusted annually based upon actual usage, and such fees are […]

In order to protect the life and property of those who travel on the fragile and decrepit Alaskan Way Viaduct, the structure will close early in the morning of April 29th to allow Bertha to attempt to tunnel 378′ underneath it. The machine will dive under a steel and carbon reinforced structure ($) in the vicinity […]

CHS: The Seattle Department of Transportation, which is handling funding and construction for the King County Metro line, estimates the project will cost $14.6 – $17.5 million, with $9.4 million already secured through federal grants. Construction will include installing trolley poles, overhead wires, and traction power sub stations. The second phase of the project is […]

Following the lead of the Transit Riders Union, we’ve written a bit lately about the pain points introduced when disjointed interagency fare policies meet an evolving system in which Sound Transit plays an ever stronger role. With the ULink restructure incentivizing transfers between agencies at a greater clip than ever before, much noise has been made […]

After a delay of over a year, Sound Transit opened the south platform at Mukilteo’s Sounder station on Monday. The platform and accompanying pedestrian bridge wesre opened with a ribbon-cutting that afternoon attended by Mukilteo Mayor Jennifer Gregerson, Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff, Everett City Councilmember and Sound Transit Boardmember Paul Roberts, and Snohomish County Executive and Sound […]

The Seattle Weekly looks at the $611M for parking in the ST3 Draft Plan. Metro is looking at a potential restructure of Late Night/Owl bus service and wants to hear how you use transit late at night (survey closes May 4). Demolition of the first 11 homes along 112th Ave SE are set to begin as East Link’s construction […]

Video by Oran Pete Lorimer had an excellent suggestion in the thread about the arrival of peak 3-car trains last month: If Link is running a mix of three and two-car trains, people won’t want to wait at the location of the third car in case the next train doesn’t have one. Then they will […]

Martin’s on vacation, so Frank and Zach talk about ST3, the Seattle Process, Pronto bike share, and what it’s like reporting for STB. http://traffic.libsyn.com/seattletransitblog/STB_podcast_014.mp3 As always, you can subscribe in iTunes. Also, if you like the show, leave us a review.

Across the region, everyone is talking about how long Sound Transit 3 projects are going to take, and there is no shortage of opinions about what the sources of delay are. As it stands, the 7.1-mile segment from Ballard to Chinatown/International District, including 9 stations and a tunnel from Mercer Street south, would cost between […]

The Issaquah Press is reporting that Issaquah Mayor and Sound Transit Boardmember Fred Butler has suffered a heart attack Sunday evening and is in stable condition at the Issaquah campus of Swedish Medical Center. Mayor Butler, 75, is a jovial and well-liked advocate for Issaquah at all levels of government. City Council President Stacy Goodman is […]

Last year 138 social service organizations throughout King County distributed over 1.4 million bus tickets to the people they serve: low-income youth, the homeless, the unemployed, refugees, veterans, seniors and people with disabilities living off meager social security payments. King County’s pioneering ORCA LIFT program is a welcome relief for low-income riders who can afford […]

Traffic in Seattle is notoriously terrible, and the most oft-cited causes are strong economic growth and lack of rapid transit. While both of those factors are at play, it’s underappreciated just how the details or our freeway construction actively contribute to our daily traffic headaches. Put aside for a moment the myriad complaints about I-5 in Seattle […]

Have questions about ST3 and want to ask them directly of the powers that be? Tomorrow evening is your chance. Tuesday evening from 5:30-7:00pm in Union Station’s Ruth Fisher Boardroom, Transportation Choices Coalition will host its latest in its series of “Transit Talks”, this one devoted entirely to ST3. TCC’s Director Shefali Ranganathan will join County Executive […]

February was the last full month of Original Segment ridership data. But we’re not quite finished. When the March numbers are released Zach will request ridership by day so there will be one last post before we shift gears to U Link ridership. Look for a more retrospective and even predictive post at that time. […]

. . Sound Transit and King County Metro have been brainstorming ways to make their free-ride programs work for each others’ services, in response to a petition by the Transit Riders Union. The county distributes paper tickets through non-profit agencies that serve homeless clientele. These tickets are honored on ST Express buses operated by Metro. […]

Opened in 1902, first Pacific Electric interurban rail line between Los Angeles and Long Beach was the last to close on April 9, 1961. As seen in this film, the trains and tracks were in very poor condition while new freeways were being built. Much of it reopened as the Blue Line light rail in […]

One thing I neglected to mention in my recent suggestion for better span of service on restructured Metro routes was that Metro had already set aside a cache of service hours within the restructure to proactively respond to overcrowding and reliability issues. Several STB writers have seen Metro staff in the field tallying riders on key […]

No matter how devoted we may be to a life of transit (or walking or bicycling), etc, most of us still find ourselves behind the wheel at least semi-regularly. After 7 years without a car, I’ve made peace with car ownership and am frankly very glad I again own one. Those of us who grew […]

At around 1:20 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, the cutterhead of TBM #1 (formerly known as “Brenda”) was lifted out of a 95-foot deep retrieval shaft just north of the University of Washington Link station. The 21-foot diameter cutterhead is the first part of the machine to be removed from UW Station, a week after completion of […]

Board members Rob Johnson and Joe McDermott share their critique of the ST3 draft plan. Community Transit speaks up for I-405 tolling; apparently no one else cares enough about alternatives to congestion. Snohomish County legislators suggest other subareas pay more to accelerate construction to Everett. It looks like Renton will be the steward of quality […]

Here’s an inconvenient truth I’ve been thinking about lately: Sound Transit could build faster, but we don’t really want them to. While we may individually clamor for the end product – trains now! – at every step of the way we also work against speedy delivery. We cherish our own democratic participation, we demand that our appeals […]

BY JEREMY FICHTER We appreciate the careful attention the Seattle Transit Blog, riders, and advocates are giving to how service is performing since we implemented the major restructure in Northeast Seattle. We’re watching closely, too, listening and logging customer concerns about specific overcrowded trips, or gaps in service riders would like us to address, and analyzing ridership and performance […]

One of the most common analogies for spine skeptics has been a comparison between Link, BART, and DC Metro. The DC Metro, despite decades of neglect, has much higher ridership than BART in a similarly sized Metro area. Critics often give agencies too much credit — or blame — for ridership when the real causes […]

With the Puget Sound region continuing to add housing and jobs at a rapid clip, and large rapid transit solutions still years (or decades) away, there is increasing pressure to do “something” to facilitate more commuting options and lessen the environmental impact of solo driving. Unfortunately, things that could really make a difference in the […]

NE Seattle subsisted for decades on infrequent half-hourly service, and Metro’s recent restructure (despite some pain) largely doubled weekday service on all major corridors, giving NE Seattle frequent service for the first time and a much stronger base network. But a couple weeks in, it’s become clear that the restructure didn’t quite go far enough, especially in […]

On March 26, bus service along MLK Way between Mt. Baker Station and Rainier Beach Station took a quantum leap forward, with the roll-out of new route 38, which was split off from the infamously-unreliable route 8. But even before the first run, Metro decided to undo the reliability improvement that was the raison d’etre […]

Crossing the Bay from SPUR on Vimeo.

People felt a variety of emotions after Sound Transit released a draft ST3 package. There was excitement that, finally, we would have an opportunity to make progress on bringing rail to areas that have craved it for decades. There was angst that core elements would take a long time, which forced middle-aged advocates like me […]

This weekend WSDOT will throw a Grand Opening for the new 520 Bridge, which will open to cars and transit in phases over the next few weeks. Saturday features a fun run beginning at 7:30am, speeches and ribbon cuttings at 10:30am, and a series of family-friendly activities (and if you get your event passport stamped at […]

During a joint city/county council meeting dealing with transit last week, freshman Seattle City Councilmember Rob Johnson raised a good point: Fare enforcement officers have been giving warnings to pay, and encouraging riders to get an ORCA card and use it, but have not been giving out free ORCA cards. .@CMRobJohnson asks for Fare Enforcement […]

One of the more unusual effects of the ST3 Draft Plan coming out just 5 days after ULink opened is that ULink has had an exceptionally short period of joy, celebration, and awe. The euphoria of its opening has been largely replaced by the oxygen required to analyze and react to the next big thing. Though Sound Transit threw […]