Seattle Transit Blog

It’s Plate of Nations time again in the MLK corridor, now conveniently reachable from Capitol Hill and UW. App-based ride services soon allowed at Seatac ($). Angle Lake construction allegedly harming local businesses ($). Freighthouse Square deal back on track. Snohomish County leaders say 25-year ST3 timeline is “unacceptable.” Indeed, dismay at the delivery time […]

SEATTLE SUBWAY When most Seattleites saw the draft ST3 plan that Sound Transit released on Thursday, they were taken aback. 22 years to get to Ballard with a long section at-grade? 15 years to get to West Seattle? None of the other extensions we need? Seattleites were expecting more out of a $50 Billion dollar […]

Now that Sound Transit has released its Draft System Plan – a 25 year, $50B behemoth that would build Link from Everett to West Seattle, Ballard to Tacoma, and Bellevue to Issaquah – it’s time for you to come out and provide feedback on project selection, project phasing, financing, and more. In addition to Sound Transit’s online survey, […]

Recently the DC Metro, which has had its share of challenges over the last few years, was closed for an entire day for an impromptu safety inspection. During the outage someone tweeted this article from The Washingtonian about how bad things have gotten at the agency. Once the shining example of postwar US rail, the system is starting to […]

With ULink’s opening and Metro’s unprecedented service changes in NE Seattle and Capitol Hill, it’s been a quiet few months for the proposed SE Seattle restructure that it’s safe to say we’ve had a few reservations about. On Monday, Metro transmitted a scaled back version for consideration by the King County Council (Metro blog post here). It will […]

Frank and Martin talk about Ulink opening for a bit, then shift to the ST3 draft plan. We take a detour through the sustainability of the suburban model and speculate about a low-carbon future. Finally, the Washington caucuses. https://media.blubrry.com/seattletransitblog/s3.amazonaws.com/stb-wp/wp-content/podcasts/STB_podcast_013.mp3 As always, you can subscribe in iTunes.

There is only one fare medium that allows you to get free transfers between Link Light Rail and buses: the One Regional Card for All (ORCA). ORCA is a “smart card”, which you use by holding it flat against the reception area of an ORCA reader, until you hear a single beep. I keep my […]

If waiting until 2038 for a Ballard line has got you down, watch this 25-minute 1975 KOMO documentary on urban growth and transportation plans for Seattle. It surveys the current options for growth, what agencies might play a leading role, and ends with the emerging consensus for building the DSTT and the I-90 HOV lanes, both of […]

One idea of how corner stores could fit into a residential zone. An integral part of Seattle neighborhood history and appeal is quickly being lost. Corner stores were once a staple of neighborhood life in Seattle, and remain so in many of the most vibrant cities around the world. They speak of a time when […]

Last weekend’s long-awaited ULink opening has been a smashing success, with UW and Capitol Hill boosting Link ridership by nearly 50% in a matter of days ($). More impressively, this is being done both prior to the big Metro restructure tomorrow and prior to UW students returning from Spring Break on Monday. With many reports of train […]

This afternoon Sound Transit released its long-awaited Sound Transit 3 (ST3) Draft System Plan, the first complete draft of what will be on your ballot this fall. We’ll have much more in the coming days and weeks, but here’s the gist. Responding both to enormous demand for better transit and public appetite for a large […]

Biking to UW Station is… popular. Stats about Capitol Hill Station. U-Link creates overjoyed commuters ($). As revenues improve, ST sends more money to Federal Way Link preparations. Mayor Murray wants to electrify Seattle’s cars. Housing construction depressing rents. Judkins Park Station breaks ground next year. Community Transit speaks up for transit users everywhere, argues […]

Last evening, Sound Transit announced that this Monday they would start running “a mix of two and three-car trains during the morning and evening rush hours.” Ridership has been robust early on, and there’s been a minor twitter uprising to push for more capacity. Tweets about @soundtransit car trains since:2016-03-21 until:2016-03-23 Moreover, Metro hasn’t even […]

As previously reported, Community Transit is moving ahead with a minor increase in service brought on by the successful passage of Proposition 1 last November. Beginning Sunday, March 27, 15 new trips and six extended trips will be put in place on seven local routes (including Swift) and nine commuter routes; other routes will […]

I rode back and forth on Link Light Rail trains a couple times Tuesday afternoon, just to see how the new Capitol Hill Station and University of Washington Station ridership would impact PM peak Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel Operations, during the interim week before several northeast Seattle routes start terminating near UW Station. The time […]

Walking by Seattle Pacific University early last week, I noticed that the trolley wire extension project appeared to have been complete, yet service has not yet been proposed for extension. We’ve been covering this issue since 2012, and earlier estimates had Metro hoping to complete the project in 2014. The passing trolley wire at SPU allows […]

Last week we reported that, in a bid to improve tunnel operations and ULink reliability, Route 550 would be surfaced to 4th Avenue westbound each weekday afternoon. Confirming the change, OneBusAway showed trips departing Bellevue from 2:35-5:25pm as running on the surface. But in an email update, Sound Transit’s Bruce Gray says the agency is backing […]

After three days of riding ULink, my experience has been one of nearly unqualified satisfaction, frequently bordering on jubilation. Sound Transit expertly managed the project’s construction and put together a fantastic opening weekend, and it’s not a stretch to say that the service will revolutionize my life. But one thing has already consistently disappointed, and […]

http://cpa.ds.npr.org/kuow/audio/2016/03/RECORD_20160321_LIGHTRAILFULL.mp3 Zach joined KUOW host Bill Radke this afternoon on The Record to talk about ULink. The report runs 9 minutes, and Zach’s portion begins at 4:10.

Last month’s ST3 letters had lots of requests for projects not strictly required to have a functioning rail line serving the stops the corridor concepts enumerate. Cities up and down the corridors have asked for help on station access — parking, feeder bus improvements, bike and pedestrian work and so on. A number of stakeholders […]

Ceremonial opening of new Husky Stadium light rail station. https://t.co/7FxrE7J1Cn #ULink2016 pic.twitter.com/Zd1yE9Qcga — Graham Johnson (@GrahamKIRO7) March 19, 2016 It’s finally here! We’ll see you at 10am at Capitol Hill Station with Mayor Murray to kick off the public launch, and we hope you have a great time at today’s all-day party in Capitol Hill and at […]

by GREG NICKELS There are those who believe the debate over light rail in Seattle began in November, 1851 with the landing of the Denny party at Alki. Seattle Mayor Bertha Knight Landes (1926 – 1928) created a committee of businessmen to study rapid transit. However, most point to the defeat of the 1968 and 1970 Forward Thrust […]

Saturday’s ULink launch promises to be a hell of a party. Here’s what you need to know to have a great time celebrating a historic day for Seattle’s transit. 8-10am: Golden Ticket Ride If you won a Golden Ticket to be on the first train from UW, check in at UW Station between 7:30-8:25am. You’ll get […]

[UPDATE: In a development inconvenient for my thesis, Save Our Trails utterly rejected the compromise proposal today, for reasons good and bad.] If the numerous corridor studies have shown anything, it’s that a small transit capital investment in transit for Kirkland wouldn’t be a disaster for the region. Projected ridership just isn’t that high. Despite interest group […]

Martin and Frank talk Kirkland light rail, infill stations, and car sharing services. https://media.blubrry.com/seattletransitblog/s3.amazonaws.com/stb-wp/wp-content/podcasts/STB_podcast_012.mp3 Subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast player. Like the show? Leave a review.

On Tuesday evening, the Kirkland City Council approved a letter to the Sound Transit Board offering a compromise to resolve the impasse over transit on the Cross-Kirkland Corridor (CKC). The letter (significantly revised from the draft Zach reported on Saturday) seeks an investment in trail access from Kirkland to the Wilburton Link Station and Kingsgate BRT station. These […]

Everett Transit has laid out plans for some major service changes to its bus routes in North Everett and Silver Lake, slated to take place this August. Under the new proposal, the North Everett Circulator (routes 4 and 5, which run in opposite directions in a loop around the neighborhood every hour) would be split and partially […]

Four days out from launch, yesterday Sound Transit invited local media to take a preview ride on ULink. The hourlong event included station tours at UW and Capitol Hill, and a roundtrip ride between UW and Capitol Hill. Like clockwork, the southbound trip took 3 minutes and 56 seconds, with smooth acceleration and great ride quality after […]

SEATTLE SUBWAY Tonight the Kirkland City Council is planning on voting to ratify a letter that, among other things, contains the following statement. “If light rail on the Cross Kirkland Corridor is included in the ST3 package, Kirkland would have to oppose the ballot measure.” The Council’s opposition to light rail is a tactic to […]

Monday afternoon the Seattle City Council approved $1.4m to purchase Pronto Cycleshare’s privately-held assets. The buyout gives Pronto a needed infusion of cash to keep service going while the City prepares to financially restructure the struggling bikeshare service. The City will retain the private operator (Motivate Co) through the remainder of 2016, and will issue an […]

On Saturday I wrote about conflict between the City of Kirkland and Sound Transit on proposed transit investments in Sound Transit 3. If you’re new to this issue I suggest you read that piece before this one, but to reiterate, the basic issues are as follows. Kirkland developed a detailed Bus Rapid Transit plan for its Cross […]

Toronto’s regional transit authority and their big transit plan. They sure loved shots of our Link trains.

Sound Transit 3’s politics require a delicate dance between keeping subarea dollars local and funding the most productive and popular projects. Some subareas are long on projects and short on funds (Snohomish County, and to a much lesser extent Seattle), while others are relatively flush with cash but lean on popular projects (East King County, and to […]

One week before ULink’s opening, there is still significant education and outreach to be done in communities affected by the major restructuring of bus service. Tomorrow (March 12), Councilmember Rob Johnson will host a forum at the University Heights Center (5031 University Way NE) from 10am-noon to discuss the opening of ULink and the associated […]

Last week, King County Parks published a draft master plan for the Eastside Rail Corridor Regional Trail. The County aims to develop a permanent paved trail on over 16 miles of the corridor. As the trail plan enters a public comment period, Sound Transit is finalizing its own draft system plan. That will clarify how portions of the […]

SDOT scrapping caps on short-term car rentals. Hurrah. The mechanics of a potential Local Improvement District for the First Hill Streetcar extension. Two teams bidding on Lynnwood Link contract. Kitsap Transit resolves labor trouble. Stats about crimes on buses in 2015. Local unions ask UW to contain U-Pass charges for employees. Passing buses rattling houses […]

[Post has been updated with minor clarifications on Routes 24, 28, 33, 48, 62, 73, 75, 78, and 373.] With ULink launching next weekend and Metro’s huge service change happening one week later on March 26, Metro released its official service change information page this afternoon, and County Executive Dow Constantine has issued a media release about the changes. Those […]

A blast shook Greenwood early this morning, destroying 3 local businesses (Quick Stop, Mr. Gyros, and Neptune Coffee) while causing heavy damage to nearby businesses such as G&O Family Cyclery. KOMO News reports the cause as a natural gas leak that had been reported roughly 40 minutes prior to the explosion. 9 firefighters have been […]

At its monthly board meeting held earlier this Thursday, Community Transit unveiled its proposals for its first Proposition 1-funded service expansions, scheduled for September 2016 and March 2017. The two expansions add about 38,300 hours of service, fulfilling the promise of transit service on the State Route 9 corridor (in the form of two new routes) and […]

Long planned but also long delayed, Seattle’s annexation of North Highline/White Center received new life last week when the legislature agreed to redirect $7m in state sales taxes to Seattle to cover the transitional costs of annexation. Three sequential process steps remain for annexation, namely the approval of the King County Boundary Review Board, approval […]

January’s Link weekday ridership was 15.6% higher than the year before. In the last 4 months (Oct 15 – Jan 16) Link has averaged 13.9% growth. It’s becoming quite apparent that the October 2014 to September 2015 ‘slowdown’ (for the first time ever Link wasn’t growing by double digits) was in fact simply a reaction to […]

Five housing bills made the Friday deadline to get voted on in their second house, with two now headed to the governor’s desk, and three going back to their original house to try to get agreement on final language. Unfortunately, Sen. Joe Fain’s (R – Auburn) housing preservation bill, 2nd Substitute Senate Bill 6239, did […]

Starting April 22, you’ll be able to ride RTD’s A Line, an electric commuter train, from Denver International Airport to Union Station in 37 minutes, every 15-30 minutes, 22 hours a day, at speeds up to 79 mph.

Friday was the cut-off in the state legislature for bills to get out of their second house. 37 transportation bills did so. Six of them were detailed in the list of transit-related bills that at least made it to their second chamber’s Rules Committee. Among those, HB 2516, EHB 2745, HB 2815, SB 6299, and […]

March is nearly here, bringing with it the arrival of spring, minor and major service changes, two new Link stations, and the return of Major League Soccer after the winter off-season. Sound Transit is continuing its annual tradition of offering special weekend Sounder round-trips to and from King Street Station in Seattle (a short walk from […]

The near final draft of the Seattle Transit Map featuring U Link and Metro’s new bus service taking effect on March 26 is ready for your review. Thank you to everyone who gave their feedback on the first set of drafts. Comments on this map are due March 6. The priority is to finish the […]

Seven bills in the state legislature related to transit survived Monday’s cut-off to get to the Rules Committee in their second house. They have through this Friday to get voted on in their second house. One controversial bill that did not make the cut was Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5343, by Sen. Bob Hasegawa (D […]