Seattle Transit Blog

by SEATTLE SUBWAY Last week, the State Legislature finally approved funding authority for Sound Transit to move forward with their next phase of expansion. This was a hard-won fight, fraught with unpleasant and ill-conceived tradeoffs forced by our state’s political geography, but those compromises have been made. Now is the time to make sure they were […]

A little over 3 years ago Bolt Bus started operating in the Pacific Northwest with runs to Vancouver and Portland from Seattle. A year later service was expanded to Eugene. I reached out to Bolt Bus GM David Hall for an update and he had some good news to share. First on June 25th Bolt […]

In April I asked SDOT if the Expedia move would strengthen the case for full-time bus lanes on Elliott. At the time, they didn’t have a timetable. Now they do. Rick Sheridan: SDOT’s Transit division has an ongoing program of C and D Line enhancements. The current focus is on restriping 15th NW between NW […]

I love the CTA announcements. The station names can be repetitive but the messages themselves are concise.

STB will be conducting endorsement interviews over the next week and a half, and we’re considering the idea of videotaping them. If there are any modestly skilled videographers (with equipment) out there willing to donate about 6 hours of time in the next week and a half, please send us an email.

The Globe and Mail writes a post-mortem of Vancouver’s disastrous transit referendum. Meanwhile, Jarrett Walker gives a helpful sermon on the uselessness of spite votes. The results of the Madison BRT Public Outreach process are out. In short, citizens prefer Spring to Marion, Center to Side Running, more stations downtown (i.e. 6th instead of 8th), and service […]

Near the top of the “Tier 1″ transit projects funded by the state’s new Transportation budget is a curious item: Project Title Agency Leg District Funding (Dollars in thousands) Bike Share Expansion – Kirkland, Bellevue, Redmond, Issaquah King County Metro 48 $5,500 That’s a $5.5 million allocation to expand bike sharing to 4 Eastside cities. You may be […]

A flurry of transportation-related bills passed the state legislature last week, with most of these bills signed by the governor on Monday. Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1219 lists 130 specific state-owned bridges the legislature deems to be structurally deficient, creates exemptions from the State Environmental Protection Act for reconstruction on these bridges, disallows bridge reconstruction […]

For the last few decades the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT) has served us well. Originally designed to provide a fast and reliable one-seat ride into downtown Seattle for commuters, it has evolved as our region and transit system have grown. The DSTT has been a resounding success contributing to a drive alone rate of […]

The ORCA regional day pass, which Brent reported on back in April, is now available for purchase, says Metro. An $8 Regional Day Pass for adult riders valid for unlimited rides on services with fares up to $3.50 A $4 Regional Day Pass for ORCA Regional Reduced Fare Permit (RRFP) cardholders (seniors and riders with disabilities) […]

This afternoon, Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat had an excellent, but inartfully headlined, scoop: Mayor Ed Murray’s Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda committee (HALA–rhymes with balla) could, according to a draft plan leaked to Westneat, recommend doing away with the label “single-family zoning” and replacing it with the more inclusive “low-density residential zone,” which would […]

Tomorrow is the deadline to tell Sound Transit which potential ST3 projects you think are most important. I thought I’d share my answers, with a bit of commentary, which of course reflect my personal prejudices. I invite others to share their responses on Page 2 or snippets in the comments. For background on these routing options, […]

After asking the public last year for input on pictograms to identify new Link stations from Angle Lake to Northgate, Sound Transit revealed them in its Northgate project update last week. The new pictograms will appear on redesigned signage in stations and on board trains later this year in advance of U Link’s opening. Sound […]

Shots of 4500, Metro’s first low-floor articulated electric trolleybus (New Flyer XT60), in action. You can see it rolling up Rainier, up Pike, then lowering the poles and using battery power, and pulling a U-turn at the Route 14 terminus in Mount Baker. I’m glad we decided to invest in more and better trolleybuses. More […]

126 “Seattle style” apartments open near Auburn Station. Would you live in Auburn for $1,300/month? (DJC) Most of the Montlake Triangle/Rainier Vista has reopened, including the Burke-Gilman rebuild, and Seattle Bike Blog loves it. (Thanks to this week’s transportation package, the Burke will also get $16m to fully rebuild the trail through campus.) South Tacoma […]

Early yesterday morning both houses of the legislature passed a transportation package that among many things included the full $15 billion in funding authority Sound Transit requested. While I agree with many of the complaints with the package, overall I think it is a win for the region. Sound Transit wanted $15 billion in authority, Sound Transit got […]

On June 25th, the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) designated the Central Issaquah Urban Core as a Regional Growth Center (RGC). Issaquah is the 29th center to receive this designation, which is a major criterion in the distribution of federal transportation funds. Issaquah’s designation follows University Place, in 2014, and South Lake Union in 2007. The […]

Don’t be caught off guard by the significant transit service reductions on Friday, July 3, the day the federal government is observing as the Independence Day holiday. Very few transit agencies will be running a regular weekday schedule. Some will even shut down completely. Others will be shut down Saturday and open for business Friday. […]

The #waleg Senate passes $16b transpo bill 39-9. House floor action expected Tuesday. — Michael C. Lindblom (@MikeLindblom) June 30, 2015 Less than 10 hours after the public received details about the state legislature’s transportation package, the Senate approved it. By the time you read this, the House’s vote will be imminent. Governor Inslee is a […]

[Update from Martin 4:10pm: Section 319 specifically prohibits Sound Transit, if it enacts new MVET, from receiving any state grants except for “transit coordination grants.”] Today, the state Senate made public the details of the “compromise” transportation proposal agreed to by transportation committee leaders in the state House and Senate. The public documents include proposed bill text, project lists, […]

The Seattle Times reported last evening ($) that Governor Inslee and legislative leaders from both houses have reached agreement on a transportation package. Of highest relevance to STB, the package contains the full $15B requested authorization for Sound Transit 3.* This could either give the ST board some flexibility in choosing its revenue sources while […]

Produced for a real estate firm, the silent film shows the construction of the Twin Peaks Tunnel through the mountainous center of San Francisco and development of land on the west end of the tunnel.

Community Transit held three open houses this week for their Swift II project, which aims to build a 12.5-mile-long bus rapid transit line with 15 stations connecting northern Bothell to Mill Creek and the Paine Field industrial area in Everett. The project is estimated to cost $42-48m, with the majority of capital funds provided from […]

Recently, Matthew shared some 2014 population statistics that once again showed the City of Seattle leading King County growth. Looking at more detailed city data across the region, the news is more complex and yet more encouraging. Not only is Seattle leading King County, but much of the growth elsewhere in the County is coming from […]

Better enforcement coming to regional Park & Rides, with KIRO highlighting a recent crackdown. (KIRO) More First Hill Streetcar delays: SDOT and Inekon are another 30 days behind their most recent goal of having all cars certified by the end of June. (KING 5) Mercer Island’s development moratorium has been extended another six months. […]

University Link light rail train testing from Sound Transit Video on Vimeo. This afternoon Sound Transit released its first video of full-speed testing of the ULink alignment, showing a northbound trip from Capitol Hill Station to UW Station. The video gives a nice sense of how the ride quality and acceleration will feel once in service. […]

When more buses are needed during peak hours, and no extra money is available to add more runs, it is usually off-peak frequency, and then off-peak span-of-service, that gets reduced first. Sunday and then Saturday service are at the front of that queue for taking away service. So, I was pleasantly surprised when the route […]

In the urbanist blogosphere it’s most interesting to write about policies that cut both ways. Taxing development to fund low-income housing probably, at the margins, discourages construction of market-rate units while also enabling construction of below-market-rate units. The net impact is therefore debatable. But then there are straightforward restrictions on the number of units that […]

King County Metro Transit is preparing to add several hundred new buses to its fleet over the next few months. It’s welcome news for most regular Metro riders, who know there are a lot of old buses still running on the streets of King County. Budget pressure, mostly from the 2008 recession, forced Metro to […]

The fare was once a nickel; today it’s a free ride.

Last month I asked if Link was pulling out of it’s late 2014 ridership growth slow down. While it hasn’t returned to the insane 15+% gains of last year, it does appear to have bounced back to more than healthy levels. Throw out the February numbers (unusually low due to the Seahawks’ parade inflating 2014’s numbers) and […]

The joint ST/Metro planning open houses began on Tuesday at Union Station in Seattle. Sound Transit is looking for feedback on a potential ST3 measure (which could be affected by the current stalemate in Olympia on a transportation package). The board will consider public input in less than a month, on July 15; we should expect […]

The streetcar tracks on Jackson St are hazardous to people on bikes, and there is no parallel facility. Seattle Bike Blog explores design changes to fix it. Burien (1) and Kenmore (2) are feeling left out of ST3 planning, and are making noise about it. (B-Town Blog and Shoreline Area News) Meanwhile, ST3 will go nowhere without […]

As the picture at right shows, Sound Transit recently erected new signs to indicate where 4-car (and 3-car) trains should stop. That reminded me of a question that had always bugged me: why do 2-car trains stop in the middle of the platform at all stations, when several stations (Stadium, Sodo, Rainier Beach) have only […]

City Council member Nick Licata, who’s retiring after his term ends at the end of this year, would like his legacy to include amending Move Seattle, Mayor Ed Murray’s proposed $930 million transportation levy, to be smaller and less dependent on regressive property taxes. Arguing that voters are approaching tax fatigue and that his alternative […]

Martin’s recent post on the Everett delegation’s desires for ST3 is a good reminder that Sound Transit is as much a political project as an engineering one (and could it be any other way?). When ST’s Ric Ilgenfritz spoke to STB readers at our April meetup, he described an agency that was coming out of survival […]

Grist has been running a fantastic series on Seattle. You’ve probably seen one or two of the pieces show up in your social feed, but if not, the whole series is worth your time. One piece in particular wonders whether Amazon’s SLU campus is the future of the office park. I was nodding vigorously in agreement […]

After much STB hand-wringing over the distance between existing Montlake Triangle bus stops and the coming UW Station, at the last meetup Metro revealed that they’re working to improve the status quo. Sending most 520 buses to UW Station instead of downtown saves service hours that Metro and Sound Transit can use to improve frequency […]

Beatwalk is a neighborhood music festival held in Columbia City for the past 21 years. After the successes of 2013 and 2014, this year will also be a whole series of events held the second Sunday of the month June-October from 6-10pm. All shows, indoor and out, will be FREE. The location of downtown Columbia City is a short walk east […]

I’m eager to rip Sound Transit when their operations department does rider-unfriendly stuff, so it’s fair to commend them for absolutely flooding the zone with employees during tunnel closures the last two weekends. I had a couple of trips to the Sodo/Stadium area on Sunday, and there was so much staff there that no one […]

On Thursday, the Sound Transit Capital Committee approved permanent names for the planned East Link stations. Their recommendation will go to the Board for approval on June 25th. Six of the ten planned stations have ‘new’ names. Names were selected after a public comment process with input from the cities. Sound Transit received 823 comments […]

The city applied for a TIGER grant to massively increase the bike sharing area. Will an additional 200 stations be enough to cover such a wide area? Also: e-bikes! Portland’s operating costs for buses approaching rail. Does that say more about Portland’s buses or MAX? Councilmembers Licata and Sawant formally propose rent control, would require […]

Sound Transit’s summary then some analysis and my charts after the fold. Total Sound Transit boardings increased by 7% during the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014. Boardings increased on all modes except Paratransit. System growth is trending about 6% over the annual budget and SIP forecasts. Aside from 56 […]

Both King County Metro and Sound Transit will be conducting a flurry of public outreach this month. Metro is finally climbing out of its multi-year revenue hole and is in a position to start thinking about how to grow service for the first time in a long time. Sound Transit, meanwhile, has a little initiative […]

This past Saturday, King County Metro rolled out three new public safety announcements to play on buses. A day later on Sunday, Metro decided to pull the plug and remove the announcements, effective Monday morning. I got to be on the receiving end of the aural assault Saturday and Sunday, as an announcement played after […]