Seattle Transit Blog

[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 […]

Good overview of Honolulu’s rail transit project, which will be the longest driverless transit system in the US. Honolulu is already one of the most transit intensive cities in the US, ranking sixth, just below Boston, in terms of annual per capita ridership (88.4 in 2012).

While King County Metro, Community Transit, and Pierce Transit are expanding service starting this weekend, Sound Transit is cutting a few trips on its least productive bus routes. Cuts to Sound Transit Express bus service, effective this coming Monday, June 8, will include one trip from route 560, six trips from route 566, one trip […]

Seattlish writes up WSDOT’s new video explaining how to use the “crazy confusing” I-405 Express Toll Lanes. Sound Transit has launched SoundTransit3.org, with a web survey, list of public meetings, background documents, and maps so generic no constituency could possibly mistake them for a promise of service. Please take the survey. PLU’s magazine Resolute has a great profile […]

Last November, the state Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) fined Metro for failing to provide adequate restrooms for bus drivers. The fine reflected longstanding problems along a number of Metro routes. Famously, Metro seemed incapable of ensuring the basic cleanliness of a portable serving eight buses an hour, at the Othello Station end of routes […]

Snohomish County residents looking to ditch their car for Sundays and holidays can breathe a sigh of relief for the first time in five years. June 7 marks the restoration of Sunday service for Community Transit after its massive service cuts in June 2010, thanks to sales tax revenue returning to 2008 levels as well as […]

While we recently covered the highly-anticipated June 6th Metro service change – the first time we’ll see Prop 1 additions hitting the streets – we’d do well to remember that Metro and ST aren’t the only agencies adding service this weekend. Beleaguered Pierce Transit will be celebrating much needed good news this weekend, adding a […]

Google Maps keeps getting better for Seattle-area transit users. After last week’s integration of Community Transit route data, we now have real-time information for the major Seattle-area agencies, including King County Metro, Sound Transit, Pierce Transit, and Intercity Transit. Once again, Brian Ferris, who created OneBusAway and works at Google had a major hand in […]

by ZACH STEDNICK and MICHAEL LOGSDON When WSDOT ferries make the news, the press seems to focus on fiscal issues, rather than the logistical aspects of the ferry system. We wanted to remedy that and answer the question – are ferries generally on time? We filed a Public Records Request with WSDOT and here we present findings for on-time […]

We had a full house of STB readers for last Friday’s meetup at the Impact Hub to discuss Metro’s Alternative 3 for restructuring Northeast Seattle and Capitol Hill buses when U-Link opens next year. Metro planners Jeremy Fichter and Ted Day gave a short presentation and then took your questions for over an hour. Afterwards, […]

The Cambridge Guided Busway is the world’s longest with 16 miles of guided sections. The guidance allows buses to run on a very narrow right of way (typical of many former railroad lines). It’s greener due to the vegetation that grows between the grooved concrete slabs which contain the wheels of the bus. Running the buses on […]

City council candidate John Roderick, one of two leading contenders to take on council member Tim Burgess in citywide Position 8 in the November general election (the other is tenants advocate Jon Grant), recently unveiled the centerpiece of his transportation plan. No, not funiculars or gondolas or any of the other far-fetched (supporters would say far-sighted) ideas you’ll […]

As a reminder, we invite you to join us for our next STB Meetup TONIGHT from 5:30-7:30pm at the Impact Hub in Pioneer Square. Metro planners Ted Day and Jeremy Fichter will join us to discuss the U-Link restructure, with a brief presentation beginning at 5:30 and plenty of time for open Q&A thereafter. At roughly […]

by CITY OF REDMOND Are you a resident, employee, or frequent traveler in Redmond? Would you like to help plan the future of transit in the city? The City of Redmond, with Jarrett Walker + Associates, is hosting an interactive transit planning workshop on Saturday June 13th to explore service planning scenarios and help establish […]

Yesterday’s Sound Transit Board meeting included two staff presentations important to the future of Sound Transit 3. Most important was the first revision to the draft list of projects to study for potential inclusion in ST3. Less significantly, the staff also presented the results of a conceptual study that caused much activist angst when it started, […]

Federal Way didn’t take the advice of yours truly, recommending an I-5 alignment for Link instead of SR 99. Apparently avoiding nebulous ‘impacts’ is worth serving fewer people, with harder to access stations, in halved or nonexistent walksheds, in perpetuity. We need to figure out a way to organize for better outcomes in the suburban subareas. (Federal Way Mirror) Bedroom counties: Only 7% […]

Emerald Express (EmX) is a popular and growing BRT system in Eugene OR.

It looks like Link’s ridership growth is pulling out of last winter’s slowdown. Throw out last February’s Superbowl parade and so far this year Link is growing at around 9%. Last year’s ridership gains were so high (high teens!), I don’t think it possible to match them this year, but a return to low double […]

Sound Transit is gearing up to accept bids for East Link’s downtown Bellevue tunnel. (PSBJ) The final Move Seattle levy proposal is out, 3% larger than originally proposed due to rising tax proceeds. Lots of protected bike lanes, neighborhood greenways, funding for Graham St and Mt Baker improvements, and also some notable deletions, such as […]

At Thursday’s Sound Transit Executive Committee meeting, the staff presented its proposal for the draft project list for Sound Transit 3. The board will amend and approve this draft list at this month’s meeting and there will be public comment all summer. In the fall, Sound Transit will launch more detailed studies with refined cost and […]

City council member Tom Rasmussen stopped by the council’s planning and land use committee this week to express his view that the city’s new parking recommendations—which would, among other things, continue to allow new developments to be built sans parking, while encouraging alternatives to driving such as carsharing, biking, and riding transit—might violate the city’s Comprehensive Plan. […]

This week, I’ve sketched out an Eastside package Sound Transit should consider for ST3 funding. A key element of that is the BRISK network that would connect the Eastside with fast, frequent and reliable HCT service. Today, I’d like to discuss what it might cost and what needs to happen to make it a reality. Assuming a $15 billion […]

Since we last reported on the Madison Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project back in February, SDOT and Nelson Nygaard have been busy refining concepts with an eye toward identifying a Draft Preferred Alternative in June. Tonight from 5-7pm, SDOT will host an open house at Seattle Academy (1432 15th Avenue) to update the public on the […]