Seattle Transit Blog

King County Council Chair Claudia Balducci recently penned an op-ed to the Seattle Times arguing for East Link to meet its commitment of a 2023 opening, but only on the Eastside. But what if we opened an Eastside-only light rail line connecting Redmond to Bellevue, or even to Mercer Island, in 2023? Could we provide … Continue reading "Balducci wants intra-Eastside Link to open on time"

Tiles are fixed early, Link is back to normal. Seattle is still adding lots of apartments. Downtown is doing OK, depending on how you look at the numbers. Some concern about the Spring District. It is centered around a brewpub — can’t be that bad. Lots of ferries are delayed. This is an open thread.

A chance to weigh in on changes to Aurora. 520 to be shutdown later this month; buses will have to go around. The transit driver shortage is not just local. Maybe we should listen to the drivers (or give them bonuses). New York City tries to speed up the buses. State Patrol tickets a lot … Continue reading "Sunday News Roundup"

Sound Transit: However, on both the east and west sides of the bridge, the contractor’s work to fix problems with cast-in-place concrete plinths supporting the tracks has led to the identification of further challenges. These include issues with mortar pads, rebar placements and track fasteners, which the contractor has agreed to fix by re-casting the … Continue reading "More Link delays"

The youth fare is abolished effective Sept. 1st. This year’s transportation package in Olympia sends transit agencies a bunch of money in return for getting rid of the fare, neatly solving the dilemma of encouraging ridership by either cutting fares or using the money to improve service. Agencies across the state quickly fell into line. … Continue reading "Youth fares almost gone"

Mayor Bruce Harrell: “We are now hearing many community members questioning whether there needs to be a new station in the community at all – and as a matter of good government we need to answer that question. “To be clear, looking at alternative location options in addition to those currently proposed does not mean … Continue reading "No station in Chinatown?"

Sound Transit is planning for service changes in 2023, and has just released its 2023 Service Plan for public comment. This plan outlines the changes to Sound Transit service that is anticipated for 2023. And the outlook is… bleak. For some background, you may recall that there were significant improvements in transit service planned in … Continue reading "Sound Transit’s 2023 service plan shows no signs of labor shortage relief"

From the mayor’s office: Seattle (July 27, 2022) – Today, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell announced that he will appoint Greg Spotts to be the next Director of the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), pending confirmation by the Seattle City Council. … Spotts currently serves as the Executive Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer at the Los Angeles … Continue reading "Harrell names new SDOT head"

Danny Westneat’s latest column in The Seattle Times asks a bold question: Why are we continuing with the same transit planning — such as for Sound Transit’s future light-rail segments — without factoring that a third or more of the workforce may not be commuting to a downtown core, or commuting at all? Westneat is … Continue reading "No, we’re not entering a period of “untransit”"

The Seattle Times rightly asks why Seattle has been so eager to get a station at 130th but so reluctant to add zoning capacity Vancouver’s 16km SkyLink extension to Surrey to open in 2028, cost $4B Related: Translink’s ridership is at a remarkable 72% of pre-Covid levels SDOT rolls out a safety campaign to try … Continue reading "News Roundup: flocking safety"

Seattle Transportation Plan is seeking input; “one plan to rule them all,” instead of the modal plans of years past So is the Seattle Comprehensive Plan (land use & zoning) The Urbanist: speeding up Route 36 SDOT: Bus lanes going in (finally!) on Rainier Ave. Seattle Times: Amtrak service to B.C. is coming back sooner … Continue reading "Weekend Roundup: it’s a plan"

Seattle Subway has 5 fundamental pillars of rider experience: speed, reliability, accessibility, expandability, and safety. Ensuring expandability, and the financial and operational feasibility of future expansion, is fundamental to making sure ST3 is a good transit investment, and Sound Transit seems to have forgotten that. We need your help to remind the Sound Transit Board … Continue reading "Call to action: don’t let the Sound Transit board make expansion beyond ST3 impossible"

The Sound Transit Board failed to advance 20th Avenue NW in Ballard to Draft Environmental Impact Statement Study. Sound Transit must study a Ballard station in the heart of Ballard. Seattle Subway has 5 fundamental pillars of rider experience: speed, reliability, accessibility, expandability, and safety. For many reasons that Seattle Subway has laid out previously, … Continue reading "Call to action: tell the Sound Transit board to reopen study of an ST3 Link light rail station in the heart of Ballard"

Too little internet content is about unironic appreciation for people doing the right thing. So good for Dan Strauss, trying to put the light rail station where the people are in his district: “Placing the station to the east undermines our city’s work to create a densely connected community,” Strauss said. “This is infrastructure that … Continue reading "Seattle’s position on WSBLE"

Seattle Times‘ Mike Lindblom has a long dive into light rail crashes on MLK. It’s too in-depth to summarize but well worth reading. Meanwhile, Times Columnist Naomi Ishaka argues for more gates in the Rainier Valley to protect pedestrians U-PASS is now fully-subsidized for all UW employees. Good on TRU for organizing around this effort … Continue reading "News roundup: fully subsidized"

This is an open thread.

Denver and Los Angeles are cancelling freeways The Seattle DOT would like your comments on the new city-wide transportation plan Visit the online hub to learn more Also from SDOT: West Seattle Bridge re-opens in September The Urbanist covers Aurora Avenue’s safety and bus project Metro: NE 43rd St re-opens to transit on June 25 … Continue reading "News roundup: cracked up"

Last month, Metro reported an average weekday ridership exceeding 200,000 boardings. This is a mark that hasn’t been seen since the pandemic started, with the exception of last October (which typically represents the peak month of ridership in a year). More encouraging is that year-over-year growth is currently sitting at about 40%, which certainly trends … Continue reading "Transit ridership is slowly recovering"

Shōtengai are the original pedestrian malls. This is an open thread.

Sound Transit: Timm is currently CEO of Greater Richmond Transit Company, where her more than 400 employees operate successful regional bus routes serving the Richmond, Virginia area. Timm is known as a highly collaborative leader who forges strong relationships with community groups and partners, and for building an agency culture focused on dedication to public … Continue reading "Sound Transit’s new CEO: Julie Timm"

Since Sound Transit released the DEIS for the new West Seattle-Ballard extension, stakeholders have been poring over the findings and submitting their comments. One major group of stakeholders is the Chinatown-International District (CID) neighborhood, which recently came out in full force either against the 5th Avenue alternative or against all options entirely. Mike Lindblom has … Continue reading "New ST3 International District Station options face stiff resistance"

Sound Transit is marketing a slate of service impacts from 2-Line (East Link) construction and 1-Line maintenance as a “Future Ready” program. Starting next month and stretching into Q1 of 2023, existing 1-Line service will undergo intermittent periods of reduced longer headways and shuttle service. From the press release: Time periods Travel impact Monday, July … Continue reading "Link work to impact service through early next year"

[UPDATE: Service details added below] With Cascades service between Seattle and Vancouver out for most of the remainder of 2022, cross-border travelers between the cities will have a new option in FlixBus. The German-based intercity carrier is launching a new Seattle-Vancouver route, slated to begin service this Thursday, June 2nd. The suspension of Cascades service … Continue reading "A new cross-border service starting June 2nd"

The MarketWatch podcast discusses the future of transit, with some good ideas, and some bad. This is an open thread.

New Eastrail bridge breaks ground next to future Wilburton station. Could open before East Link? Capitol Hill Seattle: Seattle city council moving back to some in-person meetings West Seattle bridge closer to re-opening in “mid-2022” The Atlantic: Jerusalem Demsas takes on the NIMBY-population-growther nexus Seattle Times: Gene Balk crunches the data and Seattle is [slightly] … Continue reading "Friday news roundup"

Ryan Packer, The Urbanist: SDOT says that the first phase of this transit lane could save riders on the Route 7 one minute per trip, but that the full extension could save riders 6 minutes during times of highest congestion on Rainier Avenue. That could translate to as many as 141 cumulative hours saved per … Continue reading "Bikes, buses and Rainier Avenue"

Seattle Monorail Services has proposed a pair of 25 cent fare increases to take effect this year and next

KUOW: Why are condos in Seattle so expensive? New York magazine: Who’s Afraid of the Subway? Publcola and The Urbanist discuss Sound Transit’s new fare enforcement policy The Urbanist also has a preview of the first phase of ORCA dropping on May 16 SDOT: Levy to Move Seattle Q1 progress report Next City: the Bay … Continue reading "News roundup: fares"

A glimpse into what we might have had if Forward Thrust had passed. This is an open thread.

The New York Times recently ran an excellent feature on Portland’s efforts to curb emissions while still building highways: But despite Portland’s efforts, the number of cars and trucks on its roads has kept rising as the city and its suburbs have grown — along with tailpipe pollution that is warming the planet. While Portland … Continue reading "Portland’s driving dilemma"

Like many workers, I all but abandoned transit usage through 2020 and most of 2021, only returning mid-last year as my office reopened. Yet even as a lot of facets of society have returned to normal, transit ridership has struggled to rebound. There is still lingering uncertainty as COVID persists and most company return-to-office plans … Continue reading "What will be the new normal for post-COVID ridership?"

Finishing on the server moves from last week. Apologies for any downtime! Update: maintenance complete.

Mike Lindblom at the Seattle Times has the scoop: Project staff mentioned a potential start date of February 2024 in a presentation Tuesday to King County Metro Transit rail-division employees. Metro personnel operate and maintain the trains. “That information is a bit premature,” Ron Lewis, director of design, engineering and construction management, said in an … Continue reading "East Link opening likely delayed until 2024"

The B1M, a channel for construction videos, features our system expansion. This is an open thread.

The ROI on bus lanes is remarkable: Another benefit of the lanes is a more consistent trip time for riders. Travel-time variability decreased by up to 26% northbound and 55% southbound, according to the data. And the lanes appear to have encouraged more people to take the bus, with ridership increasing 13% in the first … Continue reading "San Francisco’s Van Ness BRT"

No guarantees that ST staff will read your incisive 1500-word comment on STB, unfortunately, so you might want to share it with them directly. Re-read Seattle Subway’s post and the comments below if you want to refresh your memory.

We’re migrating to a new server and comments may not post on Wednesday 4/27 and possibly into Thursday 4/28.

Erica has an excellent overview of Metro’s latest report on the possibility: In a recent report on the future of Metro’s fare system, the agency outlined its plans for smoothing the transition to eliminating cash fares, which—according to Metro—will make boarding faster, ease conflicts between riders and drivers, and eliminate the need to periodically repair Metro’s 1,509 … Continue reading "Eliminating cash fares"

MyORCA.com: Beginning in May 2022, the new myORCA mobile app and website will make paying for transit rides in the Puget Sound region faster and easier. Later in 2022, we’re adding more retail locations where you can buy and reload ORCA cards and launching a new card design. MyORCA replaces the aging orcacard.com and orcacard.biz … Continue reading "New ORCA app and website coming next month"

After a somewhat confused day of messaging, all local transit agencies jointly lifted their mask requirements after a federal judge knocked down the CDC’s rule. David Kroman in the Times: Immediately after the Monday ruling, Seattle-area agencies largely kept their current policies in place, albeit without strong enforcement mechanisms. By late Monday and early Tuesday, … Continue reading "Local agencies lift mask requirements"

As the public comment window for Sound Transit’s West Seattle Ballard Link Extension draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) comes to a close, it’s time to make your voice heard about what will be built as part of ST3. As always, powerful stakeholders who do not prioritize transit quality are very well represented in this process … Continue reading "Seattle Subway’s summary recommendations for the ST3 DEIS"

As Sound Transit has moved the West Seattle-Ballard Link Extension (WSBLE) through the EIS process, several challenges have emerged, with early concerns focused on the Ballard and West Seattle termini. These are nowhere near solved, but a compromise alignment seems within reach. The middle of the line is another question: serious disruption in Chinatown / … Continue reading "Put First Hill back on the table?"

When looking at the two options presented by Sound Transit for South Lake Union (SLU) in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), we’re struck by how poorly the station will serve South Lake Union. The Harrison option is deep at about 120’ and all the way on the western edge of SLU. The Mercer option … Continue reading "SLU Station Can Be Better, Cheaper, and Easier to Build on Westlake"

STB has been on the 23rd Ave electrification beat since 2011, and the last update was via CHS in 2016, when trolleybus service was projected to begin in 2018. The street repaving and pole installation described in 2016 is long ago complete, and 2018 was a while ago, but Route 48 is, alas, still plied … Continue reading "Route 48 Electrification Expected in 2026"

Sound transit has a blog post up that pairs well with our recent discussions of transfers and deep stations: As people have begun to study the recently published Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), some have wondered about the depths of the stations and what the rider experience would be like to access the platforms and transfer … Continue reading "Diagramming station depths"

Convenient transfers can transform a good transit network into a great one. When you don’t think twice about switching lines, the network is really doing its job. Unfortunately the designs proposed for ST3’s two new massive transfer stations, Westlake and International District (ID) Stations fall well short of that mark. These designs feel like they … Continue reading "ST3 Transfers Must be Excellent"