Friday Roundtable: Cascadia High-Speed Rail and I-5

Posted on by Michael Smith

To plan the next generation of north-south travel in western Washington, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is working on the I-5 Master Plan and the Cascadia High Speed Rail project. These two projects have been integrated into a combined Cascaida Program. WSDOT is asking for your feedback on what should be prioritized as the program progresses. The survey closes tonight so be sure to fill it out today.

The Cascadia Program is focused on the transportation of people and goods between Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver (BC). While this corridor crosses two states and an international boarder, 88% of the route is located in Washington. As a result, WSDOT is leading the effort while working with agencies in Oregon and British Columbia.

Map of the current HSR study areas in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. (WSDOT)
Continue reading “Friday Roundtable: Cascadia High-Speed Rail and I-5” | 4 comments

Maintenance of automated trains

Posted on by Martin Pagel

Sound Transit has recently reduced construction cost with smaller station designs (for example Alaska Junction) but their current four-car trains are 380ft long while Vancouver’s SkyTrains are only 280ft long. That still requires bigger, harder to locate, and more expensive stations. Due to automation SkyTrain can operate more frequently and therefore still handle higher ridership while providing higher convenience. Sound Transit has considered automation but is concerned about interoperability with current trains. They could add an operator on surface portions such as through Rainier Valley. If they would keep the Ballard line separate, then interoperability would not be an issue, but Sound Transit would need to worry about where to park them at night (“stabling”), clean them, and maintain them. When Sound Transit considered a starter line for Ballard, they concluded that they would need to build an operations and maintenance facility (OMF) in Interbay and that its cost would offset all savings. I gathered some ideas on how to potentially reduce such effort.

Central Link Operations and Maintenance Center in SODO (Google Maps)
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King County Metro planning service changes for new Renton Transit Center

Posted on by Alex Kvenvolden
Early layout concept for the future Renton Transit Center (image: Sound Transit)


As part of the Stride S1 line, Sound Transit is building a new transit center in Renton, adjacent to the existing South Renton Park and Ride. When it opens in 2028, it will be known as simply Renton Transit Center, and will replace both the existing Renton Transit Center in downtown Renton, and the adjacent South Renton Park and Ride. Commuters need not fret over lack of parking, as the new transit center will include a new garage dedicated for commuter parking that is larger than the parking at both current facilities that are reserved for transit commuters. With the transit center moving, bus service has to move with it, and Metro has made its first service proposal on what that may look like in its Renton Area Mobility Project (RAMP). Details below the jump.

Continue reading “King County Metro planning service changes for new Renton Transit Center” | 107 comments

Ballard Starter Line

Posted on by Martin Pagel

At the Ballard Town Hall meeting Sound Transit made it clear that they do not want to make any major changes to the BLE plans to avoid starting all over with the EIS process. They did consider at some point starting with a connection between Ballard and Westlake and delay or even skip the second downtown tunnel (DSTT2). But that would require a separate operations and maintenance facility (OMF) at Interbay or connecting to the existing downtown tunnel (DSTT1). The tunnel is old and surrounding soil is unstable and therefore they concluded this would be very risky and costly. Tom Terrific however suggested a single-track maintenance tunnel connection which would connect at the end of the current tunnel by the Convention Center.

Maintenance tunnel connection (Google Maps)
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Friday Roundtable: Historic Transit Investments in Puget Sound

Posted on by Michael Smith
Everett Transit will be absorbed into Community Transit in Spring 2027. This move will lead to 50% more bus service in Everett by 2031.

The past 5 days may have been the most consequential week for transit in Puget Sound this year. Across the region, voters and elected officials decided to invest in transit for years and decades to come.

On Tuesday, voters in Seattle approved the Seattle Transit Measure (STM) with an overwhelming 72% supporting the measure. The 0.3% sales tax increase will take effect on April 1, 2027 and fund 280,000 bus trips in Seattle each year for 10 years. The measure also funds 22,000 free ORCA cards for low-income, elderly, and families with young children, maintain support for Seattle’s streetcar lines, fund spot improvements to keep buses moving, and help expedite permits and inspections for Link expansion projects in Seattle. The additional bus trips will help grow Seattle’s Very Frequent Transit Network.

Map of routes that received additional trips from the current STM (left) and a map of routes that could see further investment from the renewed STM (right). (SDOT)
Continue reading “Friday Roundtable: Historic Transit Investments in Puget Sound” | 127 comments

2026 Midterm Election

Posted on by Nathan Dickey

Ballot return closes at 8pm. The first batch of results is expected 15-30 minutes later.

As of 6pm on November 4, King County had received 878,871 ballots, representing 60.18% of the county’s 1,460,414 registered voters. King County Elections was expecting ~75% turnout. King County has counted about 73% of returned ballots.

Local elections STB is following:

  • Seattle – Council District 5: Nilu Jenks | Julie Kang
  • Seattle – Prop. 1 (transit service improvement): Yes | No
  • King County – Council District 2: Toshiko Hasegawa | Rebecca Saldaña
  • King County – Council District 8: Nick Duda | Teresa Mosqueda
  • Pierce County – Prop 1. (transit service improvement): Yes | No

We’ll update this post with initial counts (expected shortly after 8pm) and later counts if results are likely to change. Key races appear to be decided; results are indicated in bold italics.

Please keep election discussion focused on local elections. Non-local elections may be discussed if explicitly related to local or regional issues regarding transit and/or land use.

Edit (1:18pm, 11/3): updated ballot return stats.
Edit (8:30pm, 11/3): updated with first drop results for watched races.
Edit (6:06pm, 11/4): updated turnout statistics.

48 comments

Sunday Movie: Good LRT

Posted on by Mike Orr

Kitchener-Waterloo light rail in Ontario, Canada is surprisingly high quality for North America (Not Just Bikes) NJB still finds something to rant about of course: some stations could be closer to destination entrances for disability access.

Bonus movies:

How to find Link at SeaTac airport. (SDOT)

Why the West Coast has no large cities directly on the ocean shore north of San Francisco. (Real Life Lore)

There’s a new Page Two article on the Columbia River Crossing by Yvr Lutyens. Click on “Page Two” at the top of the page to see all of STB’s unofficial reader-contributed articles.

This is an open thread.

76 comments