Month: April 2024

It’s been a couple weeks, so the roundup is longer than usual. Today, a total solar eclipse will pass over much of the central and eastern United States.

Countdown Clocks:

April 27, 11:02am: First East Link Starter Line Train from South Bellevue Station. Discover the 2 Line.

August 30, 10am(?): Lynnwood Link Extension (1 Line). No schedule for first train yet. Some neat aerial photos from ST’s drone photographer Ken Lambert on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/SeaTimesFotoKen/status/1776001156394762448

Local News:

Sound Transit hired Terri Mestas, most recently head of LAX’s nearly-complete expansion/renovation, as Megaproject Czar (officially “Deputy CEO for Megaproject Delivery”). ST press release; coverage by The Urbanist and The Seattle Times ($).

Mayor Harrell published the draft Transportation Levy for the fall ballot, proposing $1.35 billion in “maintenance and modernization”. Coverage by The Urbanist, Cascade PBS (formerly Crosscut), and The Seattle Times ($).

Community Transit proposes to formally end collection of the higher fare for commuter buses in the fall, since it will be eliminating the commuter routes after Lynnwood Link opens (Community Transit blog).

Federal Way City Council approved a development plan to bring up to 1,600 homes and a lot of new office/retail space next to the Federal Way Link station (The Urbanist)

Sound Transit modified their contract with Siemens to add 10 link cars to the current contract of 152 new Series 2 light rail cars, totaling 162 new cars by 2028 (The Urbanist). As of February (pdf), Siemens had delivered 125 cars, reportedly enough to fully support East Link and Lynnwood Link service.

Councilmember Kettle (D7) wants to remove the potential pedestrianization of Pike Place Market from the Seattle Transportation Plan (PubliCola).

Continue reading “Open Thread 44”

As part of the work surrounding 130th Station in north Seattle, SDOT has started making plans in the area. While this initial work has focused on the area east of the station, this is a proposal for changes to the west. The goal is to improve pedestrian, biking and transit connections to the station.

Station Background

130th Station is designed primarily to connect riders from the east and west (Lake City and Bitter Lake). There will be some who walk and ride to the station, but I expect the vast majority to arrive by bus. The crossing bus route will also connect riders in the north end (for one- and two-seat rides not involving Link). It’s essential that the bus avoid congestion. At the same time, 130th is also one of a handful of I-5 bike and pedestrian crossings in the north end. People need a way to walk and bike through the area safely and easily. In this essay I largely ignore the issues east of the station, but propose the following set of changes to the west:

Improvements:

Continue reading “Multi-modal Improvements West of 130th Station”

Sound Transit announced the Lynnwood Link extension will open August 30th. That’s just under five months from now. Happy Labor Day present.

Mike Lindblom in the Seattle Times notes that Link will switch to a flat $3 fare when Lynnwood Link opens, and that Paine Field extension is targeted to open in 2037, and Everett Station in 2041. That’s 13 years and 17 years from now.

To put all of this into a timeline:

• April 27: Line 2 Eastside-only starter line starts from South Bellevue to Redmond Technology.
• August 30: Lynnwood extension starts. Link fares switch to a flat $3.
• September 14: Metro’s north end and Community Transit bus restructures.
• 2025: Full Line 2 from Lynnwood to Redmond Downtown starts, along with Metro’s Eastside bus restructure.
• 2026: Federal Way extensions statrs, along with Metro’s south end restructure.
• 2035: Tacoma Dome extension, the southern terminus of the ST3 Spine.
• 2037: Everett Industrial Center extension.
• 2041: Everett Station, the northern terminus of the ST3 Spine.

Doug Trumm in The Urbanist has more background on the planning.

This article will be updated if new information or commentary comes out.

This is an open thread.

The Swift Orange Line BRT launched on Saturday. I tried it out Sunday afternoon with my friend in north Lynnwood, who lives northwest of Ash Way P&R. The Orange Line is a limited-stop east-west bus route between Edmonds College, Highway 99, Lynnwood city center, Alderwood Mall, Ash Way P&R, Mill Creek, and McClollum Park. It runs every 10-12 minutes weekdays, and every 20 minutes weekends and evenings. Swift is Snohomish County’s version of BRT, running frequently on arterials RapidRide, but stopping only every mile like Link, some ST Express routes (512, 550), or the upcoming Stride BRT.

(Map by Community Transit. A larger version is in the link at the top of the article.)

The Orange Line joins two existing Swift lines in Snohomish County. The Blue Line runs southwest from Everett to Aurora Village. The Green Line runs southeast from the Everett Industrial Center to Canyon Park. Community Transit is building a few other Swift lines and extensions. The next ones will be a Gold Line north from Everett Station to Smokey Point, a short Blue Line extension south to the future Shoreline North/185th Link station, and a Green Line extension southeast to UW Bothell. [Correction: The Gold Line will not go to Lynnwood.[

Transfers: Orange-Green at three stations in Mill Creek. Orange-Blue at 196th & Highway 99. Orange-512 at Lynnwood Transit Center or Ash Way P&R.

My friend was skeptical of the Orange Line at first because it still wouldn’t address her biggest problem: the last two miles to her house, and the hourly bus that goes only halfway to it. But after riding the Orange Line on Sunday she said it will be very useful to get to central Lynnwood, and it opens up travel to to Mill Creek and McCollum Park, which she’d rarely been to because there wasn’t good east-west bus service on 164th.

Continue reading “The World is Orange”

King County Metro has started the first phase of South Link Connections, which will be used to determine how Metro bus should be changed upon the launch of the Federal Way Link Extension, which is anticipated to be in 2026. This phase is mainly a needs assessment, where Metro listens to feedback from riders, or potential riders, about how they use transit service, and what changes might benefit them. After the feedback period is over for phase 1, Metro will consider the feedback and use it to develop service concepts for phase 2. These service concepts will be the first glimpse of what the eventual network will look like, and is likely to have different concepts weighed against each other to see which one sees the best reception from the community. In phase 3, we will see what Metro’s proposal is likely to look like, with the only changes from this point being minor changes.

The scope of the project includes routes 156, 162, 165, 177, 181, 182, 183, 187, 193, 631, 901, 903, and the RapidRide A Line, as well as fully suspended routes 121, 122, 123, 154, 157, 178, 179, 190, and 197. This will be the first time metro has solicited feedback on these suspended routes since March of 2021, as well as the first time since intentions to restore them in 2022 all but disappeared as did their numbers on bus stops.

There is a survey up, and Metro is also accepting applications for the South Link Connections mobility board. Mobility board applications are open until May 10th. The survey does not have a deadline listed, but it is most likely the same, as the phase 1 timeline is from March to May, 2024. There are also virtual information sessions on April 3 at 12:00 PM, April 21 at 10:30 AM, and May 6th at 6:00 PM. You will find links to register for these on the South Link Connections website.