Month: August 2024

Tomorrow, Sound Transit will officially open the Lynnwood Link Extension, the latest northward expansion of the Link 1 Line. Approved by voters in 2008 in the Sound Transit 2 ballot measure, the expansion opens four new stations along 8.7 miles of (mostly) elevated track between Northgate and Lynnwood. From extending north from Northgate, the new stations are named “Shoreline South/148th”, “Shoreline North/185th”, “Mountlake Terrace”, and “Lynnwood City Center”.

Yesterday, Sherwin rode along with the press preview of the extension. Members of the general public only have to wait until tomorrow’s ceremony before being able to ride the brand-new rails – but if you’re wondering what festivities await this opening, look no further!

Continue reading “Lynnwood Link Festivities”

On Wednesday, Sound Transit invited members of the media for a preview ride of the Lynnwood Link extension. The extension officially opens on Friday, when Lynnwood will officially inherit the mantle of Link’s northern terminus from Northgate. The completion of Lynnwood Link represents a major milestone in ST2 expansion. The other points of ST2 expansion, namely Federal Way and the 2 Line connection across I-90, will have to wait until next year or potentially 2026 to open.

A full album of the preview ride can be viewed here.

Continue reading “A sneak peek into Lynnwood Link”

Countdowns: Lynnwood Link (FRIDAY! 11am); RapidRide G & restructures (Sept. 14)

Perspectives on the Lynnwood Link Extension:

South Shoreline Light Rail Brings Suburban Retrofit with Thousands of Homes

Shoreline North Station Sees New Urban Connection Form

Mountlake Terrace’s Town Center Slowly Emerges Ahead of Light Rail

Lynnwood light rail is opening. Here’s what you’ll find at 4 new stations (Seattle Times, $)

Link light-rail extension to Lynnwood opens August 30

New light rail stops north of Seattle bring housing boom (Seattle Times, $)

Why is light rail to Lynnwood opening next to I-5 and not on Aurora? (Seattle Times, $)

Continue reading “Midweek Roundup – Lynnwood Link Edition”

Commenter Lazarus pointed out that Sound Transit has released 2 Line (East Link Starter Line) ridership figures on its dashboard. Although there is no direct filter for a drill-down to just the 2 Line, one can multi-select the East Link stations by holding CTRL (on a PC) or ⌘ (on a Mac).

Four incomplete months worth of data is insufficient to draw out meaningful observations but it is evident that the early novelty of rapid transit on the Eastside slowly wore off through late Spring into Summer. However, it is interesting to note that those declines were largely limited to weekend ridership, which supports the narrative that recreational rides are the ones that have waned the most in number.

When it comes to average weekday ridership, there is a more stable picture. Both May and July featured around 5,800 daily boardings, sandwiching a modest spike in June. Sound Transit’s earliest forecast for the starter line was 6,000 average daily boardings, which was later adjusted down to a range of 4,000 to 5,700. All in all, early performance is within the realm of what was forecasted.

One lingering curiosity of mine has been the cannibalization of other services, namely the 550 and the B Line, given the overlapping service area. Although there is not yet July data for ST Express, 550 ridership has not declined whatsoever since the beginning of the year. This suggests that Link has poached a negligible number of riders, if any, within the short South Bellevue-Downtown Bellevue commuter market.

Continue reading “An early scan of 2 Line ridership”

A 5-minute drone (sUAS) flyover of the Federal Way Link Extension construction progress in May, southward from Angle Lake to Federal Way. Some observations with timestamps:

0:02: The path of the SR-509 Completion Project, one of two highway expansion projects in the region, is visible as something that could be mistaken for a riverbed.

1:05: Kent-Des Moines Station

1:30: Midway Landfill, a former potential site for OMF-S that would have cost an extra ~$1B to build but would have had zero business or residential impacts. The current preferred location of OMF-S is the Christian Faith Center, south of Federal Way Downtown.

1:53: The last-minute long-span bridge which delayed FWLE over a year.

2:15: Star Lake Station

4:00: Federal Way Downtown Station, with a fun fly-around afterwards.

As Metro is struggling to meet their plans to build out their battery bus fleet and charging infrastructure, Reece Martin looks at the tradeoff between decarbonization efforts and transit expansion.

King County Corridor 1052, a potential rapidride conversion of Route 181 currently travels from Federal Way via Auburn Station to Green River College. With the introduction of Federal Way Link extension as well as I-5 freeway access additions, Route 181 speed improvements as a RapidRide will connect Auburn and Green River College closer to Seattle and the rest of the region. In this post we’ll review the corridor, Metro’s planned improvements, expected ridership and estimated project costs.

Continue reading “RapidRide Corridor 1052 (Route 181)”

King County Metro Corridor 1056, a potential RapidRide conversion of Route 165 — traveling between Kent Des Moines Station, Downtown Kent, and Green River College — was set as Tier 3 priority corridor for future RapidRide expansion. In this post we’ll review the proposed route alignment, planned improvements, and expected ridership.

Continue reading “RapidRide Corridor 1056 (Route 165)”

Countdowns: Lynnwood Link (Aug. 30, 11am); RapidRide G & restructures (Sept. 14)

Transit Updates:

Get ready for your first light rail moment, Lynnwood. Sound Transit plans meet cute for transit newbies

Ride the bus to the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe, Aug. 22-27 and Aug. 29 – Sept. 2.

Pierce Transit will change schedules on all 27 routes on Sept. 1, two weeks before Sound Transit, Metro, Community Transit, and other Fall service changes on Sept. 14.

Sound Transit to expedite work on the At-Grade Crossing Program (pdf)

King County Executive and Sheriff’s Office announce arrests as part of ‘Operation Safe Transit’ initiative

Continue reading “Midweek Roundup – Open Thread 63”

Sound Transit has approved a new elevator for SeaTac east of Tukwila International Boulevard in Motion No. M2024-43. In a presentation to the Board’s Rider and Operations Committee (pdf) on July 18, Sound Transit staff outlined how the existing elevator experienced frequent outages and requires bus bridges to accommodate passengers to and from Angle Lake station.

Continue reading “Sound Transit Elevator & Escalator Service Going Up”

The Transit Bandit rides all seven transit modes available in Seattle: water taxi, BRT (RapidRide), streetcar, bus (regular), monorail, light rail (Link), and heavy rail (Sounder). City Beautiful did the same in just over three hours back in 2021 – how fast can the Bandit do it?

This is an Open Thread.