Metro Route 60 rolls southbound through Capitol Hill in August 1990. Photo by Mitchell Libby. Similar view in September 2024.

45 days until the Downtown Redmond Link Extension opens on May 10.

Spring Service Change: Several transit agencies are updating service patterns this weekend. Metro is also restarting fare enforcement on March 31.

Local Transit & Streets:

Other Transportation:

Commentary & Miscellaneous:

Events: Sound Transit is hosting another South Downtown Hub Open House next Wednesday, April 2 from 5-7pm at Union Station.

This is an Open Thread. Are you interested in volunteering your perspective to the Blog? Contact us!

69 Replies to “Midweek Roundup: Wig Wag”

    1. This is wild.

      https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/amtrak-sidelines-horizon-car-fleet-leading-to-widespread-cancellations/

      > In a statement issued at 9 a.m. today (March 26, 2025), the company said, “We discovered corrosion in several Horizon railcars and, while working with the manufacturer, decided to remove the equipment from service after learning of additional areas of concern from intensive inspections of multiple cars. The removal of this equipment from service will affect services on several routes: Downeaster, Hiawatha, Borealis, and Amtrak Cascades. Some trains, such as the Downeaster, will operate with fewer cars, while other services will be provided substitute transportation until a long-term plan is developed.”

      1. Using too much salt on the tracks, no doubt.

        One wonders if these problems would have been addressed without pulling the trainsets if there was more intensive maintenance performed,
        or
        is it a major fix that was due to some sort of design flaw, and would have required a ‘recall’ anyway at some point (just earlier).

      2. Salt on the tracks doesn’t accomplish anything, so nobody does that.

        It’s probably road salt from the decades of use these cars had in the northeast.

        They really shouldn’t have cut up the Talgos until there were good replacements. The required modifications by the FRA weren’t that extensive.

        In the meantime, any chance of getting some extra Sounder cars?

      3. I was kidding about the ‘salt on the roads’ part, Glenn.

        However, salt issues aren’t out of the question, since the north end runs along Puget Sound.
        High tides and strong winds have been known to wreak havoc with signaling.

        Sounder cars?
        Yeah, but are they certified?

      4. An article on it has been published.

        When I woke up at 4:30am and read the comment, I looked at the Seattle Times to see if the Reddit thread was real. There was no article there, but Nathan later found one in Trains magazine. The Times still doesn’t have an article on its homepage, which surprises me, because it affects a lot of travelers and future travel options in the Seattle-Portland-Vancouver region.

      5. According to an unsourced comment on the Trains article it’s galvanic corrosion between the aluminum body and steel frame.

        I am guessing the answer is no because you can’t separate the jacobs bogies of the Talgos and you don’t want to carry a smashed cab around, but could they just attach a charger to the front of the second Talgo set and use that to at least get another trainset up?

      6. The Sounder cars meet every FRA standard when they were built, which is over a decade after the Horizon fleet was built.

        Only thing the Sounder cars don’t have is a cafe/business class car.

        They worked fine in Bellingham – Seattle Amtrak service after the Skagit River bridge collapse.

  2. Damn. I have to get rid of my MTA MetroCard?

    I wonder if they will reimburse me for any remaining balance if I don’t get them spent down to zero by the target date? I doubt it, but…..

    That said, when will Metro get rid of paper transfers? This isn’t the 70’s anymore.

    1. Will Candidate C resign his current job when he starts as CEO at ST? Then, he can wring his hands of the problem, and leave it to the next MLK County Executive to sort out.

      1. Presumably, Constantine will resign and his deputy executive will take over until the election in November.

    2. I wonder how much it would cost to install ticket receipt printers for the whole fleet.

      At least they would have a date and time stamp.

      “Please, take a seat!”

      (Operator pushes button to call fare team.)

      1. Pierce Transit uses paper timestamped tickets. I’m honestly surprised Metro hasn’t got around to modernizing their fareboxes

      2. TriMet has been using ticket printers for about 10 years. The new ticket stock isn’t recyclable, but apparently can be read by the HOP card readers, or something.

  3. Wait, the 60 existed in something resembling its current routing, at least from Georgetown north, as early as 1990? I could have sworn it only started in the 2000s…

    1. Having grown up on Cap Hill in the 80s/90s, the 60 was always the odd one up there. The 7/9 both were electric articulateds and then you had this MAN Americana rolling up Broadway every half hour or so. The corner of Broadway and Mercer used to be a Safeway so it made for a better but still weird layover spot. (I imagine if the 7/9 didn’t have so many runs that short-turned at Roy, the 60 could have laid over there.) Back then, the 60 was just between Cap Hill and Georgetown with morning extensions to Boeing Industrial and reverse ones in the afternoon. Certainly wasn’t the workhorse or popular route it is now.

    2. Yes, the 60 goes back to the 80s I think, but it was shorter. I don’t specifically remember seeing it then, but its 9th Avenue detour is because the First Hill community requested it. That kind of thing was more typical in the 80s before Metro realized the importance of faster straight consolidated corridors.

      I think it terminated at Georgetown then. It was later extended in one or two phases to its present terminus at Westwood Village. This was to give crosstown service to the south end, and more service in South Park. The extensions may have been in the 90s or early 00s.

    3. Come to think of it, I don’t remember the 60 starting so it must have started before 1979. In contrast, I remember having no route on Denny Way, and then the 8 started. It also expanded in multiple phases and extended its span. At first it only went from Uptown to 15th.

    5. I expect Route 60 has existed since fall 1998, if not before.
      Metro the the STBD have improved its headway.

      It used to deviate to/from the VAMC until its construction ended it; Metro did not return to the deviation when the VAMC construction was complete. (Management allowed the application of SG five).

      Route 7 was restructured in 2005; Route 49 implemented; Route 7 truncated; Route 9 converted to diesel. The midday trips of Route 9 went into the SE Seattle changes of fall 2016. Sadly, Route 49 was reduced in fall 2024 to 20-minute headway in the G Line restructure.

      The old pattern was 30-minute headway service on routes 7 and 9 between Capitol Hill and the U District; Route 7 had 10-minute headway with trips turning back at East Aloha Street. Route 60 had its own terminal loop.

      1. It looks like the 60 existed back in 1988, but not 1977 (based on the two maps I know of: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tigerzombie/11960463075, https://www.flickr.com/photos/tigerzombie/11943816314). So it was probably added with the big restructure of 1978 that is referenced in this comment: https://seattletransitblog.com/2025/04/02/midweek-roundup-fix-the-l8/#comment-954504. The only difference in the 60 is that it used to layover at Georgetown (and go the Boeing plant during rush hour).

  4. RTA definitely needs to be improved to account for ghost buses. I had always assumed it already does, but I’ve come to trust only the buses that show “live data”. I assume anything that isn’t live is cancelled.

    My issue with Metro’s rider alerts is that I will get notified of delays on every single route in the county. Anything relevant to me gets lost in the noise. I only want alerts for the one or two routes that are critical for me.

    1. You can sign up to alerts for specific routes. Go here, enter your email address or SMS number, and you can check any number of routes, P&Rs, Access (disability taxis), Metro project newsletters and updates, and other King County department newsletters.

      I subscribe to my four most common routes, Metro Matters blog, Link Connections (restructures), Metro Connects (long-range plan), and a few other topics. I just noticed “Snow” now, and subscribed to it.

      The tradeoff is you”ll get a lot of notices about one stop closed, cancellations (“ghost buses”) when you’re at home all day, etc.

    1. What are the odds we end up with rebates and extra sales tax on ebikes?

      My guess is the odds are high.

      1. It’s just bizarre.

        We don’t need bipartisanship. If they want to tax buses and bikes, screw ’em.

        Threaten to cancel the North Spokane Corridor, and they will fall in line quick if we need to votes. Which we shouldn’t.

    2. What’s our best way of making our voice heard for these? It’s absolutely ridiculous that as supposedly progressive a state as Washington is going full steam ahead with highway expansion.

  6. I read The Urbanist article on the BAR infill statin and ended up liking the East Margin Way location. Trying together Link and Sounder always made sense on paper, but without any political support it makes sense that ST staff did not give that any weight. Without the infill Sounder station, the BAR location is mostly freeway & rail ROW.

    The location they select is straight and is pulled away I5, so it will be fine. Like the vast majority of Link stations south of the ID, ridership will be primarily driven by land use in the walkshed, and in this case there isn’t anything structurally (wetlands, flight paths, etc.) that would prevent Tukwila from converting the station area into a midrise mixed use neighborhood. Frankly, large block light industrial use is easier to both rezone and redevelop than small lot single family neighborhood. Seattle Police Athletic Association and other nearby landowners will be happy to take the cash when it comes time to redevelop.

    My dark horse preference of a station at 113rd/Gateway Drive is far enough away that it could be yet another infill station in the future, if/when there is a desire to redevelop that area.

    1. I have the same opinion on the BAR siting that you do, AJ.

      The sites are severely limited by the Boeing Field runway proximity. The further from the end of the runway, the better for TOD potential.

    2. To me, the 133rd/Gateway location is seems basically equal in value to the E Marginal location for BAR. Sure, there’s some more housing in the vicinity, but SR-599 knocks out a good chunk of the walkshed. I agree it would probably make for a good infill station location in the future.

      The only problem with siting new TOD in the Duwamish River Valley is the potential for flooding following an eruption of Mount Rainier (on top of typical liquefaction hazards for earthquakes), so that’s something the land use planners will have to keep in mind.

      1. The Green River no longer flows from Mt Rainier. The White River/ Puyallup River is instead the direct flow path. That’s Sumner. Puyallup and Fife.

        https://geology.com/usgs/rainier/rainier-lahar-flow-map-lg.jpg

        If an lahar was strong enough to push overfflows from the White River to the Green River, large areas of Kent, Auburn and Tukwila (Southcenter) would get hit first. There are numerous TODs in those places.

      3. My friend works at Renton Boeing, and they move equipment to upper levels when there’s a flood risk.

      4. “Is there significant TOD in the Green River Valley north of Auburn?”

        The TOD in SouthCenter is within 500 feet of the Green River. West Valley Highway in Tukwila has multiple hotels near the river too.

        It’s not TOD but Kent has several apartment it townhouse developments next to the Green River west of SR 167.

      5. “Is there significant TOD in the Green River Valley north of Auburn?”

        There’s a large new development on the west edge of downtown Kent, and more beyond it. The 165 was rerouted to Veterans Drive in the last restructure to serve it all. A future RapidRide is planned there too.

        There’s a small cluster on Baker Blvd in Southcenter. It was marketed as walking distance to the Southcenter transfer hub and Tukwila Sounder station.

      6. I know a flight attendant from out of state, and the airlines put them up at the Doubletree across the street from Southcenter mall on the south side. He said he was staying near the airport. When he told me the address so I could visit, I thought, “That’s not near the airport. And it would be hard to get to there from the aiport on transit.” But from a car perspective, it’s close, and it gives them access to the mall and restaurants and the movie theater. I don’t know if there’s a supermarket anywhere.

      7. Seafood City is a great supermarket. Looks like it is a 13 minute walk from the Doubletree. With the Sounder station on the east edge for commuting into Seattle, I’ve always thought Southcenter is a great neighborhood for Mall to Midrise redevelopment, much like a Northgate or Factoria. The Airmark (15 story highrise) and Mariblu (typical midrise) next to each other on Andover Park E are a good starting point. I’m curious how successful Airmark has been financially, as that is the scale of development we should be building in the walkshed of all of our Sounder & Link stations.

    3. Unless or until Sounder acts like a frequent regional rail, the Sounder rider market will be peak travel in and out of Seattle.

      If Sounder does change into something more akin to higher frequency two-way all-day service, the program and its costs will be substantial and the connection can be revisited at that time. I don’t see that opening before 2050 without a huge shift in priorities and circumstances .

      Finally, those funds could be instead used to tie in Tukwila Station better to other things even as a better regional rail service. Not only is it closer to other high frequency transit like RapidRide and Stride and Route 150, it’s not restricted in TOD potential like these sites closer to Boeing Field.

      1. I agree. ST is going to drop $1B into Sounder in ST3, and the outcome is going to be a half-dozen or so additional round trips, plus longer trains & stations. The region is still a few billion short of all-day Sounder.

    4. While I doubt it, I can’t help but wonder if this station design will consider constructing additional tracks for a future Duwamish bypass line. This would be a good opportunity to stub out tracks to extend north.

      2. It does affect how any eventual Link line would reach Renton.

        Moving the station from BAR to EMW would seemingly preclude having a Duwamish Bypass to Renton line adjacent to SR 900. However, it would seem to be offer a better Duwamish Bypass / MLK segment transfer point.

      3. A Duwamish bypass might simply bypass this station entirely. The bypass might have zero stations between SeaTac and ID stations.

  7. https://www-djc-com.ezproxy.spl.org/news/re/12169067.html

    This is a great step in the station area’s transition from lowrise to midrise density. Redmond Technology station was always going to have good ridership because of the midrise office complex that is Microsoft HQ, but adding thousands of midrise residential units is a great step towards all-day, all-week bidirectional ridership.

    This kind of midrise development – whether it is redeveloping low-rise apartments like here, or low-rise retail like in the Seattle Times article above, is exactly what we need occurring in the walkshed of every single Link station outside of Seattle (except for the 3 urban Bellevue stations, which can support highrise).

    Today we have a good mid-rise development pipeline around a handful of stations outside of Seattle, notably the 3 stations in Redmond and 2 in Shoreline, but also a bit around the KDM. If this can be repeated across the other Link stations, the system ridership will be strong.

    1. Yes. It seems to me that the area around Redmond Tech could use a lot more retail, too. It’s hard to recommend it as a place to live, because (unlike e.g. Downtown Redmond or Overlake Village) there are no supermarkets, pharmacies, barbers, gyms, etc. Nobody is going to want to live there without a car.

      1. Or a bike to get down to Overlake Village. It’s not all that far.

        But yes, some more retail up there (beyond that one teriyaki shop) would be nice.

      2. Particularly once Redmond Link opens, it’s an easy trip to amenities in both Bellevue & Redmond downtowns.

        Given this is market rate housing, I would imagine nearly all of the households will own at least one car, much like all of the wealthy neighborhoods in Seattle. My hope is that most people living here either walk or train to work and take transit regularly for other trips, but I don’t really care if they have a car that they drive once a week to Costco. Also a complex of this size probably includes some amenities like a gym, so it’s mixed use even if it is private space rather than public space.

  8. > “I think possibly the most frustrating thing that can happen is you’re waiting for a bus, you see on your app that it’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming, and then you see that it left, and you’re like, ‘No, it didn’t, I was standing right here, and it did not go by,’ possibly exceeded only by buses that go by early,” Balducci said.

    My thoughts exactly.

  9. Speaking of train infrastructure, here’s a deep dive into the massive reworkings on the Northeast corridor, to get Amtrak high(er)-speed rail on more stable and reliable ground. https://youtu.be/6yLzfNTrULg?si=-346uxOpm2aAnGZZ With the recent discovery of corrosion on the Cascade line, this is a pretty timely subject. (I thought about linking to it on the newer post, but decided with this open thread.)

    BTW, unlike the last video of his I showed a few years back about Link expansion, there’s no sponsorship reads in the middle. It’s all about engineering.

      3. It looks like the driver was going to make it through the green but a car delayed it (by quickly changing lanes in front of it). Rather than stop, the driver kept going. My guess is the driver will be suspended if not fired.

  10. Just read about Trump’s new 25% tariffs on cars, which is expected to make new cars of all types considerably more expensive, and was thinking… could this result in some people who were on the fence of getting a car vs. not getting one choosing to do without, at least in areas with good walkability and transit. The thought is that buying used won’t really escape the impact of these tariffs because others will have the same idea, which will push used car prices up (both due to more people wanting to buy used cars instead of new, and also used car owners choosing to keep the car they have, rather than buying a new one to upgrade to the latest tech).

    Or course, such a policy would have to be sustained for a considerable period of time to have any effect, which this one very well might not be.

    1. Sure. Same as raising the gas tax is empirically demonstrated to boost transit ridership, raising the cost of a vehicle purchase should do the same over time.

      It’s less of a marginal decision, though. The price of gas dictates whether people will make a specific trips. The price of a car dictates whether someone buys a car. The impacts might be more in “car-light” households, rather than car free, where a spike in car prices might results in households going from 3 to 2 or from 2 to 1 cars. Going from 1 to zero cars is a bigger jump, and across all demographics most households still have a strong preference to own at least 1 car outside of the most urban neighborhoods.

    2. asdf2,

      Walkable neighborhoods are really rare here in the USA, and the few that are tend to be expensive. Car ownership is really the only way forward for 90% of American families at this point. Although it’s a good guess that Americans look at more transit and less driving if the economy turns for the worse. Pierce Transit had its best years in the early 80s…. at the time a combination of inflation and still having office jobs in downtown Tacoma supported transit. Tacoma is certainly not that way now.

      Cars are big part of the “finance problem” we have…. pickup trucks cost over $50,000 and buyers finance the damn things for 60 months (or even longer). Add that to college costs that have went up 4X over the cost of inflation and student loans on 25 year repayment plan. There is a huge amount of debt younger people carry on crap that isn’t real estate (the only “good” debt).

      At some point all this debt just sinks the economy. Adding tariffs might do that.

    4. Transit ridership often goes up in a recession as people can’t afford to take care of their car. That may happen as well.

      1. “Transit ridership often goes up in a recession as people can’t afford to take care of their car.”

        That’s not particularly accurate. In a recession, jobs go away and fewer people commute to work no matter what the mode including transit. Paid parking facility owners then reduce the price to park too, making driving less expensive if they still have a job. Finally, a longer duration recession will reduce tax receipts to fund transit operations so transit services have to get scaled back. There are lots of economic factors — and it varies by Metro area and a route’s passenger profile (reason for the transit trip) and destinations.

      2. You would think this way probably because Seattle area has an okay transit system compared to a lot of other places in the US.

        In those places (where gas price is $1/gal+ lower than Seattle), people will still cry about gas price being ridiculous and spend less on other stuff so that they can keep driving.

      4. You would think this way probably because Seattle area has an okay transit system compared to a lot of other places in the US.

        It is actually the opposite. The phenomenon I’m talking about (which I did not make up) is more likely to happen in areas where transit sucks. If transit is good then people will use it in good times and bad. If transit sucks then people only use it when their car breaks down and they can’t afford a new one.

      5. Actually transit is a non-issue in 90% of America. Hell, it’s a non-issue in 90% of Washington State. Outside of Seattle, it’s close to useless. I wouldn’t want to depend on Pierce Transit.

  11. Has King County Metro indicated what they’ll do with the old Federal Way Transit Center bus island now that it’s rendered redundant.

    1. Published a mini-article on it. Mitigation between Angle Lake and SeaTac stations has been evolving since then.

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