Early Look at Federal Way Link Extension Ridership

72 Replies to “Early Look at Federal Way Link Extension Ridership”

1. I recently took a walk around the Kent / Des Moines Station area. The new 236th St is basically a path to the back side of the garage Majal. A non-red bus-only lane awaits the arrival of buses laying over there starting on March 28, which might feature the end of front-door loop service at the south end of Highline College (the current layover zone).

   It will be a bit of a walk for drivers looking for the nearest food joint, but about the same as now. I did not check out whether there are public or employee-only restrooms there (using the term “employee” loosely to include other agencies).

   The plot next to the station is empty, awaiting some sort of TOD. There is also a lot of open space between Pacific Highway and the campus welcoming sign, as well as beyond the campus welcoming sign.

   The station is far enough from Kent – Des Moines Rd, the nearest I-5 crossing, to make any dream of the station being a good cut-off for mid-day east Kent riders looking for a much faster path to downtown to be a long-term project.

2. That Federal Way Downtown Station immediately jumped to 10th in boardings on the 1 Line (beating out Pioneer Square and well ahead of Lynnwood City Center) was not on my Bingo card.

   Keeping ST Express 586 going during the World Cup is pure board politics, as those drivers will be needed driving more productive extra service to/from the airport and “Seattle Stadium”, as well as increasing frequency between Federal Way and UW. I hope the CEO uses his emergency powers to shut down the 586 sooner rather than later.

3. It’s possible to sort the graph by day rather than look at weekday averages. Between opening day not being on 12/1 and by the holidays with school out taking up have the time these stations were open, I suggest looking at the weekdays of 12/15-19 in particular. My quick glance suggested that KDM will be notably higher than Star Lake when college students return in January. However, it looks like the Star Lake garage is mostly empty.

   I noticed when I glanced at the data that ridership loss was limited to Angle Lake. The opening actually looked like it created a slight increase at SeaTac.

   1. We will forever rue the missed opportunity to build up around Redondo Heights P&R, and 216th St at Pacific Hwy.

      1. Agreed wholeheartedly.

      2. Redondo Heights P&R is within the 1 mile walkshed of the station. Hopefully that P&R and the two apartment complexes (Avana, Riverstone) all get redeveloped into midrise, but given current rent rates in the area that could be decades from now. Station placement probably wouldn’t have mattered.

         If anything, the current Federal Way administration would have advocated for a lowrise suburban development pattern today, whereas an absence of development today might allow for a more robust development in the future.

   2. Highline College used to have about 700 riders on the A Line (if you count both directions). Obviously not everyone was transferring at what was then or what is now a station. But ridership at the station is not much higher than it was on the A Line, suggesting we could see improvement over time.

4. It’s hard to gauge much from December, but it’s important to monitor South Sounder ridership too. The December 2025 shows a marked demand drop from November but it was still higher than December 2024. I can’t seem to sort it by day.

   Relatedly, the ST Express routes may also show ridership changes too.

5. Great news for Stadium! It’s no longer the only Red Haired Child.

   So far as Kent-Des Moines Station and making it work for Kent, build a bus-only bridge with bike and pedestrian facilities in the 240th right-of-way with the eastern end curving to descend next to the northbound I-5 off ramp next to the sound wall, run down to Military Road just south of the Century Motal where a bus-actuated light would let buses turn into Miliary northbound.

   On Kent-Des Moines Road just east of Military widen the last couple of hundred feet by one lane and add a bus-only second left turn bay between the existing bay and the through lanes. Buses would turn into a lane for them up to the new intersection.

   This would allow westbound buses to avoid the two-lefts and a right boogaloo getting to the station. I expect it would shave at least four minutes from an arbitrary point on K-DM Road east of Military to the bus platform at the station. Eastbound time savings would be less dramatic, but the buses would still bypass the two lights at the freeway on-ramps. A bus-only right-turn shortcut in the southeast quadrant of Military and K-DM Road could speed things up a bit there as well.

   1. Clarification: the bike and pedestrian facility would simply descend to 240th east of the freeway so that people along that street could use them for access to the new station and the new businesses around it.

6. “If this trend continues into 2026, the A Line may lose it’s title as Metro’s most productive route.” The 2 new transfer points (KDM, FW) should make the A a better route, particularly for travel within S King.

   Switching to the express service (Link) is the obvious change so not surprised that is the immediate change (for example, parking at Star Lake rather than Redondo Heights), but over time that should be offset by new ridership generated as other trip pairs become compelling.

   1. I think the G Line has already passed the A Line (and did so before Federal Way Link).

      I get what you are saying about transfers outpacing poaching but I don’t know how often that happens. When the 71, 72 and 73 were truncated at the UW they saw a considerable decrease, despite running more often. In other words, there was more poaching than transfers. Obviously the dynamics are different but it is hard to tell what will happen here.

      The ridership of the A Line is fairly spread out but the stops that now have stations make up a lot of the ridership (almost half by my count). It is hard to tell how many of the A Line riders (who are not by a station) were transferring versus just traveling the corridor. Just by looking at the numbers, I’m not convinced the A Line is effected much at all. A few riders will have no doubt switched to Link. No one is going to take the train (from the north) to Angle Lake and then take the A Line to Highline College. But southbound Angle Lake ridership only accounted for about 500 riders (in contrast, Federal Way had close to a thousand riders). Not all of those riders were headed to stops now covered by Link. The numbers are down but that seems well within the usual churn.

7. Excellent article. The numbers are interesting but as you mention in the first paragraph we should take them with a grain of salt. We usually get high ridership for the first couple months of an extension and then things settle down. Basically the people that were “checking it out” have checked it out. The regulars then use it. In this case the opening happened in December, so that impact may be more spread out. An opening in Spring or Summer is bound to get more riders of this sort. That being said, it was a very sunny January so I expect ridership for January to be high.

   While ridership typically takes a drop after that initial surge it tends to start building again (as more and more people take it on a regular basis). This change is odd because the restructure doesn’t come with it. I’m pretty sure Northgate and Lynnwood Link both had immediate changes to the bus routes. Not only that, but the changes were dramatic. Their express buses went away — they had to take Link for a lot of trips. In this case riders have a lot more choices (and will continue to have choices for a while). My guess is a lot of riders are busy figuring out what the best option is. There are a fair number of moving pieces which makes tracking the ridership interesting.

   1. I think most observers like all of you are aware that it’s a mere indication at a macro level, but will change over these next several months.

      I caution that January has had a ton of planned service disruptions. It too may dampen averages when finally reported. Many of those disruptions have been on weekends so maybe it won’t be consequential for weekday averages.

      1. One of the more striking things about station ridership is how volatile it is. Lynnwood for example. On the first full month of operation (September) they had over 5,000 riders. Then things dipped to almost 3,000 (in December) before coming back up. Last July and August had more riders than ever (over 5,500 each month). Then things dipped again, and there were less than 3,000 riders in December. Rolling averages are probably a lot more useful than looking at individual months. For example, Northgate has had good ridership the last three months (between 5,000 and 6,000). That is still lower than before Lynnwood Link (and much lower than before the pandemic) but it is much higher than the last three months of 2024. Time will tell if this is a real trend or just a good winter year.

      2. One surprising thing was many people switched to the 70 even though it wasn’t express, so they still went downtown, it just took longer. Also, the 72 was deleted, so those riders had to take the 372 around or lost service.

   2. “ I’m pretty sure Northgate and Lynnwood Link both had immediate changes to the bus routes. Not only that, but the changes were dramatic. Their express buses went away — they had to take Link for a lot of trips. In this case riders have a lot more choices (and will continue to have choices for a while).”

      It will be an interesting case study about whether it’s best to restructure bus routes to feed Link on day 1 or postpone the change for a bit. It can be argued both ways: Some people need some time to mentally adjust their transit travel preferences and others want it changed right away

      The cross-lake opening ridership changes almost certainly be more pronounced in a number of ways. Not only will new direct trips be possible, but most of the entire region’s population will be a feeder bus ride away from getting to destinations near one of the two connected Link lines. An Eastside friend was telling me over the weekend that he’s excited that he will be able to soon ride Link to lots more places than seems reasonable today.

      1. As long as they take rider experience as the primary factor then it doesn’t matter when they make the changes. Unlike the Lynnwood extension which made every trip to Seattle worse by using slow link over express buses and made feeders buses nonsensical like going from Snohomish county to Aurora transit center and then to shoreline north. It’s been an absolute disaster to try and get to any Link station outside of driving. Well at least they kept the garages.

      2. It’s not that simple. You have to balance Link access against all the other trips people want make in the region, with constraints on service hours. CT could have restructured things such that every local bus took the most direct route to the nearest Link station, but then many local trips that don’t involve Link would require out-of-the-way detours and transfers. No matter what they do, it’s not possible to please everyone.

      3. Al S. I did not catch what text you were quoting. But yes, Link openings and bus network changes have usually been better timed; see March 2016, fall 2021, fall 2024. In 2025 and 2026, both the FWLE and East Link changes are awkward. Part is due to the plinth issue and ST’s concern about overloading the 1 Line. Lynnwood Link changes are phased around East Link translake service and the Pinehurst station.

         In 2009-2010, the Link openings were in July and December and the bus changes lagged a bit, in fall 2009 and February 2010.

         I wonder and am concerned with the poor coordination between ST and Metro in 2025 and 2025. It is doubly odd as Constantine led both governments leading into the changes. ST has a very conservative approach to bus changes. Many bus routes will be duplicating Link for several months.

         Was Metro surprised by the FWLE opening? ST finished the Link aspects months before the bus facilities were open. Check out Star Lake and Kent Des Moines stations.

         But in the long term, Link will be great.

      4. “I wonder and am concerned with the poor coordination between ST and Metro…”

         Metro needs lead time to develop possible driver assignments and bid them out to the drivers well before a service change. When ST gives only 10 weeks notice in opening date, I can see how Metro can’t make changes that fast.

         Keep in mind that Metro not only has had different Link extensions coming online covering much the county outside of Seattle, they also have RapidRide projects in development too.

         Unless there’s a budget crisis, Stride looks like the only thing that would initiate new Metro restructuring but I think that will be minor. So generally I don’t see utility in doing too much fretting about upcoming coordination needs. There may be the need for Metro to tweak some new things upon Link openings but that’s probably more about scheduling than routing. Since it takes a few months at least for riders to get used to new service (unless forced), it’s probably best to not do anything more than minor tweaking once Pinehurst and cross-lake are up and running with passengers.

         For 2027 or 2028, there may be value in revisiting parts of the bus network once all the Link stations in construction are opened in these next few months. The central Seattle restructuring made for U Link opening is now a decade ago. With significant transit network changes made since then (as well as local population and employment growth), it might be a good idea to revisit what was set up then in particular.

8. So did Dow announce 16K passengers or 16K boardings on opening day? Most celebrants were getting on and off multiple times — but usually on just one fare. They aren’t the same things.

   1. Thanks for calling that out – it was 16k boardings, not passengers. I’ve corrected the article.

9. Finally got around to riding it yesterday, leaving just before kickoff. Headed to Columbia city with my family, bought a bike for my son, then went downtown to put him on the Amtrak.

   Even with I-5 nonsense and the big game, there was still plenty of parking, which was a bit of a surprise. I could have even parked on the street directly in front of the station.

   The best thing I can say about the FW station area, is there is plenty of “potential.” Meaning a lot of old parking lots and staging areas where you can build density. Hopefully that happens. The other two new stations don’t have much of that. Hopefully Highline College starts handing out Orca Cards like candy. There is no hope for ridership at Star Lake except via the parking structure. This I-5 alignment is dismal.

   1. I think your observations are spot on.

      Some additional comments:

      1. Students for the new term can adapt quickly. They don’t have years of commuting the same way like workers. It took Central Link a few years to grow ridership; U Link ridership was almost instantaneous. So Highline should have hopefully already jumped on top of the opportunity to promote student riders. They’ll have another chance in the fall term if they didn’t do it this month. Highline should also promote evening classes to Seattle residents in addition to South King residents.

      2. Federal Way planners want to create a dense, walkable area around the station. But it’s now mainly up to the developers / property owners. The parcels are pretty big so grand plans could evolve. What happens at the old park-and-ride lot at 23rd Ave and 322nd could enhance that.

      3. Even now, Federal Way is an excellent place to offer transfers. There are many types of restaurants within 1000 feet as well as general retail like Target and Trader Joe’s. It’s set up well for less-frequent, longer-distance bus connectivity beyond just Tacoma. Whether it’s buses direct to the casinos, Mt Rainier or Olympia or even Portland I would not be surprised if we start seeing that service added. I am actually a bit surprised some service to new destinations hasn’t already been rolled out.

      1. >> U Link ridership was almost instantaneous.

         Sure, but remember the bus changes were instantaneous as well. It wasn’t just people heading to school. A lot of people suddenly had to take Link (instead of their express bus) to get downtown. The buses ran twice as often, which helped with the transfer.

      2. I’m really glad to see such impressive ridership at FW in the first month. The existing retail base was already there and there’s plenty of space to build new homes within the walkshed. Adding light rail just made the neighborhood more walkable and livable.

         I’m puzzled why Rainier Valley still struggles to attract commercial businesses near the Link tracks–even after 16 years of operation. There have been many new apartments built in RV, but very few new retail businesses have emerged. The lesson might be that Link needs to align light rail lines with existing retail hubs and wait for new housing to be built, rather than the opposite.

      3. The lesson might be that Link needs to align light rail lines with existing retail hubs and wait for new housing to be built, rather than the opposite.

         Yes, absolutely. MLK is also a faster street. They’ve done a lot of work trying to make Rainier safer which in turn makes it more pleasant for walking. Rainier Beach High School is on Rainier (not MLK). (Franklin is east of where the two streets converge.) Rainier also have very good transit, with the 7. For a while there (before the cutbacks) it was running more frequently than Link. So assuming that businesses would flock there because of better transit seems to ignore how good transit is on Rainier.

         The one station area that has done really well is Othello. It seems like it is equal to if not more vibrant than the area to the east. It will be interesting to see what happens at Graham, given it is similar.

   2. If they had rolled out 15 minute frequency STX service from 10th and Commerce to Federal Way Transit Center, there is a 50/50 chance I could have talked my family into 1 transfer and left the car at home. It makes no sense to stagger the restructure. Driving habits form easily, and are hard to break.

10. On thing about Federal Way downtown station, if you don’t have access to the HOV ramp, there is a lot of local traffic to contend with between I-5 and the actual station garage. Barring an accident on I-5, a savvy driver looking to ride the train into town will find it faster to drive a little further and board Link at 272nd St., which is right off the highway and much quicker getting in and out in a private car.

    1. The Star Lake garage is also much closer to the platform. There’s also fewer stairs than what FW has up to the platform and even a ramp for those that can’t use stairs easily.

    2. That’s a good point about the HOV ramp at S 317th. I forgot about it on the way there but remembered on the way back onto I-5.

       Given kickoff for the seahawks was in 10 minutes, traffic was light, and the few cars out were driving 138mph to make it to their preferred viewing location on time for kickoff. ;)

       Much easier access to the parking structure from 317th, even absent lots of traffic.

    3. The signage is a bit lacking from Hwy to the parking structure, as well as from the parking structure to the platform. I mean, you just need to look up at the station cathedral and head that direction, but they need to work on that.

11. It’s interesting to see Federal Way Downtown having more riders than Lynnwood, and similar to Lynnwood + MLT (if you view MLT as a sort of “overflow” parking option), despite it being a much longer ride in to downtown and despite having (iirc) faster express bus connections still running. Remains to be seen if this will be a lasting trend, and also if Star Lake will get some “overflow” park-and-riders who wanted to park at Fed. Way, like MLT does from Lynnwood. I believe most of us have always expected Lynnwood (plus MLT) to have stronger demand than Fed. Way.

    1. It is interesting, and I suspect it may hold. Yes it’s longer to downtown, but I don’t know how many residents of Southwest King really work downtown. It may be being used even more-so than Lynnwood for intermediate locations like Seatac, Tukwilla and the Rainier Valley. Downtown workers are fairly white-collar. Lynnwood is wealthier and likely has those workers; at least more than the poorer area around Federal Way. Also, poorer folks have a stronger motivation to save money and use transit.

       1. Based on census data from https://onthemap.ces.census.gov/, there are more people commuting to Seattle (or Downtown Seattle) from Federal Way than Lynnwood. There is no obvious definition for “Downtown Seattle” so I just drew a map (that was pretty big — it included First Hill). Either way, Federal Way has substantially more commuters to Seattle than Lynnwood, although not as many as Shoreline. Federal Way does have a high number of commuters to SeaTac (although not as many as to Seattle). It is probably a combination of a lot of things.

       2. Ross,

          Federal Way is three times larger by population than Lynnwood. Shoreline is a little over half the size, but also like twice as close (driving distance wise). I think it’s generally true that the south end communities are a bit less Seattle commute focused than the north side ones. Or at least less white collar focused anyways. I work by a major Amazon shuttle stop and see tons of shuttles to every suburban city north of Seattle, but none to Kent/Federal Way/Auburn.

          I do agree it’s a lot of things though.

       3. I think it’s generally true that the south end communities are a bit less Seattle commute focused than the north side ones.

          Not from what I can see. It is tricky to add up the various numbers but it seems fairly balanced. Another approach is to use the “Distance/Direction” plot. There is a slight edge for those coming from the north, but only within the shorter distance (less than ten miles). Most of those commuters are within Seattle city limits. That is likely due to the industrial area as much as anything. Once you get into areas like Burien versus Shoreline it is similar. For the 10 to 24 range the numbers are pretty close, with a slight edge to the north. But as you get beyond that (25 to 50 miles) the south has a lot more commuters to Seattle.

          I think the biggest difference is what was mentioned: The folks from the south have good transit alternative. South Sounder is much better than North Sounder. Most of the express buses from the north are gone. All the express buses from the south remain. Given those alternatives, if Federal Way continues to have more riders than Lynnwood (which I doubt will be the case) then it probably has more to do with other trips from Federal Way. Sounder ridership for the Tacoma Dome is above what it was last year (so no noticeable change there). At some point we will be able to see ST Express numbers but they don’t have them for December yet.

       4. Ross,

          Yes, most Seattle commuters are coming from Seattle. But if you look at the top 100 census tracts for greater downtown commuters, it should be evident that commuters to downtown are more densely clustered in north Seattle and the north/east side suburbs. I see tracts in Lynnwood, Bothell, Kirkland, Redmond, Bellevue, Issaquah, Sammamish, and Snoqualmie. There are none even as close in as Renton, Burien, or White Center. Expanding to all tracts and you’ll see places like Bainbridge Island and Kingston have a higher density of downtown commuters than Federal Way (census tracts have roughly equal population).

          I think it’s important to note that density of commuters is what matters when considering if a place is identifiably part of the Seattle commuter world. The reason that more commuters come from further in the south is more to do with the fact that there are more people south of Seattle than north. It’s also worth noting that LEHD data is generally limited by the fact that it uses employment location and home location independently of if someone actually commutes (and so ignores work from home dynamics), and that the most recent data is still from 2023.

          And this isn’t even considering what kinds of jobs are considered “downtown commuter type jobs”. LEHD doesn’t have very useful income bands, so this is hard to parse out from that data source. That’s part of why I brought up the Amazon shuttle buses. A suburb having enough Amazon workers for them to justify a shuttle is indicative of a place that is culturally oriented to downtown Seattle office job commuting, which is how I would interpret the point of the original comment we are replying to

       5. The reason that more commuters come from further in the south is more to do with the fact that there are more people south of Seattle than north.

          Yes, and that is my point. In this case the percentage of commuters doesn’t matter — only the total number. It is like the 70,000 people that reverse commute from New York City to New Jersey. Obviously that represents a tiny portion of the people commuting from New York City. It is probably a tiny percentage of those working in New Jersey as well. But New York City is so huge that even this very unusual reverse commute accounts for a massive number of people. If I’m analyzing transit to New Jersey, that total number (70,000) is more important than percentages.

          The same thing is true here. Consider the two stations: Lynnwood and Federal Way. I’m pretty sure there are way more people to the south of Federal Way than to the north of Lynnwood. This impacts commuting. At some point the distance becomes too large (i. e. very few people commute from Mount Vernon to Seattle) but until then, a lot of people commute from the south simply because it has more people. Based on the numbers, this appears to be the case. Of course there are way more people commuting from Seattle or the East Side. Likewise, you have way more people commuting from closer suburbs (Shoreline, Burien, Renton). But if you look at the number of potential commuters that could be “funneled” to Lynnwood or Federal Way they are similar.

          It also explains why you are less likely to see commuters to Seattle from the South Sound. They are like the New Yorkers who work in New Jersey. There are 70,000 of them but you aren’t likely to meet one of them. But again, that really doesn’t matter. Not in this instance. What matters is how transit can capture those riders.

          For that you have to look at the geography. Lynnwood Link serves everything to the north quite well (in my opinion). Not only do you have plenty of express and local buses to the station but there is a huge parking garage. There is also very little transit competition. The trip from Lynnwood to the UW or downtown is very fast. Most of the driving options take you close to a station (and thus you might as well use the park and ride).

          Federal Way is similar in some respects. It has plenty of express and local buses feeding it. It also has a huge garage which means (like Lynnwood) it could attract drivers from quite a ways to the south. The difference is that it does have competition in the form of both Sounder and express buses. If I commute to Seattle from Puyallup then I’m not driving to the Federal Way Station — I’m driving to the Sounder Station. The trip from Federal Way on Link is slower. It has more express buses as well.

          This is what makes the numbers so surprising. Not the high number or people that take the buses and Sounder from the South Sound — that makes sense. But the sudden, very high number of people taking Link from Federal Way, given the competition. If not for the competition that number would make sense — but with the competition it is surprising.

          Of course it is also quite possible that it has little to do with commuters to Seattle. Those riders are still on the buses. It is about riders commuting to SeaTac or headed to some other place on the line. It is also quite possible that a lot of the riders are just experimenting with Link (or just joy riding). What we do know is that Angle Lake ridership is way down and ridership for A appears to be down a little bit. My guess is it is a bit of everything. Some commuters to Seattle have switched from the buses. Others used to drive to Angle Lake but now they drive to Federal Way. Some riders use to transfer at Angle Lake to catch a bus to Federal Way and now they just ride to Federal Way. We will have a better of idea in a few months (getting the ST Express numbers will also help).

          And this isn’t even considering what kinds of jobs are considered “downtown commuter type jobs”.

          I just drew a large polygon around greater downtown. That doesn’t count employment that has odd hours but it stands to reason that most of the jobs in that area (especially jobs that are served by people in different cities) are bound to be 9-5 in nature. The jobs include those serving drinks in Belltown but my guess is someone in Lynnwood or Federal Way isn’t commuting for that.

       6. Just a note that work start and end times influence transit demand too. If a job is a predictable white-collar schedule, something like Sounder works great. Certainly South Sounder attracts about 4K riders going north in the mornings, for example. But as a percent of total jobs, the share of workers on this kind of worksite schedule is shrinking.

          Link offers something different. Link enables high-frequency daytime-evening flexibility on travel and that is better for partial days in an office or for getting to jobs where standard working hours are not possible. It also works better for college students whose class schedules usually don’t sync with something like Sounder.

          Frankly, the cost of building Link is so high that it should really only be built when it serves the needs of more than just traditional daytime white-collar work commuting. If the intent is to just serve this particular type of travel, it is more cost effective to use single-track Sounder or offer express buses during commute times.

       7. Yes. Exactly this. However poorly, with it’s I-5 alignment, Link connects communities, in South King it connects those who are eager to use transit. Riding the A, and spending time in Federal Way, Tukwila and Rainier valley, it’s clear transit is serving many working class immigrants who use transit very differently than a Lynnwood commuter. They visit family, work off-hour shifts, frequent international restaurants. People who come from different parts of the world where taking transit is second nature.

          Those intangibles are why I am starting to think Link will continue to well in the south.

       8. “it’s clear transit is serving many working class immigrants who use transit very differently than a Lynnwood commuter. They visit family, work off-hour shifts, frequent international restaurants”

          That’s why we tried so hard to get both south and north Link on 99 rather than I-5. If south Link were on 99, it could have had stations at 216th, 260th, Dash Point Road, and 272nd, so you could take it to more shopping and visiting opportunities. Kent wanted it on 99, but Des Moines and Federal Way wanted it on I-5 and prevailed.

       9. Yeah, that was an utter failure of alignment between politicians and actual present and future transit users and their needs.

          Elite projection drove the decision making. Those decisions would have been very different if anybody bothered to poll actual transit users.

       10. It’s not “elite projection”, it’s “20th-century thinking”. It’s part of the car-oriented suburban mindset that Federal Way and Des Moines have based their cities on for a hundred years. They transitioned from rural towns into a 1950s ideal of highways, strip malls, and eventually big-box stores, all with surface parking lots in front. And cul-de-sacs and separated zoning. Transit is for going to downtown Seattle and ballgames and the airport, but even for those it’s secondary to car infrastructure. This is not “elite” projection because all classes have been pushing it since the 1930s.

           Poorer cities are generally more anti-urban than wealthier ones, as you see in the difference between the Eastside and South King County cities, especially further south. Bellevue has Link away from freeways, new urban centers outside downtown (Spring District), and closer station spacing. Des Moines wanted Link on I-5 to avoid impacting the “auto-oriented” south 99 corridor (Des Moines’ own words) and its strip malls, which it saw as valuable inexpensive storefronts for immigrant startups. Great, so you’ve got an inexpensive storefront, but it’s in a strip mall that’s hard to get to without a car and is depressing to be in. For every low-income person that’s taking transit because they can’t afford a car or don’t want to drive, there’s a low-income person who drives everywhere because they believe in this Futurama utopian vision and wants Link away from them and thinks they can’t afford taxes to improve transit. That’s a big issue in why South King County is the way it is, and why Federal Way and Des Moines resisted Link on 99.

           There’s another factor, in that Federal Way wanted Link to downtown so much that it chose I-5 because it thought that would be the cheapest and easiest to build, increasing the likelyhood that it would actually get built and soon. It was afraid that 99 would add costs and complications (e.g., buying private land) that might jeapordize the extension. It wanted a station at 320th next to I-5 where it is now, and it upzoned downtown to comply with King County growth targets and urban-center strategy, but it doesn’t care to have Link elsewhere in the city or to upzone elsewhere. So that’s how you got to Link on I-5 and an urban center in Federal Way downtown.

       11. You are talking about these south towns as if they are a monolith, with some unified voice.

           My point is they are not. And I suggest those who actually ride transit were largely not consulted, and their voice was not heard.

       12. If a job is a predictable white-collar schedule, something like Sounder works great. … Link offers something different.

           Buses offer both of course. If you are trying to get into Seattle itself in the middle of the day, the buses are faster. Ideally they would be more frequent. If you are trying to get around to local destinations, the trains tend to be faster (and more frequent). But there are a limited number of stops to the trains. If you are trying to get from Downtown Tacoma to Downtown Kent, Link doesn’t do you much good. The big question about ridership to the south is whether there are enough significant destinations that are within easy reach of riders (with or without transfers). Time will tell.

       13. Those intangibles are why I am starting to think Link will continue to well in the south.

           Continue to do well? I think people are just hoping it doesn’t do any worse. OK, that’s not fair. Obviously people hope (and I expect) the ridership at Kent Des Moines (Highline) to increase. But the three stations combined carried less than 6,000 riders a day on opening month. Meanwhile, ridership at Angle Lake dropped about 2,000. So you have a net increase of about 4,000 despite this multi-billion dollar project that involved three new stations and almost 8 miles of grade-separated railway. That isn’t good. That is not “doing well”. To be fair, this is December. Maybe the numbers will pick up over time.

           I also think it is quite likely that there will be a “balancing” as jd mentioned up above. When it comes to Lynnwood Link, Lynnwood dominated ridership early on. But over time things have become more spread out. If you combine the four new stations the ridership has been pretty steady (most of the ridership losses at Lynnwood has been met with an increase in ridership at the other stations).

           Partly this is due to people getting used to the parking situation. Speaking of which, I ran across this on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/soundtransit/comments/1pozn85/federal_way_park_n_ride/. First of all, this is exactly the type of rider I mentioned early on. Someone just wants to check it out. They will contribute to ridership in the short term but most likely, they will go back to using whatever worked for them in the past (in this case Sounder or the express buses). But people on the website address the main question — how crowded is the Federal Way Park and Ride. Pretty crowded, apparently. If that continues (or gets worse) then drivers will start to use the other garages and you will see ridership spread between the stations.

           One interesting thing about Lynnwood though. The 515 gets about 1,000 riders a month. When they cancel that route, that alone should increase ridership for that station. (I also think that ridership of the 515 is probably way down right now for this month given the traffic congestion.) In other words, December may be a big anomaly for Lynnwood Station.

    2. Lynnwood had more the first month of operations than Federal Way. It has bounced up and down since then. It hit a peak of 5,666 in August. Time will tell if Federal Way gets those kind of numbers.

    3. Maybe if Lynnwood had not surrounded it’s station with 7 lane stroads and actually built something across it the ridership would improve. but walking to that station is a death sentence.

       1. I have crossed the stroads north of Lynnwood and south of Federal Way many times. I find the Federal Way stroad to be much more harrowing.

          It seems a major miss not to have FWD Station straddle 320th.

    4. I think a lot of y’all are underestimating the number of airport workers there are in South King county.

12. Rainier Valley really shows the foolishness of more infill stations. very low ridership and sufficiently served as is. Cancel any infils until ridership improves in th clearly underutilized stations.

    1. That’s ridiculous. The Rainier Valley stations carry way more riders than most of the Federal Way Link stations. Rainer Valley has way more ridership than the combined Federal Way Link stations. The Federal Way Link extension was expensive. An infill station is not. You just get a lot more value with more stations.

13. For those along the 18 corridor who have wheels, parking at Federal Way station is a great way to get to events in the city, but the hoof might be a bit much in bad weather. If it’s a hurricane outside bump one stop north to Star Lake, there’s plenty of available parking there and the garage is right next to the platform.

    1. If the Link stations were ranked by the distance without overhead rain/ snow projection, I think it will surprise some about how far some riders must walk while exposed.

       There seems to be a general perspective that transit is a fair weather service and that riders are cool being exposed to the elements. It’s debatable if that’s the right approach to respond to harsh weather days but ST design specs don’t seem to encourage creating full overhead protection in the station design. There are even stations where the platform awnings don’t extend over the Link train doors so every rider entering or exiting rider is forced to wwlk through an “awning waterfall” at every door.

       Our region luckily rarely gets the heavy downpours and winds that occur in warmer, humid places like Florida or other places east of the Mississippi. When I lived in Florida decades ago, I could get drenched just walking 20 or 30 feet.

       Of course, ST will have opened something like 18 Link stations between 2024 and 2026, and probably won’t open any more than 7 additional stations (maybe as few as 4) in the entire next decade (with those also needing to find ways to save cost through design modifications). There’s also not any station enhancement funding available once a new station opens to revisit and modify the design. So unless there is some new mandate to modify existing stations, riders should just be expected to tough it out and wear suitable gear.

       Of the three FW Link stations just opened, Star Lake seems the best to me for use in harsh weather. The stairs at the platform seem to have an almost fully enclosed housing at the top landing where a rider can stand until a train is approaching. The other two stations do have protection too, but they feel less protected from the wind with rain or snow than Star Lake does to me. Yet Star lake also has long ramps exposed to the elements that the others don’t. So I’d suggest using Star Lake if someone didn’t mind stairs and the other two if they did when it comes to harsh weather travel on Link.

    2. If it’s a hurricane outside people won’t be going anywhere and transit will be suspended.

14. It looks like many of the Lynnwood riders have spread out to the other nearby stations. Ridership in Shoreline/Mountlake Terrace has doubled since last year, and ridership at Lynnwood has dropped. I suspect most of those riders are parking at garages, or at least Metro’s ridership data doesn’t show a large bump in ridership to the stations over the last year. Federal Way may see a similar pattern as commuters figure out the best way to get to a garage.

    1. Yes station parking garage choices seem interchangeable in the corridor. There doesn’t appear to be any system with Link disclosing parking availability before a driver enters the garage to look for parking.

       Other rail transit systems with overflow parking garages have installed real-time monitoring capabilities. Here’s a hyperlink available for WMATA and its color-coded parking system:

       https://www.wmata.com/service/parking/parking-details.cfm?stationid=64

       (Note that today the recent heavy East Coast winter weather is keeping people from getting outside so there’s plenty of parking.)

       I don’t think ST and WSDOT have put too much effort into guiding drivers off the freeway and onto Link. Even fixed signs merely identifying Link station parking exits are not installed. Maybe someday, a driver on I-5 northbound at SR 18 will have a sign that says “Light Rail Parking at Exits 143, 147 and 149” with each exit number highlighted by a real-time availability code like WMATA has, for example. Then those drivers would be less likely to end up cruising 15 or 20 minutes for parking that isn’t available. Because these garages still have lots of spaces it’s not yet much of a concern.

       1. I think that’s great feature and need to be built into navigation software. A lot of cities have dedicated some resource to travel demand management. I think having a feed like that is a great strategy for TDM.
          I think this is the most informative piece to keep drivers from driving. Finding out parking is full at entrance is too late. The VMT has already been generated.

       2. One advantage about putting like rail tracks along freeways is that it’s free advertising for Link. If a freeway driver didn’t see the tracks, they may not be reminded that the train is an option to driving.

    2. I remember the Lynnwood Park and Ride lot filling up (https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/lynnwood-light-rail-is-super-popular-but-theres-a-problem/). Given that, drivers are bound to find other lots to park in. I agree with Al, their should be real-time monitoring. You should be able to use your phone to figure out which lots have more space. In any event, it sounds like drivers have shifted to other stations.

       I’m not sure if the Federal Way lot is quite that full. It might be, but the dynamic might be different.

       1. My second friend in north Lynnwood (the one with a car) and I were talking about driving during the I-5 construction. She said it’s normal down to the Ship Canal bridge, then it gets hard to get anywhere beyond that. I mentioned Link from Lynnwood bypasses that, and she said, “If I can ever find a parking space at Lynwood P&R. I’d have to go very early.” I said, “Mountlake Terrace.” She said it’s not as bad but I guess it’s also pretty full. I said, “Ash Way P&R has lots of buses to Lynnwood station, although it’s a two-seat ride.” She wasn’t quite ready to do that. So that’s what’s happening northwest of Ash Way P&R.

          My other friend does go to Ash Way and take a bus to Lynnwood, but she doesn’t have a car, so she has no other way to get there. She’s also northwest of it but in another direction. It’s a 40-minute walk from her house to Ash Way P&R, though it she can get the 119 (half-hourly weekdays, hourly weekends), that brings it down to a 20-minute walk.

       2. The old surface lot at Lynnwood was shut down last fall. It seems to have become bus layover space.

15. The walking between Federal Way Link station and the parking decks is a bit ridiculous because that’s what the old bus bay was, but it also creates a potential for forced foot traffic across certain land.
    I hope they build something on the way as soon as possible. It will keep commuter entertained during the walk, it is a good opportunity to run business along that kind of walking path, and the structure can also provide shelter for pedestrian during bad weather.

    1. Yeah, having a protected walking connection at Federal Way between the garage and platform with activity along it would be a great thing to create!

       It’s hard to make those things really work well economically even if the development objectives encourage that.

       A similar cautionary situation has existed with BART’s San Bruno Station on the back side of Tanforan. The mall owner redeveloped the mall in anticipation of the BART opening and SFO proximity, including adding a food court with a dramatic atrium strategically placed just steps from the BART entrance. The mall has now failed economically and is slated for demolition by the new owners. Instead it’s planned to become a biotech campus.

    2. I wish more large developments adjacent to stations included pedestrian walkways. Imagine if the Northgate Mall redevelopment featured a pedestrian mall Northeast from the station to 5th Ave/Northgate Way. That could significantly shorten the walking distance to the heart of Northgate while opening the opportunity for pedestrian-facing retail.

16. It’s interesting to me the downtown stations really aren’t that busy compared to Northgate – Westlake..

    DSTT2 needs to be a Northgate – Westlake – SLU – Belltown route if it were based on current station use.

    1. I agree. The number of boardings at the stops other than Westlake are notably lower than Capitol Hill and U District. And among the riders Downtown are those that transfer to and from Link to Sounder or buses or the ferries, so they’re not all ending or starting their trips downtown.

       It helps to illustrate that Link should be viewed as a multi-purpose regional service rather than one to mainly carry workers to daytime Downtown Seattle office jobs. It’s a stark contrast to BART, where the all Downtown San Francisco stations get much higher use.

    2. I suspect Westlake is inflated by including everyone transferring to SLU.

       1. I think every DSTT station is inflated. The transfer demand forecasted at two downtown tunnel transfer stations can also be inflated. Some people using DSTT today might go to somewhere in the middle of DSTT and proposed new tunnel whatever alignment that is. It is hard to prove that because a transit corridor align with proposed second tunnel doesn’t exist.

       2. I’m not sure if “inflated” is the right description here. Every station has some passengers who only use it as a transfer to other modes (often buses). Stations with a lot of transfer opportunities will have more riders in this group (Lynnwood, Northgate, UW, Westlake, CID, Tukwila, Federal Way). Stations served by only one or two bus routes will still have some transfer ridership, but most passengers will be from the local area.

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