On Sunday, the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl by defeating the New England Patriots 29-13. To celebrate their victory, there will be a parade this Wednesday, February 11, with official celebrations starting at Lumen field at 10am. Regular transit riders should plan ahead as many bus routes will be rerouted to avoid the parade. Parade-goers are strongly encouraged to leave the car at home, pull out their ORCA cards, and catch a bus, train, or ferry into Downtown to avoid the gridlock and exorbitant parking fees.
A trophy celebration will begin at 10am at Lumen Field and the ensuing parade is scheduled to begin at 11am, starting near King Street Station at the intersection of Washington Street and 4th Ave, proceeding north to 4th and Cedar. Transit agencies are expecting hundreds of thousands of attendees and are coordinating to provide extra service to get attendees to and from the event. Here’s how you can take transit to join the party:
Sound Transit
Link, Sounder, and STExpress service will be boosted.
Link 1 Line trains will run every six minutes from 5 a.m. until 6 p.m.
Four morning Sounder trains will be added to existing service:
- Event Train 1600 departs Tacoma Dome Station at 8:50 a.m., arrives at King Street at 9:52 a.m.
- Event Train 1602 departs Lakewood Station at 8:51 a.m., arrives at King Street at 10:07 a.m.
- Event Train 1604 departs Lakewood Station at 9:16 a.m., arrives at King Street at 10:37 a.m.
- Train 1518, scheduled to depart Lakewood at 10:11, will be canceled to support Event Train 1604.
- Event Train 1801 departs Everett Station at 8:45, arrives at King Street at 9:45 a.m.
Afternoon/evening Sounder trains will operate normal schedules.
Additional Sound Transit Express buses will serve Eastside park-and-rides into downtown Seattle.
For more information, see: https://www.soundtransit.org/blog/platform/celebrate-seahawks-big-win-how-to-ride-transit-to-victory-parade
King County Metro
There will be major changes to bus service to Seattle and throughout downtown starting at 5 a.m. Many downtown buses will be rerouted; check adjustments for your route on Metro’s Service Advisories web page closer to the event.
To keep service moving, these key changes are planned:
- North-South Bus Routes: will drop passengers at hubs outside of Downtown, where they can ride special north-south shuttles. Riders are encouraged to use Link 1 Line trains in the transit tunnel to travel through the downtown core. Metro will share more details and post a map of the shuttle route “as soon as possible”.
- East-West Bus Routes will be unable to cross the Fourth Avenue parade route and will be rerouted.
King County Water Taxi
Additional Water Taxi sailings are planned on Wednesday to accommodate fans coming from Vashon and West Seattle, with a third vessel available if needed.
Seattle Streetcar
The last stop of the First Hill Streetcar will be at Fifth Avenue and South Jackson Street, not at Occidental Avenue.
SDOT has several tips and tricks for getting around.
Pierce Transit
Pierce Transit is providing special event bus service from the 512 Park & Ride and Tacoma Dome Station (TDS) to Federal Way Downtown Station.
This special event service will begin at 6 a.m. at the 512 Park & Ride (Zone I) and will also pick up passengers at Tacoma Dome Station (Zone F) before heading to Federal Way. Service will run approximately every 15 minutes until 9 a.m.
Community Transit
Routes 424, 510, and 515 will be rerouted and drop passengers outside of Downtown Seattle. CT strongly recommends fans take a bus to their nearest Link 1 Line station or Sounder N Line station to get to the parade.
Kitsap Transit
Additional Fast Ferry service will be running all day.
Bremerton-Seattle: All three ferry vessels on this route will be running to offer additional fast-ferry trips. The third boat will operate one-way trips only to Seattle in the morning and one-way trips only to Bremerton in the afternoon. In the event of any mechanical issues with any of the vessels, Kitsap Transit will prioritize maintaining its regular two-boat schedule.
Kingston-Seattle: Normal schedule but with additional crew to open up the upper-level deck and allow up to 349 passengers per trip.
Southworth-Seattle: Normal schedule but served by a 250-passenger vessel.
Seattle Transit Blog will update this post as additional details are released.
Nathan, where did you get the information for Community Transit? Tell me more.
Never mind, I found out in the CT blog.
More details from Metro’s and ST’s email alerts (2/9 between 11am-1pm). As we get more specific information and maps closer to the event, we’ll update the article.
ST Express 550 will have additional runs.
Routes from the north and 520 will terminate at a hub at Queen Anne Ave N & Mercer Street. A shuttle will run from there on 2nd and 3rd Avenues to Cherry Street. I think these are mainly long-distance expresses, and other routes that can’t cross the 4th Avenue parade route.
It sounds like some local north-south routes will continue into downtown but it’s unclear.
Routes from the south and I-90 will terminate near SODO and Stadium stations. Again I think these are primarily long-distance expresses. Riders can transfer to the 1 Line to downtown, or to a shuttle whose route will be posted online.
Another transfer hub will be at Boren & Pike. A shuttle will go down Boren to Jackson Street. East-west bus routes won’t be able to cross the 4th Avenue parade route so they’ll be rerouted.
I think Metro & ST are expecting there to be too many pedestrians around 4th Ave for consistent operations. I wouldn’t be surprised if operators are told to turn around at the hubs and only the downtown circular bus runs down 2nd and up 3rd.
I like that Boren St shuttle. Can we get it to run every other day too? And maybe continue to that Mercer & Queen Anne hub?
And maybe, just maybe, it could be extended south on Rainier to Mount Baker station?
The Wilson Administration can take a bow for finally turning the First Hill Streetcar back at 5th.
Now, if only that could become permanent, all day, every day, with savings rolled into improved frequency…
The streetcar has turned back at 5th during previous events.
I’ve never seen the streetcar turn back at 5th, but I have seen it continue west and get stuck in the crowd, including during the Club World Cup.
I don’t remember when it has but I have seen it and announcements for it.
I remember operation skittles.
Almost my whole office in the U-District emptied out and headed for the buses on 15th.
Most trickled back an hour later, never able to get on any of the buses arriving crush-load. The few who made it downtown said it took 2 hours.
Hopefully Link changes the calculus, but honestly, bike is the way.
Just a reminder: There are lots of bike parking options at stations. Seattle Bike Blog’s post on the parade links to the up-to-date Seattle bike map.
My wife and I went to the last parade and had to take a 550 into Bellevue from the south Bellevue P & R to even get on a bus. Then it took an hour on a jammed I/90 to finally get into the city. Sad to think how little has changed since then (as of now). They need to run shuttles from the south Bellevue P & R (or transit center) directly to Seattle. All of the Eastside folks who naively ride to the end of the 2 Line will wait for hours or end up doing what we did. (Or get on the bike trail and walk/ride.)
We are seeking an alternate route this time!
I am concerned Link will not be able to handle it. Link is jam-packed after an ordinary sporting event even with increased headways for this the stations will be at crush capacity… 1 million downtown even people who never take transit will be riding.
Nothing keeps ST from assigning the extra (not yet running as simulated 2 Line but that’s just a few days away) train sets to run from Lynnwood to CID (reversing at Judkins Park) around parade time.
Too bad they can’t call it the “12” Line!
We’ve had a Seahawks victory parade with Link before. The main issue is downtown employers will have to let people telework, but I’m sure they know that already. With a parade, not everybody has to get exactly to the stadium exactly at starting time; they just have to get to somewhere downtown sometime before it ends.
They need to add a ton of express buses on I-5, i-90 and close down the HOV lane (and critical exits) for bus only. Just for the day..but I doubt that’s going to happen
The last time Link ran during the parade, it was full by Tukwila Station headed northbound. At SeaTac, there was a line from the platform extending all the way to the airport terminal.
Wasn’t Link just two cars last time?
Yes, Link was limited to two cars, thanks to the demising wall north of Westlake.
A lot of the line at SeaTac was a large number of people who drove from the Sounder stations after the trains were all full, even after adding an extra run. It appears that no extra Sounder run has been announced this time.
Trains arriving at SeaTac (the terminus in 2014) were already packed with riders having to go south in order to go north. ST staff gave up on trying to make everyone get off the train there, so the queue barely moved.
I don’t know how often the trains were running, so I don’t know if the capacity really will be twice as much from the south this time.
On top of that, some idiot hot-wired a car and then proceeded to wrap the stolen car around a pole between the tracks south of Mt Baker. That brought trains south of there to a halt for the better part of an hour, causing tens of thousands to miss the parade.
Four extra Sounder runs are listed in the article.
Oops. Sorry. ST’s South Sounder schedule page has not caught up with the press release.
So, an additional N Line run (5-car train), two additional S Line runs, and the midday S-Line run moved up.
More service than last time, by two trains from the south and one from the north.
My wife and I took the 271 from Bellevue to the 1 line at Husky Stadium to go downtown. At 9:45am the trains were crush level and only single passengers were getting on. There were people in Seahawks gear leaving the station when we arrived and probably 100 people waiting for SB trains. We decided to ride north until things thinned out. We probably could have got on at either of the shoreline stations but ended up going to Lynwood so that we could get a seat and see what the whole future 2 line looks like (can’t wait!). It was interesting to watch the cars fill up and people ignore empty seats and stand in the door well instead. (Maybe sound transit needs to do some education about rider etiquette?) it was crush level again leaving Northgate and into the city.
Our friend coming from Beacon Hill at 10:00AM was able to squeeze onto a car so crowded that he couldn’t raise his arms to pull his phone from his pocket!
Overall, I would give them an A-. I would recommend more security officers to pre-pack the upstream riders so that there is more room for subsequent riders. Then there is the ongoing issue of wire theft which affected the line south of Angle Lake and has shut the 2 line down several times. This issue needs to be figured out! Maybe just keep things electrified 24/7 and let the learning process start? Sorry, no sympathy for those folks here.
Link’s capacity for getting people to downtown isn’t merely a function of frequency. Really, it is about how many train trips enter downtown.
That is why I hope ST is prepared to send short-run trains to the stations where pass-ups start or are projected to start.
Oh, and this time, make sure the paper stock is full at all the ORCA vending machines.
I wonder if Metro considered running shuttle buses through the Hwy 99 tunnel.
What I’m most worried about is if Link has another breakdown and suspends service in the middle of the day. Opportunity for ST to forward-deploy standby maintenance staff at the most likely locations.
The alerts for my routes say the 10 and 49 will be truncated to (eastbound) Pike & 7th, (westbound) Pine & 9th. The nearest shuttle stops are Pike & Boren and Pine & Summit going east in a one-way loop to 12th Avenue, 7th & Jackson, and Boren Ave. That’s a three-block walk to Intl Dist station. The best bet seems to be to transfer at Capitol Hill station.
Route 550 will terminate at the SODO Busway & Royal Brougham next to Stadium station. ST mentioned a shuttle from there but it’s not on Metro’s map, so until we get the shuttle confirmed, the only choice seems to be to transfer to the 1 Line, or walk 12 blocks to the parade start at 4th & S Washington.
Spot check of other Metro routes (2/10 8:53pm).
C: Unchanged.
D: Truncated at QA/Mercer. Last southbound stop Mercer & 3rd W.
E: Truncated at QA/Mercer.
G: The alert refers to the two shuttles but doesn’t say what the G will do.
H: Unchanged.
5: Truncated at QA/Mercer. (Through-route 21 truncated at 1st S/Atlantic.)
7: Truncated at Jackson/7th.
70: Northbound no stops between 3rd/Pike & Fairview/Valley. Southbound rerouted to Fairview/Aloha, 2nd/Bell, 2nd/Pike, 2nd Ext S/Yesler.
101,102,150,550: Truncate at SODO Busway & Royal Brougham (Stadium station).
28, 131,132: Alert refers to the two shuttles but not what the regular routes will do.
NB Link trains are beyond crush loaded at Mount Baker as of 9am. Buses are getting full, too. I’m currently on a 106 heading to CID and hoping to scout shuttle operations. Also curious how empty NB trains will be by IDS.