Downtown Redmond’s walkable urbanism in the Link station area is transit-oriented development (TOD) done right. (Yet Another Urbanist, August 2025)
If you go to Downtown Redmond station, there’s a trail along the Link track that continues west beyond the terminus. Walk three blocks west to an outdoor art exhibit inspired by a former railroad depot. Turn north on 161st Ave NE one block to Cleveland Street, which has an Old Town ambience and the downtown park. Return to the station. Redmond Town Center is across the street on the south. A major mixed-use renovation is planned. Walk east on the trail (alongside the Link track), across the Bear Creek footbridge, to Marymoor Village station and Marymoor Park. Continue east on the trail past the station; it will end one block east at NE 70th Street. Go east on the street one block to the start of the East Sammamish Trail on the right, which goes to Issaquah.
For the west side trails, from the art exhibit at 161st, continue west to the Sammamish River Trail. It goes north on both sides of the river and branches off to other trails such as the Power Line trail going east. If you continue walking north five hours you’ll get to the Woodinville, UW Bothell, Bothell, and Kenmore, where the trail continues as the Burke-Gilman Trail to Seattle. (At UW Bothell there’s a 5-block gap in the trail on a residential street. Just keep going and the trail will start again.)
Sound Transit explains how it built light rail on a floating bridge. (Sound Transit, November 2025)
This is an open thread.
Cannot believe that in less than 1 week we will all be able to take a light rail train across Lake Washington!! Seemed like this day would never come. A celebratory day for sure.
I thought they were just going to cancel it despite those hard years of work, though I’m glad it’s at least March 28 and not April 25 or May 31. Let’s not forget that simulated service is finally returning on Monday. Be prepared to see good views on the I-90 floating bridge!
Following up on some Pierce County issues in the ST3 Truncations article….
PT 500 and 501 predate Sound Transit. I rode the 500 in the 1980s when it was the only way to Tacoma.
PT 425 is a peak express from Lakeland Hills to Auburn Station. Lakeland Hills is a large single-family hill in southeast Auburn spanning King and Pierce counties. Metro used to have a route like this but deleted it in a recession cut, probably the 2014 one. Pierce Transit must have picked it up for its Pierce County residents (and may have extended it further south than the Metro route went).
PT 500 still operates more frequently during weekend than weekday right?
I assume this is a result of drivers shortage rather than decision driven by ridership pattern, right?
The 500 and 501 are hourly, except the 500 is inexplicably half-hourly on Saturdays. I have no idea why.
@Mike Orr Does it perhaps split into multiple routes, or collect buses coming in off multiple routes?
No. The 500 and 501 have common endpoints (Tacoma Dome station and Federal Way station), but the rest of the routes are completely different, on opposite sides of I-5, too far to walk from one to the other.
I don’t know whether either of them are through-routed with another route or anything like that.
Following up on Bernie’s comment in the ST3 Truncations article:
“Pierce Transit 2024 Local Bus Performance and Ridership Report”
Thanks for the link.
“Tacoma Dome is showing by far the fastest growth (pg 15) which from the chart appears to be directly correlated with a steep drop for Commerce St. I’m sure this has to do with route reconfiguration and not any sudden change in land use or trip origination point.”
The new Stream Community Line goes only to Tacoma Dome station, so everybody has to transfer there. Some people who used to take other routes to downtown Tacoma may now take Stream, and the transfer is so concentrated at one stop that it makes it look like it’s the happenin’ place.
“I’m surprised/puzzled by the big dot(s) up by Point Defiance.”
Pearl District or Old Town activity maybe. Or people taking transit to Point Defiance Park, which is one if the biggest city woodland parks in the state.
“What’s the 101 “Seasonal”; the summer connection from DT to Ruston?”
It’s probably the Commencement Bay summer shuttle that runs around the 4th of July and such. PT replaced some of that service with a Runner corridor (demand-response taxis like Metro Flex). It may have replaced all of it, because one summer I rode the shuttle and the next summer there was only an app-taxi, which I was mad about.
“I’m also curious why the two ST routes are classified as “Urban” and not “Express” or “Connector” and what the difference is between “Urban” and “Core”.”
Is one of them the 522? That route is unusual in having more stops than typical ST Express routes. That reflects its nature the primary route on an arterial rather than a freeway. The only other place I can think of with that is the 550’s Bellevue Way segment. In both cases ST Express serves those arterials because their Metro predecessors did. In the 522’s case there’s no choice since there’s no freeway there. In the 550’s case, it’s because when the route was created ST asked the community whether it should run on 405 or Bellevue Way, and the majority feedback was for Bellevue Way.
The Point Ruston development is about as close to Transit Oriented Development as new construction gets in Pierce County, but lacks transit. The closest bus routes are at Point Defiance.
The Point Defiance stop probably also gets a fair number of walk-on passengers to/from Vashon Island. Since the Rhododendron got retired and replaced with a bigger boat, it’s probably not as much as it used to.
Good point about the Vashon Ferry. I’d forgotten about that. Route 10 meets the ferry and goes to TCC and route 11 goes to DT Tacoma. The 11 would be a good route to take on a day of sight seeing in Tacoma. I’ve been wanting to check out the new Dune Peninsula extension to Pt. Defiance. Maybe bring a mtn bike.
From Pierce Transit:
Unclear if it will run Summer of 2026. I’m guessing they get some sort of revenue from Gig Harbor or a business association to promote tourism. The Thursday thing is sort of strange. I can understand the weekend and it seems like if you have funding for a third day it would be Friday. Maybe a farmers market on Thursdays?
The Seattle Times has an extravaganza of Link articles today. The new ones are:
Primer on using Link by Mike Lindblom
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/new-to-seattle-light-rail-heres-a-beginners-guide/
Crosslake service is a big deal
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/seattle-light-rail-is-about-to-do-something-audacious-and-unique-to-transit/
History of I-90 disruption in the Central District, with before-and-after photos. It highlights Colman School, which is now the African American Museum. And Sam Smith, whom the park is named after, was Seattle’s first Black City Council member.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/can-seattle-light-rail-repair-what-a-freeway-broke/
“The Angle Lake Garage parking levels 1 – 2 and 4 – 7 are inaccessible to passengers requiring elevator service. To access these levels, call Transit Security at 206-398-5268 to assist you.”
While I was on Link at Federal Way Wednesday waiting for the run to start, the driver made an audio announcement, “Sir, there is no urinating on the platform behind the elevator.”
The station announcement voice said “TUKwila International Boulevard” instead of “TukWILa International Boulevard”.
That’s not a one time occurrence. I’ve seen someone urinate on the platform in Tukwila as well. It’s beyond me why people are letting some weird political grudge get in the way of doing the common sense thing: clean up our transit system.
It’s not compassion, it’s making things worse for 99.99999% of riders. Get rid of these hobos so more people can trust our transit system. It should’ve always been clean and safe
what is really needed to more restrooms for the public at LINK stations. Not just the homeless need to use the restroom, even though regular passengers need them too. (unfortunately, some patrons misuse the current restrooms to do drugs, or simply stay warm from the cold) LA Metro uses Throne Restrooms to supplement at some bus and rail stops. https://thesource.metro.net/more-stations-get-restrooms-and-behold-our-exciting-system-restroom-map/
It’s a far larger issue than Link stations. There aren’t enough public restrooms throughout the tri-county area or in the US. Both homeless people and commuters and everyone else need them. We deny people basic housing and public restrooms, or people take 1-2 hour transit journeys, or they take transit to a store or place that doesn’t have a pubic restroom either and then return, and then we’re shocked, shocked, that they have to use desperate measures.
So, gun ’em down, then, SKR? Lock ’em up in Minidoka? Put ’em on a bus to Florida?
We’re all breathlessly eager for your amazing insights on how to sweep this scourge away!
I’ve also heard that the Mountlake Terrace Freeway Station elevators had been urinated on in the past, that was before light rail came to town and there was no bathroom for commuters after a long commute from Seattle (which is where the jobs are).
It could be mispronounced Tuck-WHILE-a or TUK-while-a! Lol
That urination problem is indeed systemic and needs addressing. Of course, even if there’s one, some people won’t bother to use it. I suspect the solution will need ST to partner with another entity (public or private) with incentives for that entity as opposed to going at it alone.
In December 2024 and March 2025, Sound Transit had blog posts with finer-grained data about Link reliability problems and the work they’re planning/do to improve Link reliability.
Since then, there have been a couple posts on the ST blog about specific repair projects, but I don’t recall seeing any posts in the past year assessing their progress on improving Link reliability. I believe Link’s reliability has been discussed at ST meetings and maybe some of the data is buried in PDFs somewhere, but has Sound Transit collected it anywhere more accessible or published a more recent assessment of Link reliability? There is the On Time Performance on ST’s System Performace Tracker, but it’s been stuck around 80% for more than a year.
I liked the Yet Another Urbanist video from 2025!
I’m too lazy to figure out how to make it — but I hope that someone makes a video on things one can do near Link on the Eastside that’s geared for Seattle residents or tourists. The photo/ video op from the train on the bridge alone will be worth it. Add to that other scenic spots and attractions!
I have several Seattle friends that are car-free and have never explored the Eastside mostly because it was perceived as a hassle to access — until the end of this week. Tourists I’ve met have had a similar perception.
And will be pleasantly surprised the downtowns of the Eastside are no longer your grandfather’s suburbia.
It’s not that hard to get here by bus today… and some of the things I’d recommend checking out on the Eastside are not exactly walking distance to a Link station, but they are all near a bus stop.
It’s kind of a shame. I was just thinking about it, and Bellevue has some great food, better than Seattle in my opinion, but very little of it is near a Link station.
Almost everything I can think of in Redmond is downtown, though.
The comment section keeps saying it can’t wait to see the views that Link will offer when crossing the lake. You do realize that cross-lake bus routes have the same view, don’t you?
I love the views of Lake Washington on the 271 dashing along SR 520, it’s just that it feels different crossing a body of water on a train rather than from a bus. You know, the train feels smoother and speedy, PS being inside a train while it’s crossing a lake on a pontoon bridge isn’t something you witness every day.
Scooby, sometime back, you shared a video you took of Link. And, if I remember correctly, some people here criticized your camera work. Have gotten back out there and taken any new Link videos? If it’s something you enjoy, I hope you keep it up.
What? I don’t remember that, though I do have a YouTube channel where I film stuff about transit and occasionally do gameplay videos and I’m planning to take a lot of film on Crosslake Connection opening day. I did take a video of the 1 Line Shuttle Bus yesterday and here it is, note that you may see someone recording in front of me and that’s my friend:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwvhGEsr0vM&t=759s
If you’re interested in checking out my channel as a whole just press my channel profile below the video title. Though I do hope to improve my camera work.
I remember it too Sam, IIRC it made me a little nauseated.
Sorry, I was just a bit uneasy with the recording at a light rail station. By the way, Ian have you checked out my channel?
Yeah not to say view from SR 520 is better because it is a wider channel than crossing via I-90.
I don’t think I’ve seen any of Scooby’s videos. I think he was going to make one of Federal Way Link’s opening but didn’t. I don’t remember anybody criticizing anybody’s filmmaking.
I didn’t make a Federal Way Link opening video because I had to go to my brother’s choir concert that day. Anyways I know for sure I’ll be going to the Crosslake Connection opening.
What I really can’t wait is waiting for my cross-lake ride from an underground station rather than Union & 4th stop. That spot is cold as hell in winter.
Yeah, the tunnels can also be cold but at least feel safer than waiting at Union & 4th. The 550 used to stop in the tunnel but they took it out of the tunnel and redirected it onto city streets…
In my opinion that was a controversial move. Not only with the 550 but taking ALL buses out of the tunnel when all that should have been done is wait for the 2 Line to start running then take the buses out of the tunnel due to capacity issues. Transferring to the 550 in the tunnel coming north would have also been easier if it stayed in the tunnel due to light rail on I-90 being delayed.
And figuring out what to do with Link to Ballard might have been a whole different story if the Convention Center hadn’t filled the bus branch of the tunnel with concrete.
Glenn
Probably not. The convention center junction is a level crossing, and would require a fly under to reliably connect out to the Ballard line. Level junctions are capacity bottlenecks and would have been extremely difficult with 6 minute branch headways as promised in ST3.
Ha, yeah. It is fun to think of what transit (or sections of transit) has the best views. The Aurora buses are nice. I like the ones over the Ballard Bridge although they aren’t as high. There used to be buses over the I-5 ship canal bridge but there are very few anymore. I haven’t ridden Link to Federal Way but I assume it has some really nice views of Mount Rainier. I’ve only ridden Link as far as Mountlake Terrace. You only get little glimpses of the Olympics — I think one of the better ones will be at Pinehurst Station (as 130th provides a small window to the west).
The views from Angle Lake’s platform are rather panoramic! It may be the most scenic platform in the system.
I suspect that the Judkins Park platform will have a nice view of the Downtown Seattle skyline. The public will know Saturday!
I wonder if once Line 2 opens and east/south restructures are implemented this fall that link will become the #1 light rail in terms of ridership in the country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_light_rail_systems
I could see it happening in 2027 unless LA opens some extensions by then. Does 50 mil riders recorded in 2027 seem reasonable?
I wonder if it’ll even surpass BART. I know they are facing big cuts in the near term.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_rapid_transit_systems
My guess on why ridership is so high on Seattle’s light rail system (not really a system) is due to a lack of variety so riders have to rely on one. Now if we had multiple lines some former 1 Line users would use those instead (which would be around the same amount of riders we have now). Though I’m not expecting Seattle to become number one nor the 2 Line take away riders, also I can see the stops between Lynnwood and IDC gaining more riders due to the 2 Line going to the Eastside.
Goblin the link is referring to the link system as a whole (including T line, starter 2 and line 1). Yes LA and Boston have heavy metro too thats not part of this list but I thought it would be cool if Seattle ends up #1 on the list. Kinda like the tallest kid in kindergarten.
Maybe someday Rainier valley and that part in Bellevue will be grade separated so we can be moved to the big boy list (rapid transit)
“Maybe someday Rainier valley and that part in Bellevue will be grade separated so we can be moved to the big boy list (rapid transit)”
ST has been considering grade separating the MLK segment on the 1 Line but I personally think it would be better to repurpose those center lanes for BRT and just pull up the tracks like what ST did when the I-90 light rail tracks were built wrong.
I doubt “that part in Bellevue” will ever be grade separated not to mention that it was ST that did this on purpose to keep East Link cheap (yet another MLK stereotype). It’s just that the 2 Line recently opened (2 years ago) and I just don’t think grade separating the part on Spring Blvd should be thought about yet… Maybe in 10 years or so? I don’t see it much of a problem since it’s only like three intersections but I get it… I just hate how tracks in the median of city streets slow down the train by travelling at lower speeds plus intersections!
Chicago L trains still have a few areas where they run in the median of minor streets with grade crossings. Once grade crossings get built, they are sometimes not easy to eliminate.
I think the last New York City subway grade crossing was eliminated around 1975.
“I doubt “that part in Bellevue” will ever be grade separated not to mention that it was ST that did this on purpose to keep East Link cheap (yet another MLK stereotype)”
That’s only half the story., and misleading on its own ST intended East Link to be fully grade separated and budgeted for it. But then the City of Bellevue begged for a downtown tunnel and asked ST to economize elsewhere in East King for it. That’s why the Spring District/south Redmond has level crossings.
We should have a criss crossing network of lines like a real subway system, although not if we get these shtty deep, long, poorly located transfers as proposed
It’s not a fair comparison because Link is far better than other American light rail:
* Link has so much grade separation it’s largely like a light metro.
* Minimum frequency is 10 minutes until 10pm (not 15 or 30 minutes).
* Trains are 4 articulated cars (comparable to 8 single cars), not half or a quarter that.
.But if you compare Link to all subways/metros both heavy and light, Link falls to the bottom half:
* Missing stations.
* Stations not in the center of urban villages.
* Excessive station sizes, some say.
* Unreliability like it’s a hundred years old and never been maintained.
I don’t think age has anything to do with it. There are other rail transit systems that are a century old, and most of them don’t have service interruptions as often as here. On the other hand, I would say Link reliability is very comparable to the New York City Subway and the Philadelphia El/Subway. Americans (even the ones that are running transit systems!) don’t expect anyone to actually rely on transit.
The 1 Line will lose half of the ridership Downtown northward now that 2 Line is running. The 100K weekday ridership will fall probably to about 60-70 K The 2 line will pick up that difference and end up being comparable at 60-70K average weekday riders once crosslake opens. So I’m expecting Link 1+2+T to be about 135-140K in 2027 for average riders or maybe 40-45M annually.
The LAX people mover will open later this year. I don’t see Link overtaking LA Metro because of that. LAX ground transportation is a nightmare. Related to that, the LAX transfer station opened just a few months ago and that will also boost ridership. The A line just opened to Pomona a few months ago too.
I think it will barely overtake Boston and San Diego.
The only ST3 extension that could give Link a major boost is Ballard Link if it goes far enough. That’s at least 10-20 years from opening. So it won’t overtake BART any time soon. Besides, BART has more extensions coming to Santa Clara and maybe Tracy/ Lathrop and maybe Brentwood.
The rest of ST Link will add riders too. Many of those are already on ST Express buses (about 31K average weekday ridership now). . But they are many years away and all sorts of things may happen in the next decade.
An ST3 buildout — if it actually got fully built — will push Link to about 200-250K weekday riders if it opened in 2027.
I think the recent gas price spike will improve transit ridership structurally in the long run. However, all transit across the US will see increases (not just here.).
“BART has more extensions coming to Santa Clara and maybe Tracy/ Lathrop and maybe Brentwood.”
It’s hard to see those happening anymore when BART’s financial shortfall is so severe it’s contemplating truncating the network back to its original Fremont/Daly City/Concord/Richmond extent or reducing service to half-hourly. How can it extend it to Santa Clara if the in-between segment is suspended?
“How can it extend it to Santa Clara if the in-between segment is suspended?”
The Silicon Valley Extension is a VTA construction project. The current line south of Fremont has VTA operating money helping. Santa Clara County is not part of the BART district.
That assumes that all riders are headed to downtown Seattle.
This is not the case. Line 2 will definitely take half of Lynnwood to CID passengers, but when I ride Link I notice a fair number of passengers that are Rainier Valley to UW, or Northgate to SeaTac, or otherwise passing through downtown. None of them will move to the 2 Line.
At least, not until Escalatorpalooza gets built at Westlake.
Speaking of downtown Redmond urbanism, three more intersections on Cleveland Street are being converted to scramble crossings this week: https://www.facebook.com/CityOfRedmond/posts/get-ready-to-scramble-in-a-good-way-redmond-is-implementing-three-more-pedestria/1370168191814806/
I’m extremely excited to see the 2 Line finally open across the lake. I’m already biking to it most days to take it to work (a less than ten minute, mostly flat ride thanks to the trail network) and it’s not an exaggeration to say I’ve been looking forward to the cross-lake connection to open for a decade. My only concern is that I hope the 545/542 aren’t reduced, as they can actually be a solid bit quicker to certain major destinations depending on the day of the week and time of day.
The 542 and 545 are unchanged in ST’s September 2026 restructure. ST missed an opportunity to shift the 545’s 10-minute weekday frequency to the 542 and other routes.
Nah 10 minute frequencies aren’t worth it on the 542, if you expect half of the 545 riders to be transferring to light rail then that would be around 2,475 riders remaining on a SR 520 bus from Redmond. If you were to draft all those remaining riders to the 542 then that would be 3,784 riders on a single bus route (which is the equivalent of a 15 minute bus route, still lower than the 545). Though with the 545 deleted and the 542 remaining (and possibly extending to Bear Creek/Marymoor Village) you cover two needs at once… A UW bus and a bus that takes you to light rail to go to Seattle (which light rail will be double frequent once the 2 Line starts going to Lynnwood in the UW). Obviously the UW transfer is faster, though with the new 542 it’s ridership still doesn’t justify 10 minute service. Sometimes people choose quality over travel time (light rail over express buses), and I’m talking about Redmond to Seattle and Federal Way to Seattle. I still don’t think a 544 restoration is worth it realizing you’ll carry less than 4K passengers on the new 542, the redundancy, the possible low ridership, the peak only vibe which is when light rail will be faster than the 544, and not to mention an express bus from Overlake to Fred Hutch is a good, convenient one seat ride but a waste of resources, redundant, and unnecessary.
What I basically said is an essay on how the 542/545 should be restructured in the future, I gave good reasoning and all of that stuff. Here’s how service would change:
– The 542 gets 15 minute all-day service on it’s 7 days of operation, and is extended to Bear Creek/Marymoor Village.
– The 544 is not restored due to worse travel times than light rail from Redmond to Seattle at peak on the SR 520 bridge. It is also redundant and unnecessary.
– The 545 is deleted with the expectation of half the Redmond riders to transfer to light rail to get to Seattle. Riders continuing this tradition (a SR 520 bus) would transfer to light rail running every 4-5 minutes at UW Station on the 542. This change would cover two needs at once.
So EastsideBadger and Mike Orr, what do you think of this change?
I’ve always urged Metro delete the 545 and shift the hours to the 542 or other routes. That’s consistent with deleting routes that are redundant with a rapid-transit line (Redmond to downtown Seattle) but strengthening routes that act like the third side of a triangle (like the 542 does between Redmond Tech and UW, or the 271 does between Bellevue TC and UW, or the 255 does because there’s no Kirkland-Seattle ST route.
At the same time I’ve ridden the 545 from Stewart & Terry to Redmond Tech in midday without congestion, and I was amazed that it can do it in 15 minutes. (We’re expecting around 35 minutes for Link Westlake-Redmond Tech.) Still, I’m not sure Redmond-downtown is a compelling enough case for a parallel express route. And peak hours the 545 gets bogged down in congestion on I-5, the western approach from 520, and maybe still the eastern approach, so all those service hours are wasted.
So Mike, do you agree? I basically have riders boarding at Stewart/Terry instead board at Westlake Station or Capitol Hill Station and either take the 2 Line (depending on rider preferences) or the 1/2 lines up to UW and transfer to the 542 which basically covers two necessities at once (a UW to Redmond route and a route connecting Redmond and SR 520 to light rail that takes you to Seattle). At maximum there should be two seat rides to wherever people want to go.
Yes. Why are you asking me? Several STB authors have urged ST to delete the 545 and/or shift hours to the 542. It’s not going to happen because ST is doing the opposite now. There’s a legitimate question whether deleting the 545 would cause unreasonable hardship for some riders. We’ll have more information when they’re running in parallel and we can see whether 545 ridership drops significantly.
Yes, seeing the downfall of the 545 is probably the safest thing to do at this point. You might get some people to take the 2 Line at peak hour once it crosses the lake to Seattle, but one thing I’m curious about is how the 550’s ridership will look like between March and August.
My guess on why the 545 isn’t being cut is due to how many people use it (even though it was just a survey and not ridership data).
If the 545 is cut let’s not replace it with a peak bus from Fred Hutch to Overlake, you can probably use the J Line (in the future) from SLU and then the 542 or just take the 2 Line at Westlake (since it operates at peak and that’s when travel times are competitive with light rail). The 544 is just going to end up like the 43 (which a lot of people complained about deleting, so Metro decided to keep it as a peak overlay which seems like what ST might do if the 545 is cut). Let’s not let this happen, running the 544 just isn’t worth it. If the ridership is anything it’s going to be comparable with the 43, if not lower then.
I’ve been part of convincing Metro to do a couple things that it did and I later felt I’d been mistaken and they were a detriment, so I’m sympathetic to the idea that I might be partly wrong about the 545. I pushed for the 10 to be moved to John in to preserve frequent service on Olive/John to downtown (to backfill the 43 reduction). I didn’t realize then how much ridership demand there was between 15th & Pine and downtown, and how little between north 15th and John to downtown, or how much of a hole it would create by reducing Pine east of Broadway to 20-30 minutes. But after the switch I started hearing stories of passengers switching from the 10 to the 11 because it was still near 15th & Pine, and later I started realizing how much I myself went to Trader Joe’s and Central Co-Op and how much it sucked during 30-minute periods. So then I felt that my initial assumption had been wrong and the 10 should have remained on Pine and the 11 either remain on Pine or move to John. Metro apparently got a lot of similar complaints because it did do that in the RapidRide G restructure in 2024.
So I can see how route 545 might need some service if I’m underestimating the burden of Link’s Seattle-Redmond travel time. But even then I don’t see how it could need 10-minute service midday. If people don’t want to wait for a 30-minute or peak-only 545, they can take Link, which they’ve never been able to so far.
The 544 as far as I know is either a suspended route or just a planning concept that was never implemented, so it’s not coming back and you don’t have to delete it. Or am I missing something?
Someone made a Link light rail speed map that’s kinda cool. On the left side, under infrastructure, you can select for things like stations, grade crossings, etc. Not sure why it’s not showing grade crossings or traffic lights on East Link.
https://muni-speed-map.vercel.app/?city=Seattle
Given that Rainier Valley and Beacon Hill won’t be getting late night service from the airport via ST 570, do you think ST timed the 570 to optimize transfers to/from the 7 and 36?
The 570 arrives at CID from the airport at :17 and :47 past the hour. The southbound 7 leaves 5th & Jackson at 12:44am, 1:14, 1:44, 2:14, 3:14, (27- 57 minute wait times). The 36 leaves 5th & Jackson at 12:36am, 1:24, 2:24, 3:21 (4-19 minute waits).
In the other direction, the connection times are more convenient because there are 570 departures from 2nd & Jackson at :26 and :56. But still, the arrival times of the 7 and 36 will often just miss the departure times of a 570 by only a few minutes.
The connections to/from the 36 are better than the connection with the 7, but neither is real convenient. Particularly when you consider the ambiance of CID (or downtown as a whole) between 1 and 4 am.
I think ST isn’t even aware that riders from Rainier Valley and Beacon Hill are getting the shaft for late night airport trips. That’s the only rational justification I can imagine to be honest. I would vastly prefer the current set up (trains arriving to South Seattle stations until ~1 AM with no good service after that) to the proposed set up of trains stopping around midnight, followed by a bus that expresses past the entire south end for an untimed transfer downtown in the wee hours.
Even with a perfectly timed transfer, the service will be a whole lot worse with so much out of direction travel. I’d much prefer the 570 to go via MLK, even if it’d be 10 minutes slower. I’d take 10 minutes slower in exchange for being obviously better for riders. It wouldn’t even have to serve Beacon Hill station – it could be timed with the 36 leaving Othello instead. The only reason I can think that they aren’t doing this is it would cost a marginal amount more, but that just seems silly in the grand scheme of things.
If ST is eliminating the short Beacon Hill runs to the base, will the last trains go going north to Lynnwood and back to SOD and the base? Will they go to Lynnwood and deadhead to the base?
It does seem odd to me that ST would abandon the added runs and deadhead the trains from Federal Way instead.
The only reason I could think of is: an eagerness to close SeaTac station and other stations early. But the last Southbound train arrives at SeaTac at 1:11 am. So that’s not it.
Maybe it’s just a OCD scheduler didn’t like offering incomplete runs.
Anyway, it’s worth a complaint to ST about this. Surely they aren’t laying over empty trains in Federal Way overnight.
There is an abysmal 2-line to B-line connection at Wilburton that will likely get exposed as a bigger problem with the Crosslake Connection.
B line crosses under the 2 line but the westbound stop is about 500 feet east at 120th. The eastbound stop is across the street from the station (have to use the poorly designed bridge and no street level crossing), requires walking through a parking lot with no sidewalk and a few hundred feet west to the stop.
Sure they probably want people to transfer at Bellevue Transit Center but people want to transfer at other points.
These stops need to be moved closer… WB to be at the station, EB at the Burger King/Eastrail.
For my capstone project in Civil Engineering Technology I put together plans and a report detailing a much better layout for the station and the Eastrail pedestrian bridge. The staffer in charge of the project for Bellevue liked the ideas but said getting ST to change was like moving a glacier. Supposedly the bridge was ready to start construction because it had to be in before the overhead wires were installed. That was not the case. It didn’t start construction for two more years and it’s so much lower than even the track level the high voltage wires are not a concern. In short I would have flipped the main pedestrian access to point toward 116th instead of the Pump House Tavern and moved the ped/bike bridge to the east side of the tracks so that bikes coming down the grade didn’t cross the pedestrian path to 116th. The bus stops would then be where the Ped bridge is now. Also there would be station access to the ped bridge w/o having to go all the way down and back up again. The way that station is laid out and the RR connection is truly horrendous. I’m not sure what is salvageable at this point. Only two days worth of data so far for me but that station is by far the least used of all the eastside stations. It’s so pathetic as to be in the category of why bother. This afternoon I watched someone get off the EB train, run across the platform and board a WB train… so I guess it’s good for something ;-)
Agreed. The RapidRide B skipping Wilburton is to me silly.
If some eastern Bellevue rider is headed to Seattle. They likely would prefer getting on 2 Line at Wilburton Station rather than Bellevue Downtown Station. Link can go between the two stations in less than a minute while staying on the bus may add up to 5 minutes. And inbound, there would be no street to cross at Wilburton — unlike 110th at Bellevue Downtown.