The Crosslake Connection of the 2 Line was covered extensively by STB and basically every news outlet, so (most) stories related to that are not included here.
- In 2018, Claudia Balducci told The Stranger that East Link (now the 2 Line) would not turn Bellevue into the next Williamsburg. Eight years later, Balducci reflects on how she was “sort of right and sort of wrong” (The Stranger)
- Highland Park Bikelash Presents Early Test for Katie Wilson’s SDOT (The Urbanist)
- “Urbanist Dad” Ron Davis is running for WA House of Representatives in North Seattle (PubliCola)
- Man describes moments he stopped out-of-control Metro bus (The Seattle Times, $)
- Community Transit offers classes in how to use public transit for adults and kids (Cascade PBS)
- Path Clears for Bainbridge Affordable Housing Project After Appeal Dismissal (The Urbanist)
- The Joy of Numbered Streets (Human Transit)
- How to fix the broken gas tax (StreetsblogUSA)
- Seattle Advances Four Pilot ‘Low-Pollution Neighborhoods’ (The Urbanist)
- RapidRide I Line construction update (Metro Matters)
- SDOT will install a new mix of temporary barriers at Pike Place to see what works and what doesn’t (SDOT Blog)
This is an Open Thread. April Fools’ Day bits should be shared to the Foolish Roundup post. Off-topic and uncivil comments will be moderated.
Reading the Balducci interview, she says this:
“But culture is alive in Bellevue. Light rail now links the entire region to the BelRed Arts District, which has the highest concentration of arts and cultural businesses, organizations, and artists east of Lake Washington.”
I’ve ridden through Bel-Red a couple times, but I’ve not seen anything but car dealerships, warehouses and light industrial. Let’s say I got off the train at that station, where would I go to find it? (This is, to be clear, a good-faith question, because I think the idea of an arts district is interesting and worth checking out.)
Here’s the info page for the BelRed Arts District, with a net map where all these organizations are housed: https://belredartsdistrict.org/discover
Thanks!
It seems to mostly be a bunch of classes for kids. There’s nothing wrong with that, but calling it an “arts district” is bit of a stretch.
If you want an interesting little arts district that’s sorta accessible by transit, but a bit of a slog from Seattle:
La Conner has a bunch of interesting little galleries and eccentric stores. And a couple of art museums. Skagit Transit 615 from Mt Vernon.
Guys, I’m the first person in the world to upload the full CT 111 to YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8yTPE-PtKs
Mike Orr, PLEASE CONSIDER THIS FOR A SUNDAY MOVIE!!!
How did you leave Brier after post-video, walk to nearest CT 112 stop?
“How did you leave Brier after post-video, walk to nearest CT 112 stop?”
Yes I did, it wasn’t a cow for me to walk to the 112 so I decided to take the 111 to Brier in the PM since I kept promising myself I would do it in the AM but speaking of that walk to Brier Rd from 44th and the transfer at Mountlake Terrace.
Anyways what did you think of the video?
I assume your request of Mike is an April’s fool joke?
The last I looked 111 only runs twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon. Obviously not very useful. It is also much slower than riding a bike from Brier city hall to MLT transit center, particularly since a bike can use the “secret” 236th street pathway. City hall is as far as they could probably run going east, continue further and 228th become Atlas and Barker, which do a very steep winding downhill to Locust. Fun on a bike or motorcycle, but I wouldn’t want to be the bus driver going down that!
RapidRide “I-Line”… not to be confused with the “1-Line” or route 1. The I-Line is going to appear as “1” on the reader board and Google Maps. Doesn’t help that both the I and the 1 operate in the south end. Metro is utterly inept when it comes to marketing.
It would be slightly better if they make it like “ɪ”, but the rendering they had in RapidRide I Line newsletter (September 2025)
is not good. People unfamiliar with the service will really having issue asking about the service.
At least ST abandoned using colors with a color’s first letter inside a colored ball! We could have had a Swift Blue and and ST Blue at Shoreline North today, or a blue B ball with a red B ball (RapidRide B) at Downtown Bellevue, Redmond Technology and Downtown Redmond (and almost Wilburton).
At the time, several STB regulars complained. I’d like to think that STB helped influence the decision to change, but it was pretty widely panned — because it would be so obviously confusing.
I’m not sure why Metro keeps the “I”. The only explanation that I’ve seen is that it doesn’t actually cross the 1 Line. But keeping the 1 Line from ever touching the 1 Line just a little bit to the west just because of labeling confusion seems rather inane.
Make it the (lowercase) ‘ i ‘ instead. Distinctive, and classy-looking, especially if they could violate all norms of transit typography and use a serif font. (Though maybe then some people think it’s an ‘information’ bus?)
The NYC Subway does not use I or O for labelling their services for exactly this reason. We should skip those letters.
The astute observation is that one is clearly a train so confusing them is only a problem if you can’t as Google will clearly not confuse them.
A nice, unannounced surprise in the Spring service change–the 49 is using trolley buses again. Maybe there’s hope for the 2, 12, 13, and eventually, the 48 to be using trolleys.
I did a double take when I saw a 49 trolleybus yesterday! Definitely a nice surprise. Does anyone have any clue why they waited for the service change? I assume they had to de-energize some of the catenary for the RapidRide J construction, but they’re not done with the construction farther south (so clearly they don’t need to wait for everything to be done on Eastlake Ave E) and on the other hand, they’ve been finished with the heavy construction on the tip of Eastlake since the fall. They routinely motorize trolleybus routes with little notice, so I can’t imagine it’s locked to the service change for a base operations reason.
It appears that all Downtown Only 13 trips are also run by XT40 now, so it is only matter of time when 2-13 trips are also run by trolleybus.
The 102 departing Seattle this evening in this order:
– 24 minutes late
– 8 minutes late
– 36 minutes late
Makes no sense. Other routes are on time or reasonably late (up to 5-10 mins). Metro needs to get its act together.
All these blocks have no other trips. Just a single trip. The 8 min late one beats out a bus that is supposed to arrive way in advance.
Is the block info public? Or are you getting it from inside sources?
I assume they’re getting the info from One Bus Away or such.
There was a WSLE town hall last night. I didn’t attend as I didn’t expect anything new to be said (as was the case for previous town halls), but there were some things that I hadn’t heard or realized before.
https://westseattleblog.com/2026/04/video-we-are-going-to-get-to-west-seattle-sound-transit-promises-overflow-crowd-at-light-rail-forum/
– Decision to be made by end of Q2 2026, i.e. end of June.
– Katie Wilson said construction will start in 2026 not 2027.
– Alaska Junction station will be shallower (35ft instead of 70ft)
– Delridge station will be shorter (height not specified). Height seems reasonable based on rendering.
I note that ST is finding many ways to save significantly more money than removing escalators.
I also note that reducing the vertical distance is better for riders — non matter what vertical device they use. It’s however telling that ST didn’t consider rider experience at the outset — and only initiated the design change because they needed to save money.
Finally, as a transfer station, SODO Station will handle lots more people walking around it than any West Seattle station. It still disappoints me that making the station better for riders as well as cheaper to build continues to be an avoided topic.
If there is to be only one station on the West Seattle Plateau, put it one block west of Fauntleroy (at 40th SW) and provide an open-trench walkway from the station mazzanine to the eastside of Fauntleroy. Serve the damn Triangle!!!! Don’t cut the one region of West Seattle where people use transit already off from the trunk line.
And have Sound Transit pay for the extended Mezzanine.
Ian, I was there. You’ll notice in your link all the people wearing pink shirts in support of WS Link? Katie Wilson was also wearing one of the shirts! That was not planned, it just happened organically.
The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-transit. If NIMBYs were there they were keeping quiet. I think everyone is ready to just get the project started, even if it means sacrificing Avalon Station.
What surprised me was how quickly this will be ready to go. Construction could start in 2026 like you said. The Sound Transit folks are riding high off the momentum of the Crosslake Connection Saturday and don’t want to take their foot off the gas pedal.
It’s crazy that the I won’t connect to Link. Send it to BAR or Rainier Beach.
The 101/102 is considered better for getting to Seattle. And with Stride, Bellevue won’t be an issue anymore.
But I do think Link connections are valuable. Particularly for riders who want to go north of downtown. It reduces a 3 seat ride into a 2 seat.