All posts by wl

Previously we talked about the pilot route of Sound Transit’s overnight bus service which launched last weekend from SeaTac to downtown Seattle. This article will go over Sound Transit’s full overnight bus service proposal extended south through Tacoma to Lakewood, north to Everett, and east through Bellevue to Redmond.

Overview

Sound Transit plans to run new overnight bus service when Link is not running between about 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., which is slightly shifted from the pilot service which currently runs from midnight to 4 a.m. There will be 3 lines heading north, south, and east of Seattle. All three routes will run about every 30 minutes.

The exact service name, as well as specific routing, stops and schedules are still under consideration, but we’ll go over the existing proposal. For discussion purposes, much of the routing will be assumed based on the high-level map and existing ST Express routes. Sound Transit has been informally calling the routes “Night Bus” which we use. (King County Metro calls their overnight service “Night Owl”).

• South Express Night Bus: Seattle via SeaTac to Tacoma (and Lakewood)
  • Will replace the initial pilot service
• North Express Night Bus: Seattle via Lynnwood to Everett
• East Express Night Bus: Seattle via Bellevue to Redmond

Continue reading “Sound Transit Express Night Bus service”

The highly anticipated full East Link extension will open this Saturday, March 28, finally connecting the Eastside to Seattle and the rest of the metro area. Two new stations will open at the same time, Judkins Park and Mercer Island stations.

The Mercer Island light rail station, located in the median of I-90 just north of the city’s Town Center, will help connect Mercer Island residents to Seattle, Bellevue, and the wider metro area.

(Judkins Park I-90 ramp reconfiguration and Access Guide were discussed in previous articles).

Continue reading “Mercer Island Station”

Sound Transit finally addressed their severe budget shortfalls at the March 18 Board Retreat. The transit agency looked at three different approaches to build ST3. All three approaches investigated involve heavy truncations with some lines being completely eliminated.

Continue reading “ST3 Truncations”

Stride 3 BRT will be the new avenue-running BRT on SR 522 (Bothell Way) from Seattle/Shoreline via Lake Forest Park and Kenmore to Bothell. The bus will run every 10 to 15 minutes and stop at 14 stations.

This article will continue the Stride 3 BRT discussion with the eastern half of the route with Kenmore and Bothell.

The previous article (Stride 3 BRT Part 1: Seattle, Lake Forest Park and Kenmore) discussed the western half of the route with Seattle, Shoreline and Lake Forest Park.

Continue reading “Stride 3 BRT Part 2: Kenmore, Bothell, and I-405”

On February 26, Sound Transit announced the ground-breaking of Stride 3 BRT construction. Stride 3 BRT will be a new avenue running BRT on SR 522 (Bothell Way) from Seattle/Shoreline via Lake Forest Park and Kenmore to Bothell. The Stride 3 will connect the north Lake Washington corridor to the regional rail spine. The bus will run every 10 to 15 minutes and stop at 14 stations. This article will go over the choices for the Seattle to Kenmore segment and review the design plots released by Sound Transit.

Continue reading “Stride 3 BRT Part 1: Seattle, Lake Forest Park, and Kenmore”

The exciting launch of the Lynnwood Link Extension added four new stations connecting Northgate up to Lynnwood City Center. The future Pinehurst (previously NE 130th St) infill station is under construction and expected to open mid-2026. This article will discuss the station itself, bus stops, the new bus Route 77, bike lanes to the station, and finally the station area. Additionally, plans exist for a provisional (unfunded) 220th St SW infill station.

Continue reading “Lynnwood Infill Stations: Pinehurst and potentially 220th St SW”

The full build out of Sound Transit 2 coming close after the December 6 opening of Federal Way Link Extension and the upcoming March 2026 full East Link. This article will go over the a map of transit times and have a brief recap of what ST2 will accomplish.

Above is the Sound Transit Future Extensions Map (Supposed 2024) annotated with transit times using the Chinatown as the 0 minute starting point. Heading north one can reach Northgate in 21 minutes and Lynnwood City Center in 35 minutes. Traveling east one can reach Bellevue Downtown in 22 minutes and Downtown Redmond in 41 minutes. Traveling south one can reach SeaTac in 33 minutes and Federal Way Downtown station in 50 minutes.

Continue reading “Sound Transit 2 Travel Times and Recap”

Metro is studying improvements for Route 60. https://kingcountymetro.blog/2026/01/16/metro-studying-transit-improvements-on-route-60/

The goal of the improvements is to reduce bus travel times by 10-15% during peak commute times. Most of the improvements involve bus stop rebalancing along with some short bus lanes at congested intersections.

Continue reading “Route 60 Improvements”

Earlier this year, Sound Transit revealed updated cost estimates for its major ST3 projects totalling $14 to $20 billion (in 2025 dollars) more than its current long-range financial plan can afford. Over half of that excess cost is due to a massive jump in costs to build the planned Ballard Link Extension, which was expected to cost about $11.9 billion but is now estimated at $20.1 to $22.6 billion. Much of the cost of the project is related to construction of a second tunnel through Downtown Seattle. While advocates have long called for the agency to study alternative routes for the Ballard Link Extension, Claudia Balducci was the first Sound Transit Board member to openly call for study of how the Ballard Link Extension could be built without a second tunnel through downtown. Last week, agency staff presented the results their investigation into the feasibility of two ways to build the Ballard Link extension without a second downtown tunnel: interlining with the current tunnel, or stub-ending underneath Westlake

Two Alternative Approaches to the Ballard Link Extension

The current ST3 plan involves building a new dedicated rail tunnel from Seattle Center via SLU to Chinatown. This new Ballard Line would continue south towards SeaTac and eventually Tacoma.

Continue reading “No New Tunnel Downtown? Sound Transit Explores Ballard Link Alternatives”

WSDOT completed the SR 167 master plan in 2023 for the next couple decades outlining the freeway expansion. Albeit focusing on single occupancy vehicles throughput, the plan did outline constructing toll lanes, building direct access ramps, and running proposed BRT route for the corridor. While this was a study without funding it might still become a reality. Similar to how the previous I-405 study ultimately became the Stride 1 and 2 freeway BRT projects.

Continue reading “SR-167 BRT”