As part of its 2026 Service Plan, Sound Transit is proposing a new overnight bus service in the corridor of the Link 1 and 2 Lines. These routes would also continue to Everett, Tacoma, and Lakewood. These services will specifically operate during the night after Link stops running, and end shortly before Link begins again the next morning. Service is scheduled to launch in the fall of this year, contingent on the ability of partner agencies to deliver the service. Sound Transit is also launching a pilot of this service on the segment from downtown Seattle to SeaTac starting March 28th, with service roughly every 30 minutes throughout the night.

Despite shadowing the Link 1 Line, the overnight service proposal skips 10 out of 26 current 1 Line stations. Intuitively, the reason for skipping so many stops is probably is to keep the bus moving quickly as it heads to Everett or Lakewood, as well as to keep operating costs and staffing levels manageable. Also, considering that Sound Transit is a regional agency rather than a local one, they may be leaning on King County Metro to provide night-owl service within the city of Seattle. However, though some of the gaps are covered by King County Metro’s own night-owl network, there is not as much overnight service along parts of the 1 Line as you might think.

1 Line overnight service, visualized

Here is an overview of current overnight bus services along the Link 1 Line (including a comparison to the proposed overnight service), in the style of Sound Transit’s diagram of alternative routes to Link (click the image to zoom in):

Here are summaries broken down by route:

Continue reading “Current and proposed overnight service along the Link 1 Line”

This month, Sound Transit finally presented its first proposal for Sound Transit Express bus service in 2026. The upshot? Good news if you were worried about your fast bus to Seattle going away. The situation for a large portion of riders (including nearly all south sound riders) will be essentially the status quo, at least as currently proposed, with the following routes seeing no changes proposed (with routes serving downtown Seattle in bold):

Continue reading “ST Express: How 10 minutes could expand your travel options”

In a surprising turn of events, Sound Transit CEO Dow Constantine announced Thursday that he now wants the agency to open the Federal Way Link Extension on the 1 Line as soon as possible, and move its opening ahead of the 2 Line’s long-delayed Cross-Lake Connection.

Continue reading “Accelerated Federal Way Opening”

From June 7th to August 28th, 2025, Pierce Transit will operate its seasonal route 101 in Gig Harbor as the Gig Harbor Waterfront Connector. The service will run from the commercial center in Uptown Gig Harbor, crossing State Route 16, and winding its way up to Downtown Gig Harbor and the waterfront. Fares cost the same as regular Pierce Transit bus service, which is $2 for adults ages 19-64, $1 for ORCA Lift and discounted fares for qualifying riders, and free for children and teens under age 19. Service will run every 30 minutes, running from around 10am to after 9pm (or around 11am to around 7pm on Sundays). That is, on days that it operates, which is only Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. On those days, however, it is a fun option to get around a very scenic city, in the busiest time of the year when parking is harder to find. Locals will find the half-hourly route a relief from the usual hourly service on route 100, the last remaining regular all-day bus route in Gig Harbor. Visitors from outside Gig Harbor can catch route 100 from TCC Transit Center to Kimball Drive P&R and transfer to the 101, or if arriving on a Thursday afternoon, one can take advantage of one of the three hourly trips of ST Express route 595 from Seattle and downtown Tacoma to the P&R. There is also parking available at Kimball Drive P&R.

Operating in previous years as the “Gig Harbor Trolley” using a bus wrapped in the livery of an old-fashioned trolley, route 101 has been a part of summer in Gig Harbor since 2013 (with the exception of 2020 due to COVID-19, and 2022 due to the nationwide shortage of transit operators). While not as big of an event as in past years (where service would run all week with discounted fares sponsored by local businesses), Pierce Transit is keeping the tradition alive while the agency works to recover from the broader effects of the pandemic.

King County Metro announced today that the bus stops on the Montlake lid over SR 520, which are the last element of the Montlake interchange and lid to be completed, will open on Saturday, April 12th.

Prior to 2019, when it was permanently closed for construction of the lid, there had always been a freeway stop on SR 520 at Montlake Blvd. Every bus that took SR 520 through Montlake without exiting stopped at a pair of stops on SR 520 at the outer edges of the freeway. Of the routes that exited SR 520 to serve UW, they served the area in the eastbound direction only with a bus stop on Montlake upstairs. Speaking of stairs, the old stop in the eastbound direction was not ADA accessible, requiring passengers to be able to use stairs.

Continue reading “Montlake Lid Bus Stops Opening April 12th”

Spring is in the air, and with it, changes in transit service across the Puget Sound region.

King County Metro (March 29)

The most substantive changes in Metro’s service change are reshuffling of Seattle Transit Measure funded service hours. There are also bus routes in Federal Way and Redmond moving into nearby light rail stations, and the usual miscellaneous changes.

Seattle Transit Measure service additions:

• Route 8 will see a handful of added trips on Saturdays, and Sunday frequency jumping from every 20 minutes to every 15.
• Route 36 will also get some added Saturday trips and a frequency boost on Sunday, going from 12 minutes to 10 minutes.
• Route 107 is set to gain the most, with 124 new weekend trips. Service on both Saturdays and Sundays will double during the day, going from 30 minute frequency to 15. About 6 trips are also added on weekdays.
• Route 124 will get 1 new trip on Saturdays and 2 new trips on Sundays.
• RapidRide G Line gets 2 new late night trips every day.
• RapidRide H Line gets 5 new trips on weekdays and 3 new trips on Saturdays and Sundays.

Continue reading “Spring 2025 Service Changes”

King County Metro has announced that it is adding a new zone for Metro Flex, its on-demand microtransit service, in Delridge and South Park. Service in the new zone starts Monday, July 22nd.

Metro Flex is a service offered by King County Metro that lets users book rides on-demand within a certain zone. Riders use the Metro Flex app to request a ride during operating hours. The app will direct users where to wait for the vehicle (usually a short walk, typically much shorter than to a bus route), and the service will automatically route drivers to each waiting passenger.

Originally debuting as Via to Transit in 2019, this service began as a way to connect riders to Link stations. After a hiccup in 2020 that completely suspended this service for a time, Metro has expanded the number of zones and piloted similar services in Kent and Sammamish under different names and partnerships.

Since 2023, these services have all been consolidated into one service called Metro Flex, operating service in seven (soon to be eight) zones. The new zone in Delridge and South Park is bounded roughly by the Duwamish Waterway, SW Roxbury St, and 35th Ave SW, except narrowing to around Delridge Way SW in the north, and with a few other cutouts to follow the street grid around the river. Service is available seven days per week, from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Continue reading “Metro expanding Flex service to South Park and Delridge”

Having grown up in south King County car-free through college and beyond, the Federal Way Link Extension (also known as the South Link extension) will bring a level of mobility I wish I had at the time. But easy rail access to destinations isn’t the only thing lacking here. Frequent bus service isn’t unheard-of, but it is pretty uncommon. And that was before 2020, when much of the commuter service to downtown Seattle and the UW (which was, for many people, the only way they used transit) went away. However, with light rail to Federal Way anticipated to open in 2026, there is a big opportunity to really change the way people get around in South King County.

Continue reading “Federal Way Link Restructure Ideas”

King County Metro has started the first phase of South Link Connections, which will be used to determine how Metro bus should be changed upon the launch of the Federal Way Link Extension, which is anticipated to be in 2026. This phase is mainly a needs assessment, where Metro listens to feedback from riders, or potential riders, about how they use transit service, and what changes might benefit them. After the feedback period is over for phase 1, Metro will consider the feedback and use it to develop service concepts for phase 2. These service concepts will be the first glimpse of what the eventual network will look like, and is likely to have different concepts weighed against each other to see which one sees the best reception from the community. In phase 3, we will see what Metro’s proposal is likely to look like, with the only changes from this point being minor changes.

The scope of the project includes routes 156, 162, 165, 177, 181, 182, 183, 187, 193, 631, 901, 903, and the RapidRide A Line, as well as fully suspended routes 121, 122, 123, 154, 157, 178, 179, 190, and 197. This will be the first time metro has solicited feedback on these suspended routes since March of 2021, as well as the first time since intentions to restore them in 2022 all but disappeared as did their numbers on bus stops.

There is a survey up, and Metro is also accepting applications for the South Link Connections mobility board. Mobility board applications are open until May 10th. The survey does not have a deadline listed, but it is most likely the same, as the phase 1 timeline is from March to May, 2024. There are also virtual information sessions on April 3 at 12:00 PM, April 21 at 10:30 AM, and May 6th at 6:00 PM. You will find links to register for these on the South Link Connections website.

Sound Transit is planning for service changes in 2023, and has just released its 2023 Service Plan for public comment. This plan outlines the changes to Sound Transit service that is anticipated for 2023. And the outlook is… bleak.

For some background, you may recall that there were significant improvements in transit service planned in Sound Transit’s 2022 Service Plan. As it turns out, none of the changes outlined in the 2022 plan ended up happening except the restoration of S Line service. This is almost singularly due to the labor shortage (with other contributing factors also to blame for the slip of the Hilltop extension of the T-Line into 2023), which has showed no signs of letting up. In its more detailed draft Transit Development Plan, Sound Transit reports that in October 2021, labor shortages have caused a reduction of 5% of ST service operated by King County Metro, 10% of ST service operated by Community Transit, and 20% of service operated by Pierce Transit. Mitigations included a sudden reduction of ST Express service, and the transfer of route 566 from Pierce Transit to King County Metro. With the labor shortage being persistent through today, there has been no perceptible improvement so far, completely blocking the proposed ST Express improvements.

The service plan

The 2023 Service Plan anticipates more of the same, detailing the mitigation efforts made in 2021 and 2022. The plan tempers expectations of any service increases in 2023, noting that the agency will continue to implement two service changes a year. Service increases are not off the table (seeming to refer to the planned 2022 increases), but this won’t happen until staffing levels are sufficient to deliver on current transit service reliably and without cancellations.

The plan goes into detail about routes with current service reduction, in comparison to the service they would have had with sufficient service levels. This includes routes 577/578/590/594. which have the steepest reductions (running every 30 minutes midday and weekends instead of 15). Routes 566 and 592 are also seeing frequency reductions during peak hours (which is the only time they operate), and the 580 is getting unspecified reductions in favor of route 400 (which parallels route 580 in Puyallup). Also, the portion of route 580 from Lakewood to Puyallup (currently “temporarily” suspended) will be eliminated, leaving SR 512 for the exclusive use of cars once again.

No mention of East Link

One notable omission in the service plan is literally anything about East Link. While we already knew that East Link is likely to slip into 2024, the fact that Sound Transit isn’t even tentatively including it in the service plan says a lot about when the agency is anticipating opening the line. To this, I will say that I hope Sound Transit will break the news as soon as it is certain (starting with the official project page), rather than waiting until just a few months before people think it will open. Delaying the announcement will only frustrate riders and voters more, and is less honest to future riders who may be beginning to plan around the start of East Link service.

The service plan is open for public comment until August 9. So if you have feedback, be sure to fill out the survey before then.