As Sound Transit has done several times before, it is shutting down the 1 Line between SODO Station and Capitol Hill Station this weekend, for maintenance work.
A free bus bridge will run from SODO Station To Capitol Hill Station, serving temporary stops at the stations in between. However, this time, the bus bridge will run only every 15 minutes.
King County Metro put out a web news release to the public on the possibility of snow this weekend, and how to be prepared to travel in it.
This is an open thread.
This is an open thread.
This is an open thread.
The recent bus service change that coincided with the extension of the 1 Line to Northgate Station altered Seattle-Everett service in a clunky way. Riding between Everett and Seattle during off-peak hours and in the reverse-peak direction during peak hours now involves transferring between Sound Transit Express 512 and the 1 Line at Northgate Station. Peak-direction travel goes directly between Everett and downtown Seattle on ST Express 510, with no peak-direction route during peak hours between Everett and Northgate.
Going southbound on a weekday, route 510 leaves Everett Station at 4:13, 4:30, 4:42, 4:55, 5:17, 5:32, 5:48, 6:04, 6:18, 6:33, 6:50, 6:58, 7:14, 7:45, and 8:17 am. Route 512 starts up at 8:37 am, runs roughly every 10 minutes until 1:56 pm, then runs roughly every 16 minutes until 5:56 pm, then runs roughly every 20 from 6:19 to 9:02, then spreads out to 30 minutes with the last 512 heading south at 11:20 pm, with plenty of time to spare to catch the last southbound train of the evening.
Going northbound on weekdays, route 512 leaves Northgate every 12-16 minutes from 5:05 to 9:33 am. Then it hits its every-10-minutes stride at 9:49 am, which lasts until 2:49 pm. Then, route 512 disappears until 7:11 pm, at which point it starts running roughly every 10 minutes again, until 10:29. Frequency starts decreasing, until riders catch route 512 from the last northbound train of the day at 12:48 am.
During afternoon peak, route 510 starts northbound trips from 4th Ave & S Jackson St ca. every 16 minutes 2:30-6:53 pm.
With some clever scheduling, commuters heading back to Everett during afternoon peak could have a bus leaving Northgate Station for Everett waiting for them every 8 minutes.
Continue reading “Improving connectivity and frequency to Everett”This is an open thread.
This is an open thread.
It may have snuck up on you, but today is election day. Ballots are due in drop boxes by 8 pm sharp.
There are a lot of drop boxes, including several very close to 1 Line stations. There are also a few Vote Centers where you can register to vote if you have not already, and vote privately on one of the accessible electronic voting machines.
STB did not do an endorsement process this time, but there are plenty of other groups that did, including:
… and many others. That’s probably more than you have time to read today. 8 pm sharp. Get your ballot in.
As I was boarding a bus a few days ago, I saw a young gentleman sitting close to the middle of the bus, maskless. I pulled a mask out of the dispenser at the front of the bus, walked back to the gentleman, and handed the mask to him. He thanked me and put it on.
Then, I caught the 1 Line. I sat in the fourth car, per usual, to be in the least-populated part of the train. A maskless gentleman claimed a standing position a few feet away from me. I got up and headed toward the raised seating section at the end of the car, where there is a 50/50 chance of being a mask dispenser. Unfortunately, this car’s dispenser was on the far side of the traincar, and the maskless guy was standing between me and the dispenser. So, I settled for keeping my distance from the guy.
Continue reading “To reduce masklessness on trains, add more dispensers”This is an opening thread.
Those of you who have been riding Link Light Rail lately may have noticed some changes to the signage at each station, in preparation for the opening of University District, Roosevelt, and Northgate Stations on October 2. Among other changes, each station has a list of fares specific for trips from that station to each of the other stations, now including the three new stations, grouped by fare amount.
Two of the new trip pairings will charge a new top fare of $3.50:
The full new fare chart can be found here.
Listing all station pairings by fare, from north to south, would look like this:
Continue reading “Welcome to $3.50 fares on some Link rides”
The deadline for candidates to withdraw their filings for the races for mayor, city attorney, and city council positions 8 and 9 passed Monday.
For those who have been wishing to have a simple list of links to the candidates’ position pages, here ya go:
Henry Clay Dennison (no website found)
Brian Fahey (no website found)
George Freeman (no website found)
Jesse James (no website found)
Bobby Lindsey Miller (no website found)
Alexander White (no website found)
Kenneth Wilson (no website found)
Lindsay McHaffie (no website found)
Rebecca Williamson (no website found)
This is an open thread.
MedCram, a series produced by Kyle Allred, has done over 120 updates on COVID-19, featuring Dr. Roger Seheult, including comparing the Pfizer, Moderna, and AstroZeneca-Oxford vaccines, and their outcomes, along with advice on what to do if you test positive for the virus.
As the snow continues to blanket the region, it is high time we finally discuss a rather heated issue.
Long-time transportation reporter Mike Lindblom at The Seattle Times offered this twish last winter:
Should the transit agencies follow the sage advice of Mr. Lindblom, or continue past practice? Choose your side.
And, no, you can’t take your mask(s) off while on board. For the safety of everyone around you (and yourself), please keep your mask(s) on. If you are sure you don’t have the virus because you don’t have symptoms, you’ve missed out on the science that many carriers are asymptomatic. Nor does getting vaccinated automatically or immediately confer upon you a 100% guarantee you can’t get COVID-19. If you just have a single standard cloth mask on, most buses have medical-style masks available to layer up with your cloth mask and help you increase your protection against spreading or breathing in the virus.
If you really need to travel, find your local transit agency’s snow info page at STB’s snow info link list.
This is a snowpen thread.
On Thursday, Sound Transit staff presented a revised draft 2021 service plan, which the ST Board will vote on in November.
Three routes have changes in the revised draft, vs. the original draft:
While there is a lot of lost service in the King County Metro network due to COVID-19 and its economic impacts, Metro has nevertheless managed to make lemonade out of lemons by assembling an increasingly robust network of buses connecting to Link Light Rail stations at frequencies that match Link’s temporary off-peak frequency of every 15 minutes. Link’s frequency is planned to be every 15 minutes during off-peak hours, until late evening, likely through 2021. Sound Transit is preparing for a long pandemic. The recent spike in new cases and deaths backs up their pessimism.
The following routes that serve Link stations outside of, or just on the periphery of, downtown have 15-minute off-peak weekday headway. (Link now runs every 8 minutes during the peak period on weekdays.) Unless otherwise noted, they also have 15-minute headway during the day on weekends.
Continue reading “15-Minute Link/bus network”