Link Boardings Exceed All Other ST Services Combined

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Link Light Rail continues to knock down milestones rapidly as ridership grows. January-March was the first quarter in which Link had more boardings than all Washington State Ferries combined. However, WSF outpaced Link for the second quarter (April-June) with 6,470,781 boardings to Link’s 5,997,005 for the same period. May was the first month in which […]

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Ending “Vote Splitting”

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Correction and Update: Some have pointed out that instant runoff voting doesn’t mathematically eliminate the possibility of “vote splitting”. They are correct. While it provides a way around the problem, it doesn’t guarantee everyone will fill out all the rankings. I stand by my claim that, in general, it is a solution to the forced […]

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Have You Used Your Democracy Vouchers?

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This is the first year of the City of Seattle’s new Democracy Voucher program, created by the City and passed in a 2015 referendum. You should have received in the mail four vouchers, each worth $25 to a recipient candidate. You can give as many of your vouchers as you want to each eligible candidate, […]

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Next Generation ORCA Will Not Include Day Caps

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The Regional Fare Coordination Board (ORCA Joint Board) has been working toward a new version of the ORCA product to be rolled out in 2021, currently dubbed “Next Generation ORCA”. As part of the new product, London-style daily caps on fares were high on the list of elements to be considered for development, with software […]

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Ride Free Zone Could Save 3rd Ave Bus Ops

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A recent presentation on One Center City / Convention Center expansion construction plans teased the possibility of an off-board payment zone on 3rd Ave all the way from Jackson St to Denny Way Ave, with all-door boarding. King County spokesperson Scott Gutierrez quickly threw cold water on the tease by pointing out that the plan […]

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Link Light Rail vs. Washington State Ferries

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Coleman Ferry Dock / photo by SounderBruce Washington State Ferries just released its 2017 first quarter boarding statistics, revealing another milestone for Link Light Rail: For the first quarter of a year ever, Link Light Rail had more boardings than Washington State Ferries did. Washington State Ferries had 4,960,373 boardings among all its lines for […]

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News Roundup: Better Than Tweeting

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King County Executive Dow Constantine and Metro General Manager Rob Gannon order electric buses for Metro. Photo by Atomic Taco / flickr Governors and mayors must do a lot more than tweeting against Trump to fight climate change and housing crises. Councilmember Kshama Sawant pushes a simple and awesome mandate on landlords to provide voter […]

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Summer Youth ORCA Promo

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King County Metro and Sound Transit are teaming up to promote youth transit ridership and ORCA card use this summer. Both are offering limited-time special discounted fares for youth ORCA card users from June 17 through Labor Day (September 4). The promotion was announced Tuesday. All youth ORCA card users on King County Metro and […]

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Midday 2-Car Link Trains End Today

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From now on, board the third car if you want to avoid crowds like this. Photo by SounderBruce Sound Transit will be rolling out increased capacity on Link Light Rail beginning Monday, featuring twelve 3-car trains from opening of service to at least end of PM peak, seven AM peak-only 2-car trains, and seven 2-car […]

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Memorial Day Weekend 2017: Still No Monorail Transfers

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Monday, May 29 is Memorial Day, and, by 46-year tradition, the final day of four days of the Northwest Folklife Festival. Sadly, the monorail continues its 20+year tradition of not being a free transfer to get to the festival. Ironically, it wasn’t even listed as one of the top four options for getting to the […]

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Virtual Coinlessness & Affordability for Families

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King County Metro is considering a modernization of its fare system, and has gone expeditiously through a lot of public process to get to two final proposals. The results of the second of two non-scientific surveys are available online. Out of 935 responses, 609 strongly liked the $2.75 flat fare proposal, while 147 somewhat liked […]

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Metro Fare Proposals Lack Cash Disincentives

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King County Metro rolled out two finalist options for an upcoming fare restructure Tuesday, as Zach reported: * Option A: $2.75, any time, anywhere * Option B: $2.50 off-peak, $3.00 peak Senior, disability, youth, low-income, and Access fares would not change. Previously, Metro had offered nine options for surveytakers’ priorities for the fare structure, using […]

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Legislature Passes Transportation Budget On Time

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Adoption of the conference committee report on the two-year transportation budget bill, Engrossed Senate Bill 5096, by the House 82-14-0-2 Thursday and the Senate 48-0-0-1 Friday sends the budget bill to the governor’s desk, unusually on time. Here is the text of the conference report bill. Staff analysis should be out within days.

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Seven Regular Transit-Related Bills Remain in Play

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Most bills in the state legislature had until last Wednesday to get voted on by their second house. Budget bills, and whatever bills are deemed necessary to the budgets, are exempt from that deadline. At least two bills impacting Sound Transit long-term funding, Engrossed House Bill 2201 and Substitute Senate Bill 5893, which each merely […]

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House Democrats All Vote Against Sound Transit

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In an apparent shocking apparent betrayal of their constituents who voted to pass Sound Transit 3, House Democrats voted unanimously for Engrossed House Bill 2201, which would effectively lower the ST3 portion of MVET bills from the 1994 valuation, as prescribed in ST3’s enabling legislation, to the 2006 valuation, which would lower the bill for […]

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