Evan Edinger tries the buses in suburban southern New Jersey.
That video got a lot of comments saying why public transit can’t work in the US. So Evan made another video refuting these claims. It’s a comedy.
The second video also refers to his walking to school video, which we covered in September
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Adam (aka AdamDoesNotExist) is at it again, traveling from Washington DC to Boston via only local buses, regional trains, and ferries. Previously we covered his San Francisco to Seattle trip. DC to Boston takes 3 days via local transit, vs 6 hours via Amtrak Acela.
Part 1: Washington DC to New York City:
Part 2: New York City to Boston:
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Top 10 US cities that have become more city-like since 2010. This isn’t the most urban cities, but the ones that have improved the most. (CityNerd)
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What will happen in 2026 in Pugetopolis transit? Here’s a few things off the top of my head:
More events are below in the comments.
Also, what should the agencies/governments do in 2026? Especially things that are politically and logistically feasible.
Alternatives for a Geary Street subway in San Francisco with BART, MUNI Metro, or automated Skytrain technology. (Tomo Tawa Linja)
Wordless 1900-era dream drama. MrWhippler combines Klovn’s ambient song “McKlaren” with a silent movie “In the Land of Nod”. The dream starts at 1:15, a main street inhabited with stop-motion toy dolls and animals on foot and in vehicles. The street is shared by pedestrians, wheelbarrows, horse carriages, tricycles, motorcars, and a double-decker buses. The characters get into street fights and mayhem and vehicle crashes.
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Nate O’Brien moves to a tiny house off the grid on his own rural timber land.
A subway entrance in the woods. (Ambient soundscape by Miracle Forest)
There’s also the mysterious subway station and abandoned subway station. (Miracle Forest) The mysterious subway station is in the Budapest Metro. Can you spot two things unusual about the trains?
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How many trains per hour can fit into one downtown tunnel, both currently and with tunnel upgrades?
Sound Transit’s current ceiling is 20 trains per hour, or one every 3 minutes. With capital upgrades this could be increased to 30-45 trains per hour, or one every 2 to 1.5 minutes, as many other metro tunnels around the world operate. 30 trains/hour is common in many subways like New York, London, Moscow, and St Petersburg. The Paris Metro gets up to 40 trains/hour. Automated Skytrain can reach 45 trains/hour.
The 1 Line currently runs every 8 minutes peak, or 8 trains/hour. The 2 Line will have the same, or combined 4-minute frequency and 16 trains/hour. Sound Transit is currently upgrading the signals in the tunnel to ensure it can deliver that reliably; that will require two weekend closures in January. That leaves a theoretical 4 slots unused to fit within the 20/hour limit, equivalent to a line every 15 minutes.
With three lines in the tunnel all at 8-minute frequency, that’s 24 trains per hour, or a train every 2.5 minutes. That’s 4 trains over the 20/hour limit.
If those three lines are each increased to 6-minute frequency, that’s 10 trains per hour each, or a total of 30 trains/hour. That would combine for one train every 2 minutes. That’s at the low end of the upgrade range, so the easiest to do. It’s also what the tunnel alternatives study seems to be targeting to meet ridership demand in the 2030s and 2040s with more Link lines to more areas.
It’s not that Link can’t go over the 3-minute limit now. It currently runs trains every 1.5 minutes after ballgames, with extra trains in the Stadium-Roosevelt segment, some reversing on both tracks, and southbound trains from Lynnwood coming in between whenever they can. But this level of service throws reliability out the window, so trains come whenever they can. And it wouldn’t be allowed for every day service due to the limited number of egress paths in the downtown tunnel stations currently (elevators/ escalators/stairs).
There are two sets of future tunnel upgrades. One is needed anyway regardless of whether the second tunnel is built, to bring reliability up peer cities’ norm. The other is to increase tunnel capacity if we put three lines in the tunnel or make Ballard a Ballard-Westlake stub line instead of building the second tunnel. Both of these lists of projects are still being identified, but we know both of them involve signal work, and the second involves adding egress paths to Westlake station and maybe others. Other kinds of upgrades are probably needed too, but ST is still identifying them so we don’t know what they are yet.
This is an open thread for miscellaneous transit and land-use topics. There will be no Sunday Movie this week. Instead Sunday will have another Link article, and next week will have five non-Link articles.
The Sound Transit board met today to discuss alternatives to building the second downtown Link tunnel (DSTT2), as part of its monthly board meeting. Video of the meeting will be available in 24-48 hours on ST’s YouTube channel. (Here’s the meeting agenda and webpage.)
Sound Transit did an ad hoc study of two alternatives to the second tunnel and presented the results last week in a committee meeting:
Today’s full-board meeting concluded with no decision for or against the alternatives, but further substantial work on them would require the board to allocate resources and contracts to it.
The Seattle Transit Blog favors the Stub-End alternative over Interline or DSTT2. We also want ST to study making it automated, an automated Ballard – Westlake line. And we’d like it to be forward-compatible with a potential future extension to First Hill, Judkins Park, and Mt Baker station in a future vote.
Boardmembers’ discussion on the alternatives is below the fold.
Continue reading “ST Downtown Tunnel Board Meeting”History of San Francisco’s Muni Metro. (Classy Whale)
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We’ll all be at the Federal Way Link opening today. Try out the new stations. Tell us your experiences below.
There will be no Sunday Movie this week. We’re planning a retrospective article after the event, but its timing will depend on what happens today and whether we can assemble the content by tonight for tomorrow. If you have any video from the event you’d like to share, you can email a link to contact at the website.
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Arlington, Texas (pop 400K) is the largest US city with no fixed bus routes, just subsidized Via app-taxis. (Classy Whale)
See Milan’s transit modes while learning Italian. (Easy Italian)
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Berry Street in Brooklyn, New York. The best urban street in the US? (Fourth Place)
Sabine Hossenfelder, German physicist, is pessimistic about humanity’s ability to cope with climate change. (Sabine Hossenfelder)
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All about one-way streets. (City Beautiful)
Americans have gone crazy for self-storage units. (Wendover Productions)
This is the last of the movie backlog, so future Sunday Movies will depend on if I can find more relevant movies.
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Honolulu’s automated metro had an extension open last month, and a third phase started construction this summer. The video discusses four levels of automation, and the last section talks about how to partly automate Chicago’s Blue L Line. (Car Free Keith)
Toronto’s Eglington light rail project is a long saga. (Andriyas Redel)
Fill out the ST Express restructure survey by November 11th if you haven’t already. Here’s our overview of the proposal and Alex’s alternative.
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There’s an election today. Vote. STB Endorsements are here. Initial results will be available shortly after the 8pm closing time, and this article will be updated then and if there are significant changes in subsequent days. There’s also a New York mayoral election where free buses are one of the campaign issues, and other elections around the country. This article is for election-related comments. Tomorrow will have a general open thread for other issues.
Six elections outside Seattle that could be bellwethers for Pugetopolis: Issaquah, Bellevue, Bremerton, Kirkland, Burien, Tacoma. (The Urbanist)
Continue reading “Election Open Thread”Amtrak is fulfilling its mandate, increasing ridership, getting new trains, and getting better at partnering with states for potential new routes. Cascades is at 9:21; the eastern end of the Empire Builder is before that. (Wendover Productions)
This is an open thread. “Open thread” means comments about any transit or land use topic are welcome. Other single-topic articles are for comments about the article’s topic. All Sunday Movie, Wednesday News Roundup, and Friday Roundtable articles are open threads.
Pros and cons of fare-free transit. (Transit Tangents)
Free parking is always an illusion. The tax break behind it. (Urban3)
With free transit it’s obvious taxpayers are paying for the buses and trains. With free parking, people just imagine there’s no cost to provide it.
Early News Roundup items are below the fold. Monday-Wednesday will have a 3-part series, so the midweek roundup will be on Thursday.
Continue reading “Sunday Movies: Free Transit & Parking”Link is starting a monthly maintenance program, with the first batch of work Tuesday-Thursday night. Here’s an excerpt from the press release:
Buses will replace 1 Line trains between Rainier Beach and Angle Lake stations during late night hours on Oct. 21, 22, and 23 to accommodate planned maintenance work on the alignment. The last northbound train will depart from Angle Lake Station at 10:32 p.m. and the last southbound train will depart Rainier Beach Station at approximately 10:40 p.m.
1 Line trains will then operate as scheduled between Lynnwood City Center and Rainier Beach. For passengers continuing south, 1 Line shuttle buses will operate every 10 minutes between Rainier Beach Station and Tukwila International Boulevard Station. From there, passengers can transfer to the King County Metro A Line for service to SeaTac/Airport and Angle Lake stations.
The same connection will be available for northbound travelers, who should use the A line to connect from SeaTac/Airport or Angle Lake to Tukwila International Boulevard Station where they can transfer to the 1 Line shuttle for connections to Rainier Beach and trips further north.
This is the first of Sound Transit’s new planned monthly maintenance windows. These new maintenance windows are designed to improve system reliability and performance by expanding the overnight maintenance window in target areas. During the extended closures, crews will perform enhanced state of good repair work on the rails, overhead power systems, signals, and more.
A language line is available to provide translation assistance for passengers with limited proficiency in English at 800-823-9230.
Yes, that means a 3-seat ride from the airport or Angle Lake to Othello or anywhere north of it. (1) Take Metro RapidRide A to Tukwila International Blvd station, (2) transfer to the Link shuttle bus to Rainier Beach station, and (3) transfer to a 1 Line train the rest of the way. Vice-versa southbound.
Metro’s route 124 bus also runs between Tukwila International Blvd station and downtown Seattle. If you’re getting off downtown anyway, this would reduce the number of seats to two. The 124 is half hourly evenings so check its schedule first. The 124 does not serve Rainier Valley or Beacon Hill.
Chicago is a vibrant city, not a crime-ravaged third-world hellhole. (CityNerd) Ray rides several L lines and checks out the station areas.
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