Sherwin joined the blog in 2009 as a young energetic college student. He moved out east in 2013, splitting time between Chicago and Boston before returning to the Seattle area in 2019. He works as a data scientist by day and lives in Bellevue with his wife and three kids. In addition to his passion for urbanism, Sherwin also enjoys geeking out on politics, history, and theology. Regular commute includes the 212, 218, 550, and 554.
Yesterday, Sound Transit invited members of the media to preview the two-station Redmond Link extension, which is on track for a grand opening this Saturday, May 10th. Coming online will be Marymoor Village and Downtown Redmond stations, which will be the first of the ST3 stations to open.
On hand at the preview ride was Dow Constantine, Sound Transit’s new CEO, Redmond mayor Angela Birney, and King County councilmember Claudia Balducci. Birney, in particular, touted Redmond’s embracing of Link, pointing to the slate of new transit-oriented development projects that have sprouted up around the station in Downtown Redmond.
Slain Metro operator Shawn Yim will be remembered by a bus and transit vehicle procession tomorrow, Friday January 10th. The procession begins at 10am, starting from Atlantic/Central Base, traveling up 4th Avenue to Seattle Center before turning south through the SR-99 tunnel and concluding at the Lumen Field Events Center, where a public memorial service will be held starting at 11am:
A memorial service will be held at the Lumen Field Event Center (also known as WAMU Theater) from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Jan. 10. Doors open at 9:30 a.m. Lumen Field is located at 800 Occidental Ave. S., Seattle.
We appreciate the many condolences and all the expressions of support shared with us as we continue to mourn Yim’s death.
Metro is warning that a large number of trip cancellations are likely, given that many operators will be participating in or attending the procession and memorial service. Transit riders are advised to use alternative travel options. More information about tomorrow’s events can be found on the Metro Blog.
Just before 3am this morning, a King County Metro operator was stabbed to death in the U-District. From the Seattle Police Department blog:
Just before 3:00 a.m., patrol officers were dispatched to reports of a stabbing near the 4100 block of University Way Northeast.
They located an adult male suffering from stab wounds to the chest. Police provided medical aid until the Seattle Fire Department arrived. They pronounced the victim deceased at the scene.
Officers determined that an adult male passenger got into a physical altercation with the driver at the intersection of 15th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 41st Street.
The Seattle Times is reporting that the operator was 59 year-old Shawn Yim. The suspect is still at large.
This incident is another tragic example of ongoing public safety issues across the city. Although violence on transit continues to be exceedingly rare, ensuring safe and secure spaces for the riding public should remain a key objective for transit agencies.
Back in March of this year, Sound Transit appointed Terri Mestas to be the deputy CEO of megaproject delivery, a new position that was created specifically to oversee delivery of the agency’s large capital projects. Mestas is a seasoned leader of capital program management, most recently being the chief development officer at Los Angeles World Airports and holding stints at AECOM and CalTech, where she oversaw projects in aviation, national security, and more.
I had a chance to sit down with Mestas at the end of summer to hear directly from her about her vision for the agency and how she hopes to guide system expansion in a period where some missteps have set projects back.
The entire extended interview, edited for clarity and brevity, has been included below.
Northbound train arriving at Shoreline North/185th
On Wednesday, Sound Transit invited members of the media for a preview ride of the Lynnwood Link extension. The extension officially opens on Friday, when Lynnwood will officially inherit the mantle of Link’s northern terminus from Northgate. The completion of Lynnwood Link represents a major milestone in ST2 expansion. The other points of ST2 expansion, namely Federal Way and the 2 Line connection across I-90, will have to wait until next year or potentially 2026 to open.
A full album of the preview ride can be viewed here.
Commenter Lazarus pointed out that Sound Transit has released 2 Line (East Link Starter Line) ridership figures on its dashboard. Although there is no direct filter for a drill-down to just the 2 Line, one can multi-select the East Link stations by holding CTRL (on a PC) or ⌘ (on a Mac).
Four incomplete months worth of data is insufficient to draw out meaningful observations but it is evident that the early novelty of rapid transit on the Eastside slowly wore off through late Spring into Summer. However, it is interesting to note that those declines were largely limited to weekend ridership, which supports the narrative that recreational rides are the ones that have waned the most in number.
When it comes to average weekday ridership, there is a more stable picture. Both May and July featured around 5,800 daily boardings, sandwiching a modest spike in June. Sound Transit’s earliest forecast for the starter line was 6,000 average daily boardings, which was later adjusted down to a range of 4,000 to 5,700. All in all, early performance is within the realm of what was forecasted.
One lingering curiosity of mine has been the cannibalization of other services, namely the 550 and the B Line, given the overlapping service area. Although there is not yet July data for ST Express, 550 ridership has not declined whatsoever since the beginning of the year. This suggests that Link has poached a negligible number of riders, if any, within the short South Bellevue-Downtown Bellevue commuter market.
Following the COVID lockdowns, many transit agencies had to contend not only with recovering lost riders but also ensuring service reliability and delivery. In addition to the pandemic itself, subsequent crises in staffing and supply chains hit transit systems hard. Drivers and maintenance staff were hard to find and spare parts needed for vehicle maintenance were often held up in other parts of the world.
Even as riders were slowly returning to transit, this double whammy meant that bus trips were often getting cancelled either due to a lack of an operator or lack of a bus. Anecdotally, I experienced this a lot myself throughout 2021-2023. Early on, it was hard to find information about what was cancelled and it wasn’t uncommon to find a scheduled trip never end up going “live” on real-time apps like OneBusAway.
Link’s 2 Line had a blockbuster opening last weekend, drawing huge crowds and crush-loads that may not be seen again for some time. On Monday morning, I went out to observe the first weekday of regular service after the opening hype had subsided. I started my journey around 9am at South Bellevue Station (SBS), headed north, got off at Spring District, and made a return trip with a stop at Bellevue Downtown Station (BDS).
A few weeks back, I decided to exercise my freedom in going into the office more than I needed to and commuted downtown on a Friday. The first thing I noticed was how much emptier my usual bus was. Of course, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Friday ridership is down relative to the other days of the week, although none of the local transit agencies publicly report this kind of breakdown.
Many employers now operate a hybrid working mode, with workers in-office some days of the week, and at home the others. The problem is that “hybrid” is a spectrum: some companies don’t require in-person work but provide an office for those who want it, some companies mandate a few days in-person, chosen at the discretion of employees, and some companies mandate specific days in-person. This lack of predictability makes it difficult to plan for the right amount of service across the week.
Transit agencies have already shown willingness to cut trips and even entire routes for being low-performing. But it raises the question: for commuter routes, especially, does an altogether different schedule for Fridays make sense? This would create potentially four schedule categories for routes that have weekend service: Monday-Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
There are some immediate downsides that come to mind:
Schedule complexity: riders might have increased difficulty sorting through the right schedule and not mistakenly consulting the wrong schedule.
Regularity for M-F riders: those who still need to take transit all five weekdays might be unduly burdened by a different Friday schedule. This is particularly true of those in the trades or other professions that do not accommodate remote work.
On the flip side, trimming extremely unproductive trips on Fridays might provide a useful source of hours that can be reinvested in other lines or bolstering all-day service elsewhere, particularly with an uncertain future financial outlook. That said, employment patterns continue to evolve post-COVID so looking at day-of-week ridership will be an increasingly useful tool for planners to consult in the coming years.
Yesterday, I had the chance to join members of the press in a media tour of South Bellevue Station, which will open for Link operations in just a matter of weeks when the East Link Starter Line begins service. As things currently stand, the ELSL will open to the public on April 27th, while the full extension across I-90 is still tentatively set for 2025.
At South Bellevue, the accompanying park-and-ride garage has been open for more than two years and the station itself has been finished for quite for time. However, only recently was tile replacement completed on the platform, which was necessary after quality issues surfaced during the initial installation. According to Jon Lebo, East Link Executive Director, Sound Transit placed full-time inspectors over the replacement work to avoid repeat mistakes.
Operationally, the ELSL has been undergoing pre-revenue testing at the scheduled headways of 10 minutes. Lebo indicated that operator staffing is already at desired levels, with well over 100 operators hired specifically to drive ELSL trains. When the line opens, two-car train service is expected to serve roughly 6,000 daily boardings.
Matt Sheldon, Deputy Executive Director of Planning & Integration, also gave some additional insight into the system-wide service impacts that are anticipated. No immediate service changes are planned for the ELSL opening but once the full cross-lake 2 Line opens, the 550 will be completely replaced, with its Bellevue Way market covered by the rerouted 554. Mike has previously written about the broader suite of changes.
According to Sheldon, Sound Transit is also continuing to look at paid parking options across the system, but the Board hasn’t given direction about specific locations to target. I asked if the agency had looked at updated park-and-ride utilization forecasts, given that many park-and-rides are much barer than they were pre-COVID. Sheldon indicated that no new forecasts have been done (Metro has not updated their publicly-available reports since 2017), but was optimistic that the ELSL will create new ridership markets and that South Bellevue Station parking will gradually fill in over time.
Yesterday, I decided to pick up the Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual (TCQSM) for some light bedtime reading. Okay fine, it wasn’t bedtime reading, but I did read it! At least portions of it. For those who are uninitiated, the TCQSM is the authority on standards, metrics, and methods used for the evaluation of public transit service. It is published by the Transportation Research Board’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) and a common reference for anyone who works in transit in a technical capacity.
I have been thinking a lot about transit recovery in the post-pandemic world. To sum up my previous thoughts:
The old peak-centric model of relying on the 9-5 five-day workweek is gone
Transit agencies can’t rely on employer return-to-office mandates and park-and-rides to save them
The new transit normal will focus more on decentralization but that doesn’t mean less density: stronger commercial and residential neighborhood centers with more corridor growth is warranted
Service reliability is key and requires reliable operator staffing and fleet availability
East Link testing in Bellevue, photo via City of Bellevue
Earlier today, Sound Transit announced that Saturday, April 27th will be the official start date of the 2 Line, which will preliminarily run between South Bellevue Station and Redmond Technology Station. The opening of the shortened segment, also known as the East Link Starter Line (ELSL), is the result of a push by councilmember Claudia Balducci to get some portion of East Link operational after construction mishaps delayed the opening of the full line by two years.
The ELSL will run two-car trains at 10 minute headways from 5:30am to 9:30pm every day of the week. Although there’s not much to suggest there will be blockbuster ridership until the 2 Line is connected to the main spine in 2025, this presents an opportunity to build up an Eastside Link ridership market in the interim.
We’ll be there to cover the festivities on opening day, which will commence with a ribbon cutting:
Everyone is invited to celebrate opening day with Sound Transit and its partners on Saturday, April 27. The festivities will start with a ribbon cutting ceremony at Bellevue Downtown Station at 10 a.m. Link service will begin operating after the ribbon cutting at approximately 11 a.m.
Following the ribbon cutting and throughout the day, all eight of the new stations will feature different activities, exhibits and entertainment. Anyone who participates in a Discover.Stamp.Win activity and visits all eight stations will be eligible to enter a prize drawing.
The south portal at Westlake Station, photo by Oran
One of the major features of the recent 1-Line maintenance was the replacement of the northbound track between University Street and Westlake stations. This segment boasts the sharpest curve in the system, and as a result, the most worn down rails. The resulting wear-and-tear meant a fairly bumpy ride in that section, even at slow speeds.
Long-time transit enthusiasts will remember that the rails in the tunnel are not that old. The original track from when the tunnel first opened was not compatible with Link’s modern specs and was stripped out during the 2005-2007 tunnel closure. Although it’s generally recognized that rails in segments with lower-radii curves have reduced lifespans, the northbound University Street-Westlake curve did not even make it to twenty years.
A month-long reduced service period every 15-20 years is not the worst disruption a system can face, but according to Sound Transit spokesperson John Gallagher, this came earlier than anticipated and should not be an example for the future:
The original rail was installed in 2005/2007 as part of the tunnel retrofit for light rail. While the tracks met specs, there were some issues at the time of the installation. For example, during pre-revenue grinding, the rail grinder derailed and gouged the rail. We welded it to repair it, but this was a problem section of track for a long time. The new section was installed without any problems, so we anticipate that it will have a normal life span of about 25 years.
For now, no other extended Link closures or disruptions are expected in the near-term. With any luck, the new tracks will make it to a quarter-century before the next major maintenance disruption.
With Julie Timm’s departure as Sound Transit CEO, the Board today announced that they will be considering Goran Sparrman to serve in an interim capacity. The Board will hold a special meeting this Thursday, January 11th. From the press release:
“Goran is well-respected for his skill and knowledge in transportation and infrastructure projects,” said Sound Transit Vice Chair and Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers. “He’s a trusted regional leader who would bring a steady hand to an agency with which he is already familiar.”
“In my years of experience working with Sound Transit, I know the staff to be dedicated professionals committed to building and operating the transit system our region deserves,” Sparrman said. “I’m looking forward to collaborating with them as we build on the successes that are coming this year and look for solutions for the challenges that lie ahead.”
Sparrman is well known and has been around the block in local transportation circles. He is currently a VP at HNTB and previously worked both for Seattle and Bellevue in their respective transportation departments. Most notably, he directed BDOT during the Bellevue city council’s tussle with Sound Transit over East Link alignment planning.
Sparrman has a civil engineering background and is a licensed PE, which could bode well for an agency that has struggled from recent construction and engineering challenges.
Sound Transit CEO Julie Timm announced today she will be leaving the agency in order to return to the East Coast to take care of family matters. Since joining Sound Transit in September 2022, Timm has overseen a renewed emphasis on the rider experience as Sound Transit approaches the opening of several new extensions, starting with East Link next spring. Her focus and leadership in centering current and future riders in the agency’s capital and operating programs will benefit the region for years to come.
Timm’s time as ST’s CEO was not long but saw its ups and downs. The Tacoma Link extension to Hilltop opened on her watch and her tenure was also characterized by working around East Link construction mishaps, Link service disruptions, and evolving fare policy. We wish her the best as she moves on and for Sound Transit to quickly find a qualified replacement.
Expanded fare table for ST2 stations based on the current distance-based scheme
Last Thursday, the Sound Transit Executive Committee heard a staff update on a potential restructure of Link fares, likely in 2024 if approved. Link fares haven’t been touched since 2015 and — given openings of new extensions on the horizon — are due for a refresh. Alex wrote about some of his ideas back in 2020, proposing to maintain the current distance-based scheme, but with fares increasing logarithmically rather than linearly.
Most of the Sound Transit staff analysis has come down to weighing a flat fare — as is the case with ST Express — versus retaining the distance-based fare. The full slate of ST2 stations, when open, will total 38 stations, resulting in a whopping 38×38 fare table.
Updates to the ST Long Range Financial Plan (2017-2046) forecasts a near billion dollar decrease due to reduced fare revenue
When COVID hit in 2020, many transit agencies across the country paused fare collection for public health reasons. Even after fare collection resumed, much of it went unenforced, partly due to the socioeconomic complexities of the post-COVID world, and partly due to equity concerns raised after George Floyd’s murder. Since then, Sound Transit has implemented a Fare Ambassadors program, which is much more education-heavy than previous enforcement schemes.
However, some latent consequences of a non or low-enforcement policy continue to beleaguer transit systems. On the revenue front, diminished farebox recovery has led to revenue shortfalls, and on the rider experience front, an increased preponderance of safety and security issues has been linked to fare evaders.
Starting on November 14th, Sound Transit will once again begin enforcing fares on Link and Sounder, issuing citations for repeat offenses. The Seattle Times has the story ($):
The new system has many more steps. Now, riders receive two warnings. On the third time not paying, they will receive a $50 citation, followed by a $75 citation after the fourth. Only at the fifth time will passengers receive a civil infraction, which, if gone unpaid, could eventually result in a misdemeanor. King County is still in discussions with Sound Transit to process the infractions, said spokesperson Troy Brown, but a contract has not been signed yet.
It remains to be seen whether fare enforcement might propagate more broadly across other modes as well. Although Metro has not formally announced any changes to its fare enforcement policy, I’ve recently observed more operators begin to verbally request payment from fare evaders, a practice that was paused during the pandemic.
Now that Sound Transit has paved the way for an East Link Starter Line (ELSL) opening for next Spring, it’s worth deep diving into the projected ridership numbers. At the last Sound Transit Board meeting, early ridership estimates were pegged at a modest 6,000 average weekday boardings, reflecting limited demand until the 2-Line is fully connected to the main 1-Line spine via I-90.
The ELSL, which will run between South Bellevue and Redmond Technology Station, is not directly served by any single bus route currently. Rather, its sub-segments are served by various disparate routes that are a hodgepodge of local and express service:
Between South Bellevue & Downtown Bellevue: 550/556 (Bellevue Way), 241 (108th), 249 (Enatai)
Between Downtown Bellevue and Overlake Village: 226 (Bel-Red Rd), 249 (Northup, NE 20th), B-Line (NE 8th, 156th Ave NE)
Between Downtown Bellevue and Redmond Technology Station: B-Line, 566
The ELSL does serve some existing commuter markets, namely the two corridors between South Bellevue, Downtown Bellevue, and Redmond Technology Station (Microsoft). But it is also serving entirely new markets that are difficult to forecast given the rise of remote work, lack of connection to the 1-Line, and absence of any single precursor service. More on each ELSL sub-segment below the fold.
Dow Constantine’s pitch for a new civic campus redevelopment
At last Thursday’s eventful Sound Transit Board meeting, a large contingent of supporters of the 4th Avenue Chinatown-International District (CID) station showed up en masse, thanks to prompting from community activists and Seattle Subway. Although the Board did not make any further alignment decisions, they did authorize a contract modification to HNTB to extend EIS planning and preliminary engineering for the Ballard Link extension.
Back in March, the Board voted to approve the “North of CID” and “South of CID” station options as part of its preferred alternative. These were relative latecomers to the game: all previous options were centered around Union Station, either at 4th or 5th. Sound Transit Boardmembers cited lower costs and lower impacts from the North and South options, in spite of the loss of a station actually inside the Chinatown-International District and the connection opportunities it would provide.
Two big champions of the North/South CID options are King County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell. A key linchpin in Constantine’s station preference has been the new Civic Campus Initiative, which he announced as part of the State of the County address back in March.
There are sensible reasons for redeveloping the civic center area. Most of the city and county’s key offices are located there and a number of the buildings are dilapidated tokens of modernist architecture. In recent years, the neighborhood has also contended with a large homeless population and street-level crime, particularly around the King County Courthouse.
None of these are good enough reasons to shift a future Link station out of an existing high-traffic hub into other areas merely on the basis of development potential. Prospects for infill TOD opportunities are always tempting to think about, but they wouldn’t warrant the loss of a station that would serve the thousands of existing residents between both the CID and Pioneer Square neighborhoods.
It’s also worth reexamining whether master planning the civic campus redevelopment is even the right approach in the post-COVID world. Rather than concentrating the bulk of key government offices in a single location, newer ways of working might instead warrant decentralizing the city’s and county’s real estate assets. Incentivizing developers to build a variety of mixed uses can help accomplish some of the initiative’s goals while still avoiding an eggs-in-one-basket situation.
But should the Civic Campus Initiative become reality, its success doesn’t hinge on the presence of a Link station right underneath it, especially if it’s at the expense of a much higher-trafficked area. The neighborhood is already extremely walkable: between the original Midtown and Jackson Street locations and the existing Pioneer Square Station, the civic campus would be well served by Link anyway.
Even if the county is keen on ensuring proximity to an ST3 station for its employees, there is no better place than the Jackson Street hub, which is already home to Sound Transit and Metro employees. The substantial amount of buildable capacity in the area also offers plenty of excuses to scratch any development itches that might otherwise be satisfied by the civic campus redevelopment.
Sound Transit is inviting anyone who rode Link during the recent 1-Line disruptions to participate in a survey. Service was reduced between August 12th and 20th to fix sagging tracks at Royal Brougham Way. 1-Line service continues to be impacted due to platform reconstruction work at Othello and Rainier Beach stations.
Service disruptions are certainly a thorn in the side of the riding public, but I commend Sound Transit for taking the step to solicit feedback. Even if disruptions can’t be avoided, they can be mitigated by a sound communications strategy.
