All posts by Sherwin Lee

We’re about a month into the Fall shakeup, where a substantial number of service changes were implemented to improve connections to Link. This is a recurring playbook that Metro has used ever since light rail service began: identify duplicative services and restructure existing bus routes to connect to Link stations rather than running all the way into downtown Seattle.

When Northgate Link opened, Sound Transit truncated many of its 510 series routes to connect at Link instead. After Lynnwood Link, all of Community Transit’s direct services to downtown Seattle were restructured. And with the August changes, both Metro and Sound Transit no longer offer any one-seat rides from Bellevue or Issaquah to Seattle, save for the 2 Line.

Critics of this approach generally lament the loss of the one-seat ride, that trip times generally increase when factoring in wait times, and that Link is not necessarily faster point-to-point than express routes. The Sound Transit subreddit and other various community forums feature countless examples of riders testifying to that end. There is even now a “Restore 554” petition circulating among Issaquah residents, urging the restoration of a direct Issaquah-Seattle route.

The planning justifications for this type of restructuring are quite straightforward: Link provides a frequent high-capacity serve to major regional centers; instead of running costly peak-directional bus service, reinvest the hours into boosting local connecting service. This implementation aligns with Jarrett Walker’s “frequency is freedom” mantra and is generally a position this blog has supported.

Since smashing ridership records following its blockbuster round-the-clock service during the FIFA World Cup, Link light rail has been plagued by a myriad of disparate service disruptions. Just a few days after the USA vs. Belgium match, an open hatch door took down the catenary wire near UW Station, leading to service being suspended in the central core of the system for most of the day. Mechanical issues disrupted trains on July 10th and again on July 20th, when brakes on a train wouldn’t release. Then the following day on July 21st, a power outage resulted in a temporary suspension of service between Beacon Hill and Tukwila International Blvd stations.

In an emailed statement to Seattle Transit Blog, Sound Transit spokesperson Henry Bendon provided a deeper explanation of the recent issues:

Sound Transit identified a hatch door becoming unsecured on a series 1 LRV as the cause of the disruption on Thursday, July 9. After we addressed the disruption and identified the cause, we inspected all similar vehicles before clearing them for service and also changed our inspection protocol. That issue has not recurred and we do not anticipate it posing future problems. 

[The 7/20] service disruption was the result of an unrelated LRV mechanical issue. Service reliability continues to be a point of focus for Sound Transit. Our expanded monthly maintenance window program has dramatically cut down unplanned disruption time, and our incident response times have also improved. That maintenance program – and most of our planned work – was suspended for the duration of the World Cup. It will resume [the week of July 27th].

Although the recent disruptions all do seem to stem from disparate root causes, it appears that the suspension of the agency’s monthly maintenance program during the World Cup may have incurred some latent effects, compounding with existing known issues with the Siemens-manufactured Series 2 vehicles.

In response to criticism of perceived lackluster communication protocols during service disruptions, Sound Transit also highlighted both its digital and field efforts to keep passengers informed in real time:

We appreciate all public feedback and are constantly working to improve our operations and rider experience. In addition to web alerts, text alerts, and in-station screen announcements during an incident, Sound Transit deploys Fare Ambassadors, Staff Ambassadors, contracted security, and our Field Activity Specialist Teams (FAST) responders, all of whom are available to answer questions and who prioritize sharing information to keep passengers informed and moving safely to their destination.

Operators are also trained to deploy messaging informing passengers if a train is not moving for an extended period of time. Of note, operators, especially during a disruption, are monitoring and coordinating with Link Operations via radio, navigating changing schedules and routes in real time, and keeping passengers safe – all while incident conditions are constantly evolving.

Yesterday, Seattle Transit Blog writers had the opportunity to join local media outlets to tour the highly anticipated 2 Line cross-lake connection, which is the final piece that will fully unify both the 1 and 2 Lines as it was envisioned in ST2. The connection will fully open to the public this Saturday, March 28th with ribbon-cutting at 9am and revenue service starting around 10am.

The media preview started at South Bellevue Station, which has already been open for Eastside-only revenue service since Spring of 2024. Sound Transit CEO Dow Constantine opened his welcoming remarks with a lofty prediction: Saturday’s opening is expected to be the “biggest” in Sound Transit history. Longtime board member and King County councilmember Claudia Balducci followed up by highlighting East Link’s long history, both as a “political project” in Bellevue as well as its technical challenges.

According to Craig Delalla, director of engineering and operations at Sound Transit, the agency is well prepared for the opening given the many learnings from simulated 2 Line service. Delalla also noted that revenue service will see a mix of 2 and 3-car consists, with 3-car sets more reliably going out during peak periods.

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.

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.