Redmond Link Extension:

• Coverage of the Downtown Redmond Link Extension opening by The Seattle Times ($) and The Urbanist.
• How Redmond’s 1993 Downtown Plan kicked off its urban renaissance, and how it shows no signs of slowing while a new neighborhood is sprouting up around the Marymoor Village Station (The Urbanist)
• What’s next for transit on the Eastside? (The Seattle Times, $)

Local Transportation:

• Angle Lake station will close nightly at 10pm from March May 19 for up to four weeks to test the Federal Way extension connection. There will be no replacement bus; passengers should transfer to RapidRide A to reach Angle Lake station. The P&R will remain open.
• Some bus stops for routes 31, 32, 40 and 62 in Fremont are temporarily moving for water main upgrades and other utility improvements (Metro Matters)
• The Kitsap Fast Ferries will no longer accept transfers or PugetPasses starting October 1, to “align its fare transfer policy with that of Washington State Ferries” (KT Headways)
• A federal judge has (temporarily) blocked the Trump administration from imposing additional requirements on already-awarded grants in Seattle and other cities (The Associated Press). Sound Transit joined this lawsuit last week (The Seattle Times, $)
• SDOT is strategically placing trees in street medians to block unsafe driving behavior (The Seattle Times, $)
• Nathan Vass, author of The Lines That Make Us, is coming out with a new book, Deciding to See: The View from Nathan’s Bus (The Seattle Times, $). Website here.
• WSDOT got two bids to build three new hybrid diesel-electric ferries: Whidbey-based NBBB estimated $1 billion for all three boats; Florida-based Eastern Shipbuilding Group estimates $714.5M for the same (The Seattle Times, $). WSDOT is evaluating.

Continue reading “Midweek Roundup: “Deciding To See”” | 117 comments

Sound Transit operates two express routes between Redmond and Seattle. Route 542 travels inbound from Redmond Transit Center to the University District. Route 545 travels inbound from Bear Creek P&R to downtown Seattle. To celebrate the downtown Redmond Link extension opening on Saturday, this article takes a look at the ridership patterns for the Sound Transit Express routes that currently serve Redmond. These stats are from before the extension opening.

Route 542

Sound Transit Route 542 travels between Redmond Transit Center and University District, primarily on SR 520. In March 2025, Route 542 had 1,256 average weekday boardings.

Continue reading “Ridership Patterns for Sound Transit Routes 542 and 545” | 65 comments

I was going to try to make the opening ceremony yesterday, but I’d walked extensively Friday so I did a shorter excursion in the afternoon. I haven’t heard anything about how the ceremony went, how many people attended, or how full the buses were getting to it.

To compare my trip to normal ridership, usually the 550 in the early afternoon has twenty people, I’m the only one who transfers to the 2 Line at South Bellevue, and the P&R has less than 10 cars I can see. The 2 Line has around 10 passengers in my half car, even in the PM peak. Returning in the PM peak or evening, the 550 has 2-3 more people transferring at South Bellevue, and the bus has 40-50 people on it. Some weekend evenings it’s standing room only, presumably on game days.

This time I left Seattle at 1:38pm on the 550. There were 27 boardings between 5th and South Bellevue. I got off at South Bellevue to transfer to the 2 Line, and twenty people followed. The P&R had a typical 10 cars I could see.

Continue reading “Impressions of Redmond Link” | 70 comments

The downtown Redmond Link extension opens today, May 10. This will extend the 2 Line from Redmond Technology station to two new stations: Marymoor Village and Downtown Redmond. The ceremony starts at 10:30am at Downtown Redmond station. The ribbon-cutting will be around noon, and then train service will start. Between noon and 4pm there will be festivities at the two new stations. At 4pm a “kids’ art parade” will follow the Redmond Connector Trail under the Link track to an after party at the Velodrome in Marymoor Park from 4-5pm.

The Experience Redmond website has lots of information on these and other activities and places to go. It’s worth taking the day to explore downtown Redmond; there are a lot of things there. Sound Transit has a Hello Redmond webpage. Mike Lindbom at The Seattle Times has an article on Redmond”s ongoing transformation.

It will be harder to get to the ceremony than earlier Link openings, because the only frequent bus route to downtown Redmond on Saturdays is RapidRide B. Other express and local routes are half-hourly. A year ago when the 2 Line Starter Line opened, the 550 was packed full every run starting at least an hour before the ceremony to some time after it ended. So if you want to see the entire ceremony you may want to leave extra early.

Continue reading “Welcome Redmond Link” | 61 comments

This article is for comments on topics other than the Redmond Link extension. There will be no Sunday Movie this week; instead we’ll have a follow-up article on Sunday after we get back from Redmond.

This is an open thread.

32 comments

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.

Continue reading “A sneak peek at Redmond Link” | 80 comments

3 days until the Downtown Redmond Link Extension opens this Saturday, May 10! Sound Transit has more opening day details.

Local Transit News:

• Sound Transit staff will present a review of comments heard regarding the Tacoma Dome Link Extension draft EIS on Thursday’s System Expansion Committee meeting (Sound Transit project update).
• With a station near Marymoor Park opening in three days, Sound Transit is reconsidering its “no pets” policy on trains and buses (The Urbanist)
• Were you affected by the recent severe Link service reduction through Downtown Seattle? ST wants to hear from you (Sound Transit survey)
• “From Deadmond to Redmond”; how the upcoming Redmond Link Extension opening is the next step in Redmond’s urban evolution (The Seattle Times, $)
• Will the new Redmond stations fill the seats? (The Seattle Times, $)

Other Transportation:

• When it comes to transportation progress in the USA, what was old is new again (New York Times “Headway” newsletter)
• Architecture firm Perkins Eastman used new data science to confirm old news: people really like walking where there’s stuff to protect them from busy streets (Fast Company)

Continue reading “Midweek Roundup: “Deadmond” to Redmond” | 174 comments

This article will take a look at the per-stop ridership for each Swift route before and after the LLE opened, specifically in August and November 2024. In October, The Urbanist reported a 14% ridership increase in across the three Swift lines. The data from November shows a more modest overall ridership increase of 6% compared to August (adjusted for the number of days each month). A lower ridership increase is not too surprising as transit ridership usually deceases in the colder months. Given the small sample size for this data and usual seasonal ridership changes, take this analysis with a grain of salt. A follow up article in the Fall will take a deeper look at the ridership data from 2024 and 2025.

Continue reading “Swift Ridership with Lynnwood Link” | 65 comments

“They took sledgehammers to sidewalks.” How curb cuts originated. (PBS American Experience)

Big box stores. Why they exist, and how they’re becoming more urban friendly. (City Beautiful) The Target at 6:49 appears to be the one in downtown Seattle.

This is an open thread.

33 comments

10 days until the Downtown Redmond Link Extension opens on May 10. Sound Transit has more opening day details.

Seattle ST3 Project Updates:

• The Sound Transit Board is still nervous about the cost of the West Seattle and Ballard Link Extensions (West Seattle Blog)
• Meanwhile, Mayor Harrell has proposed legislation aiming to cut permit review times in half for ST3 projects in Seattle (Office of the Mayor)
• … and the FTA officially approved the FEIS for the West Seattle Link Extension (Sound Transit Press Release).

Other Transportation:

• Photos and videos from Sound Transit’s track replacement work that finished up last week (The Platform)
• Commute Seattle’s latest survey (conducted in October 2024) shows commute patterns are still slowly climbing toward pre-pandemic levels (The Seattle Times, $). Also on Metro Matters.
• Mayor Harrell announced additional measures to cut the city’s carbon emissions from transportation, including EV chargers and an e-cargo bike delivery program (KUOW)

Continue reading “Midweek Roundup: Nervous” | 134 comments