Community Transit – Seattle Transit Blog

Lynnwood Link Opening Ceremonies

July 20, 2024July 22, 2024 by Nathan Dickey

A four-car light rail vehicle stopped at the Lynnwood City Center station on the first day of full-size train testing on the 1 Line link extension to Lynnwood, July 8, 2024. — *A Link light rail train stopped at the Lynnwood Center Station during service testing.*
*Photo: Peter Bohler courtesy of Sound Transit.*

On Thursday, Sound Transit staff presented the plan for Lynnwood Link Extension’s opening ceremonies to the Board’s Rider Experience and Operations Committee.

At 11am on Friday, August 30, Sound Transit will hold a ribbon cutting to formally open the Lynnwood Link Extension of the 1 Line. Like the opening ceremony of the 2 Line, the ribbon cutting will be preceded by speeches from elected officials, board members, and stakeholders. The first official public ride will take place from Lynnwood City Center Station following the ceremony.

That evening (4pm to 8pm), Sound Transit is planning a Night Market at Lynnwood City Center station and events at each of the stations opening along the line. ST estimates over 350 organizations are signed up to participate across the four opening stations, including performances, food vendors, arts and crafts booths, games, and more. There will also be a commemorative map encouraging participants to visit new each station along the extension.

Lynnwood Link Begins Simulated Service

July 8, 2024July 8, 2024 by Nathan Dickey

Eastside Transit video of Lynnwood Link operations testing last week.

In preparation for its August 30 opening, Sound Transit has begun simulating full service on Lynnwood Link as part of its “pre-revenue” testing. Northbound 1 Line trains will operate as usual, showing Northgate as their terminus. However, electronic signage on northbound 1 Line platforms will show the incoming trains as bound for Lynnwood.

Riders will be asked to leave the train at Northgate, then the whole train will continue north to simulate full-frequency service. Riders hoping to continue to Lynnwood will have to transfer to Sound Transit’s Route 512 until the extension opens.

Southbound trains will only accept passengers from the southbound side of platform once they arrive empty from Lynnwood, a welcome change from the previous arrangement of departing trains accepting passengers from whichever side of the platform the train happens to be waiting.

However, current riders don’t have to wait until August 30 to start seeing changes to Link.

Exploring a Hydrogen-Fueled Future

May 22, 2024June 3, 2024 by Nathan Dickey

Community Transit’s hydrogen-powered bus, the first of its kind in the Puget Sound region. Photo from Community Transit.

Community Transit announced Monday afternoon that it has taken delivery of a “fuel cell electric bus” (FCEB), stating it’s the first of its kind in the Puget Sound region. The hydrogen-powered bus was made by New Flyer and is part of a pilot program to assess potential vehicles as Community Transit works towards replacing 30% of its 260-bus fleet (78 buses) to zero-emissions vehicles by 2030. Community Transit’s Zero Emission Bus Transition Plan (pdf) details how they aim to achieve a transition to 100% zero-emission vehicles by 2044.

In addition to the fuel cell bus, Community Transit also recently took delivery of its first Battery Electric Bus (BEB), which was built by Gillig. Everett Transit started testing battery buses in 2020, and as of 2023, 15 of its 45 buses are BEBs (pdf).

Swift picks a Link extension

June 8, 2020June 9, 2020 by Martin H. Duke

After almost four months of consideration, Community Transit announced that it has picked the route to extend the Swift Blue Line to intersect with Link. It will maintain a stop at Aurora Village Transit Center, as shown above. Alternatives would have continued on Aurora, skipping the transit center.

Meridian is a residential street less likely to experience traffic. Survey respondents prioritized “maintaining bus-to-bus connections at Aurora Village Transit Center.” However, most, but not all, routes that serve the Transit Center would still have had easy transfer points had Swift continued on Aurora. It’s ultimately hard to gauge the transfer opportunities until Metro chooses a service plan after Lynnwood Link.

Moreover, an Aurora Avenue/185th routing would have been more direct, used existing and planned BAT lanes, served a wider variety of land uses, and conveniently connected them to the Link station. Some of these benefits assume that CT would place relatively expensive Swift stations to serve riders to which it is not accountable.

While the relative travel times with 2024 traffic patterns are uncertain, it appears the speed advantages of an Aurora alignment are more likely to be more important for future CT riders than the transfer opportunities, despite the survey conclusion. While by no means a catastrophe for anyone, most future riders are likely to regret this decision.

PSRC assigns federal funds to Link and four BRT projects

July 17, 2018July 17, 2018 by Peter Johnson

Boarding Swift and RapidRide buses. Credit: Atomic Taco

On Thursday, the Puget Sound Regional Council’s (PSRC) Transportation Policy Board (TPB) recommended that five transit projects receive additional Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) funding in 2021-22.

The projects were part of a larger disbursement of federal transportation funds, including highway funding, which must be approved in a meeting of the PSRC’s Executive Board on July 26. Area agencies submitted proposals for a competitive bid process earlier this year.

PSRC staff selected the five projects from that group of proposals, and created an additional list of projects, including Rainier RapidRide and Colman Dock, that could receive funding should additional federal funds become available.

Three of the five projects did not get as much funding as they initially requested. Four of the five projects are for BRT, and East Link also got a boost. According to PSRC spokesperson Rick Olson, that’s because the funding competition was remarkably popular. Bidding agencies worked together to make sure that funding dollars could be used to the furthest possible extent.

“The projects that got less funding than requested this round voluntarily took cuts in order to get more projects funded,” Olson says. “We had far more funding requested than was available.”

Link in Redmond

The segment of East Link between Microsoft and downtown Redmond gets $7 million towards the Microsoft and Redmond stations and the guideway between them. According to Sound Transit’s presentation to the PSRC on the project, the Redmond funds will also be applied towards a cycle track near the downtown Redmond station, a bike and pedestrian bridge over Bear Creek, and several trail connections.

Community Transit’s Swift Orange line

Continue reading “PSRC assigns federal funds to Link and four BRT projects”

A Do-over for Whom, Tim Eyman?

July 24, 2017July 23, 2017 by Lizz Giordano

Eighteen years ago, anti-tax activist Tim Eyman decimated funding for public transit with his first $30 car tab initiative, which eliminated the motor vehicle excise tax (MVET).

His latest initiative, I-947, once again proposes to replace the current MVET with a flat $30 car tab fee. The initiative is estimated to cost Sound Transit between $6.9 billion and $8.1 billion. By Permanent Defense’s count, this is Eyman’s sixth attempt to kill funding for transit.

Currently, car owners pay several different fees depending on where they live when renewing vehicle tabs. The Department of Licensing provides a calculator to estimate vehicle tab fees.

Everyone in the state pays a standard fee of $38.75 plus a weight fee which helps fund highway maintenance and construction projects, the Washington State Patrol and the Washington State Ferries.
Local jurisdictions have the option of charging car owners an additional fee by forming a transportation benefit district. These districts are allowed to collect up to $20 a year without voter approval, or up to $100 if approved by voters. Approximately 50 cities have established transportation benefit districts around the state. Seattle collects an $80 fee to expand bus services and distribute bus passes to middle and high school students through the Youth ORCA program.
Car owners living in the Sound Transit taxing district pay an additional fee. With the approval of the ST3 package, the MVET rate increased from 0.3% to 1.1% of the assessed value of the car.

If I-947 passes it would roll back the standard fee to $30 and eliminate all MVET. It would end weight fees imposed by the state government, transportation benefit districts fees and all car tab taxes helping to fund Sound Transit, according to the initiative’s website. Under the initiative, car owners would pay a $30 annual fee. Weight fees and TBDs could be restored by voter approval.

The initiative would also eliminate a 0.3% tax on retail car sales that funds the state’s multimodal account. This account provides grants for regional mobility, rural mobility, special needs, and vanpools.

Although I-947 eliminates the only MVET in the state, it also requires any future MVET to use the Kelley Blue Book value to compute the tax. As Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon explained on STB, this technique cannot be bonded against and effectively rules it out as a funding tool for major capital projects.

Continue reading “A Do-over for Whom, Tim Eyman?”

51 New Double Talls Coming to Puget Sound

January 28, 2016January 29, 2016 by Tim Bond

51 new buses–with options of up to 92 more–are soon coming to the Puget Sound. Sound Transit recently released a Request for Proposals for a joint procurement of double deck transit buses. This joint procurement includes Sound Transit, who currently operates five double deck buses; Community Transit, who operates 45; and Kitsap Transit who evaluated one last year. Presumably Kitsap Transit’s testing went well, despite a driver’s inadvertent attempt to wedge it underneath the overhang at the Bremerton Ferry Terminal.

All three agencies have used the Alexander Dennis Enviro500, which is one of the few double deckers is currently able to meet the contract’s stipulation of the FTA’s “Buy America” regulations, stating that the vehicles must be assembled in the United States and be assembled with 60% domestic content.

Four of the vehicles being purchased by Sound Transit are funded with a Washington State Regional Mobility Grant, and the first 16 vehicles ordered by Sound Transit will hit the streets no later than July 1, 2017. Schedules for Community Transit and Kitsap Transit will depend on contract negotiations.

While the RFP does not specify which routes each agency plans to run them on, based on past usage they can be expected to run on commuter routes.

If you’re looking for some weekend reading, the 272 page RFP details nearly every aspect of every component of the vehicles.

North by Northwest 66: Go Try Out Community Transit’s Trip Calculator…

June 17, 2015 by Joe "AvgeekJoe" Konzlar

Figure you might want to consider calculating the cost of your commute sometime. Might be a good idea to use the Community Transit trip calculator to do so.

Also, listen I hate rude people okay, but unless you want to buy up a tiny but sporty Toyota Yaris like a relative did for a while, maybe you should save money and Dump the Punp.

View post on imgur.com

My Toyota Yaris photo from my amateur photography days – pardon the low quality

Or you can get a Ford Focus…

https://flic.kr/p/oXDNBV
Flickr photo by Ford Europe used under noncommercial license

Or you can really think long and hard about your transportation choices versus the money you’d be saving. About 30 miles per gallon going from Mukilteo to Seattle in a small car like the above is the tipping point back in favor of the car over the bus…

Up to you. I so prefer the view from King County Metro 124… and riding what I see below when I’m in Seattle:

My photo

It’s your money. Give the cost calculator a go.

NORTH BY NORTHWEST 65: FUTURE OF FLIGHT DEFEATED IN GETTING IMMEDIATE TRANSIT SERVICE

June 14, 2015 by Joe "AvgeekJoe" Konzlar

My Aerial Photo: The Future of Flight W/ A Dreamlifter Nose Sticking Through…

Well folks, it is my displeasure and sadness to report that any short-term fix to the Future of Flight getting transit service is a nonstarter. Last week, I learned Community Transit has vetoed changing Community Transit Route 113 to support the Future of Flight due to scheduling concerns and inconveniencing local Community Transit users for international Future of Flight visitors. This defeat of getting public transit services to the Future of Flight however in the short term is ultimately because the better argument won inside Community Transit; and I accept full and total responsibility for the failure to succeed this time around.

I acknowledge the difficulty of asking a transit agency to change a transit schedule broadly advertised and should be reliable to the taxpayers to magically change a community’s main route to service a major tourist-powered economic engine. A proposal that the Mayor of said community was apprehensive about in a North by Northwest Big Interview.

Some will ask, “Why not Everett Transit?” Believe me, I have. I went to the Everett Transit August 2015 Service Change Proposal public meeting at Thursday, April 16, 2015 where senior Everett Transit leaders and I discussed potential options for the Future of Flight. One option thoughtfully proposed was an express shuttle linked to Everett Station. One option frankly is insulting – and that’s the Everett Transit Planner’s demand of direct Future of Flight funding for Everett Transit service as if magically the nonprofit Future of Flight can write a check. I also learned at this meeting from the Everett Transit Planner that hourly Everett Transit service to Boeing’s Paine Field factory and even with three Boeing employees helping get Boeing employees to choose transit first was not going so well so there’s understandable Everett Transit reluctance to further service Paine Field. One would hope the Everett Mayor will listen rationally to Everett Transit staff before further championing light rail to Paine Field without firing Everett Transit professionals championing data-based contrarian viewpoints.

Speaking of comments, let me be clear, read carefully trolls: To lob from the dark corners of the room the hecklers’ veto and snipe at a major nonprofit doing good works is a classless disgrace and speaks volumes about how some transit advocates misperceive their role. Make no mistake, I am confident other nonprofits who need transit service are going to keep their hands down and point to your sniping as a reason why not to ask for help. Running a mostly positive campaign clearly has less weight than that of anonymous coward internet trolls sniping because some people are unhappy with their transit service levels now means less transit for all. Some heckler’s veto to celebrate.

That said this is all in the past. There is one good option left not just for the Future of Flight but also for giving Mukilteo a fair slice of transit service.

If we can get the City of Mukilteo City Council to please pass a resolution as a part of this Community Transit levy lift to request a bus route from 84^th Street & Mukilteo Speedway to Seaway via Future of Flight so as to link Seaway Transit Center to the Mukilteo Multimodal Terminal in 2020 & the City of Mukilteo… but this route request requires Mukilteo community support, a bold investment of the City Government of Mukilteo’s political capital, and Community Transit to get its levy lift at the ballot box.

Arguably best to get the Seaway to Mukilteo connection is via commenting on the 2016 Transit Development Plan (TDP) for Community Transit. In a recent public records request, Community Transit’s Public Records Officer wrote, “The full text of each comment received was provided to board members, initially to the board committee reviewing the plan, and then to the full board. Comments were discussed in the context of the plan. The final adopted plan includes the full text of each comment.” When asked to share route planning for the Seaway Transit Center, Community Transit also replied, “There is no specific route planning for the transit center at this time. It’s too early in the process.” Therefore a letter from the Mukilteo Mayor coupled to a Mukilteo City Council Resolution would certainly influence Community Transit’s “route planning”.

I will conclude with the genuine concern I have a Community Transit levy lift is going to require transit advocate enthusiasm to win. I know many share my fear a Sound Transit 3/ST3 package that rewards Seattle/North King insufficiently will not be pushed over the top. So I legitimately fear a Community Transit levy lift transit package that insufficiently excites Mukilteo and Everett will ultimately fail.

Over to hopefully thoughtful comments at 777 words…

Programming Notes: Tomorrow I will post a North by Northwest View 18: What Should I Ask North by Northwest Transit Agencies about…

Also since I am no longer able to edit what’s posted to Seattle Transit Blog and writing this post is rather emotional for me, I drafted in Microsoft Word. I encourage other Page Two writers to do the same.

North by Northwest 64: Update on Paine Field…

June 4, 2015 by Joe "AvgeekJoe" Konzlar

My aerial photo: Here in Nikon D5300 Miniature Mode is Historic Flight Foundation at 10 AM On Paine Field Aviation Day at 10 AM^

Figure since many of you in the Seattle Transit Blog comments have some concerns about future Paine Field transit service and in particular light rail… let me give you some updates:

Beacon Publishing is doing a survey on transportation with emphasis on the proposed Paine Field passenger terminal. Some would say supporting a commercial terminal at Paine Field means supporting light rail to Paine Field…
Today, and I’m sure this will be covered more thoroughly on Page One, Sound Transit has a new website for ST3. One part is a survey on what projects for ST3. If you have an agenda you want to accomplish or help accomplish*… vote and ditto at the upcoming meetings where other local transit agencies will also participate such as the 18 June meeting at Everett Station which I will attend.
The Everett Herald kindly posted an update on conversations the Future of Flight and Community Transit are having about weekend transit service to Future of Flight as an initial hydration to the transit desert. As I said to the Everett Herald, “The Future of Flight deserves a fair slice of service and this is a significant step in that direction.” I don’t think light rail is that “fair slice of service” any longer but feel the Future of Flight, the #1 tourism destination for Snohomish County with 777.8 daily visitors – many of which international who rely on mass transit back home – needs a “fair slice of service”. Another option I am now proposing is for that “fair slice of service” being an express bus route from Seaway Transit Center at the east end of the Boeing Paine Field campus to Future of Flight and then Community Transit Route 113…

There you go.

—FOOTNOTES—

^Yes, I write long photo titles :-). I also wanted an aerial photo that showed more than the Future of Flight. Below Historic Flight Foundation/HFF will be a major park & ride in a few years.
*Help accomplish like light rail to Ballard, I just expect support for more, better bus service to all Paine Field tenants in return from you commentors.