Old (left) an and new (center) example bus stop schedule for the H Line. (Metro)
Metro has announced a new stop schedule design that will roll out over the next few weeks. This is the first redesign of Metro’s bus stop signage in over a decade.
The primary difference is the how the departure times are listed. In the previous version, times would be listed in rows, with three values per row. Now, the times are listed in columns, read top to bottom. Additionally, PM departure times are now in bold, matching the online schedules.
Unedited video of the speeches (starting at the five minute mark) as well as some of the initial riders (much later in the video). The rest of the video consists of “dead air” and some aerial video of trains and boats.
An elaborate 2001 April Fools’ Day prank in Copenhagen lampooned ongoing construction of the city’s driverless Metro system, which would open in 2002 (Lars Andersen, Wikimedia)
It’s April 1 and today there will be a bigger-than-usual-dose of silliness. Share your favorite transit-oriented April Fools’ Day content in the comments!
Please head to today’s Midweek Roundup for serious discussion.
A temporary community art project accepted the painting talents of any interested attendees of the Crosslake Connection opening celebration (Nathan Dickey).
The Crosslake Connection of the 2 Line was covered extensively by STB and basically every news outlet, so (most) stories related to that are not included here.
Starting tonight, evening train schedules between Northgate and Lynnwood will be adjusted to accommodate construction work at Pinehurst Station. Beginning around 8 p.m., 1 Line trains will share a track between Northgate and Shoreline South, and 2 Line trains will turn back south at Northgate station, so that crews may work near the adjacent track.
During this work, 1 Line trains will operate between Lynnwood and Federal Way, and 2 Line trains will operate between Downtown Redmond and Northgate. Passengers looking to travel further north will need to transfer to a 1 Line train at Northgate.
Sound Transit says riders boarding north of Northgate should expect 12-minute waits from 8pm to 11pm, and 16-minute waits from 11pm to end of service. The agency has not shared when it expects evening service north of Northgate to return to its regular schedule.
When both northbound and southbound trains need to share one track through Pinehurst Station, they also can only serve one side of the platform at Shoreline South/148th Station. This is due to the fact there is no way for trains to change tracks between Shoreline South and Pinehurst. This week, all trains stopping at Shoreline South will use the Lynnwood City Center (northbound) side of the platform after 8pm. Riders boarding at Shoreline South should check signs and listen to station announcements for updates.
As many of you all learned last week, Sound Transit is facing significant cost projections for its Sound Transit 3 projects. Over the next few months, the Sound Transit Board will have to have some hard conversations about the future of light rail expansion in our region. Whether that means deferring projects, station consolidation, or pulling existing levers to find revenue, there is a lot to unpack. The Sound Transit Board will need to make tough decisions on what projects to prioritize, as well as ways to cut costs to deliver the projects promised to voters.
Transportation Choices Coalition (TCC), along with community partners, have organized a series of town halls across the region to help educate the public on what is happening with Sound Transit. These events will feature Sound Transit board members and staff – the folks who make decisions about the future of light rail – answering questions in a structured format. The events are open to all.
On the same day the March service change will go into effect. King County Metro, Sound Transit, and Community Transit will change some of their routes on Saturday. Pierce Transit will follow on Sunday. Metro has a list of route changes and which Link stations they will serve.
Also on Saturday there’s a large No Kings march, and the Mariners opening weekend. Here’s the total large events list:
9am: Crosslake Link speeches and ribbon cutting, Sam Smith Park at Judkins Park station.
10am: Crosslake Link service and the full 2 Line start.
10am-2pm: Crosslake Link celebrations at several stations. (Schedule link above.)
12pm-4pm: No Kings march from Cal Anderson Park at Capitol Hill station.
6:40pm: Mariners first pitch at T-Mobile Stadium near Stadium and CID stations.
To get to Judkins Park station for the speeches before Crosslake service starts, Sound Transit will have shuttle buses running from South Bellevue and Mount Baker stations from 7-10am every 15 minutes. The City of Seattle has a page on getting to Judkins Park station from the surrounding neighborhoods and bus routes. Seattle residents have Metro routes 4, 7, 8, 48, and 106. Route 7 comes from downtown every 10-12 minutes. Route 4 also comes from downtown but is half-hourly and the stop is a few blocks further away on MLK. Route 8 will be on its service-change alignment so it will stop on 23rd at the station.
Go early in case the trains are full and you have to wait a couple trains to get on. From past experience full trains are most likely:
10am-12pm Crosslake (CID through Bellevue Downtown) for the Link opening.
`10am-11am Eastside (South Bellevue through Redmond) for the Link opening.
11am-1:30pm Capitol Hill (U-District through downtown) for No Kings.
3-5pm downtown for going home from No Kings.
5:30-7pm Stadium (starting in the U-District, Eastside, and south Seattle) for the Mariners.
I don’t want to overstate the problem. In the first and last half hour you’re likely to be able to get on the first train but you may have to wait for the second. At the height of it you may be able to get on but you’ll likely have to wait one or more trains within a couple stations of the target. The crowds could be as expected or they could be larger. And tens of thousands of people will want to board Link at Judkins Park after the ribbon-cutting and VIP ride.
Over-the-shoulder shot of the operator cab in the Mount Baker tunnel (Nathan Dickey)
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.
When did you start riding public transit independently? Were there certain pivotal trips that made you more of a transit enthusiast and shaped your viewpoint? What’s the youngest people you see now taking transit independently? The full 2 Line opens tomorrow, which many be a similar pivot point for many people. That makes it a good time to reflect on how we all got into transit.
I started riding Metro in 7th grade in 1979 when I chose to go to an alternative junior high school on the other side of Bellevue that didn’t have school buses. At first my parents drove me and I was afraid to take the bus because I’d never been on public transit before. Would I be able to reach the stop cord and activate it, or would the bus sail past my stop? After several months, I took Metro home from school, and saw how easy it was and and other people from my school were taking it. I started taking it to school every day. My first trip to Seattle was to the Record Library (a record-rental shop) at Broadway & Denny. Then I started taking it to the downtown library, and the U-District for its used record shops and bookstores and friends who hung out there.
