King County Metro’s fixed route bus network provides extensive coverage in King County. To complement fixed route service in some neighborhoods, Metro operates Metro Flex, an on-demand transit service. Metro began operating on-demand service 2019 and has used the Metro Flex branding since 2023. The neighborhoods currently served by Metro Flex include: Delridge/South Park, Issaquah/Sammamish, Juanita/Totem Lake, Kent, Northshore, Othello, Overlake, Renton Highlands, and Tukwila. Passengers can use Metro Flex within the same neighborhood, not to travel between Metro Flex neighborhoods.
Mexico City elevated trolleybus BRT line. Elevated light rail would have cost 2 1/2 times more. (TransitWorld)
Scooby Doo and the Goblin King has a YouTube channel with raw footage of several Metro, Community Transit, and Sound Transit bus models in action on various routes.
Lynnwood-bound 2 Line train entering the Mount Baker Tunnel.
Now that the full 2 Line has been running for two weeks, what has been your experience on the 1 and 2 Lines since the first regular weekday (March 30)?
Most people seem to say there’s lots of 2 Line trains, ridership is higher than they expected, trains are slow in several places, some of the slowness was resolved after the first few days, there’s side-shaking (“hunting”) in some places.
I’ve seen 2 Line midday and afternoon trains almost full or standing room only at Westlake, Capitol Hill, and north Seattle. Others have reported the same in the Eastside. Before simulated service, the 1 Line was like that in central and north Seattle. We assumed a lot of people would disappear from the 1 Line when the 2 Line and simulated service started. Instead the 1 Line is as busy as ever, and there are a lot of people on the 2 Line. However, 2 Line trains are 2 or 3 cars now, so people aren’t spread out across 4 cars. Still, off-peak ridership in the Eastside seems higher to me than in Shoreline, Lynnwood, and Federal Way.
I haven’t heard any complaints about long waits. In Seattle “5-minute combined service” sometimes stretches to 9 minutes.In the Eastside I’m guessing 10-minute service might stretch to 15 minutes sometimes, but I haven’t heard any reports of it.
How have you been using the 2 Line, or combined 1/2 Line service north of Chinatown/International District? Have your experiences been similar or different?
Map of intercity routes in the United States (University of Illinois)
The Urban Traffic & Economics Lab at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has created GFTS (General Transit Feed Specification) data and a map of routes from 72 intercity bus operators in North America. An interactive version of the map is available here. The United States is often criticized for its lack of a fast, frequent, and direct passenger rail network. This map of intercity bus routes shows a more extensive system, though one’s experience on these routes may vary. The Northeast, Midwest, and central Florida stand out with denser networks than the rest of the country.
The full methodology for this work is outlined in the study, but it is worth highlighting how the authors defined “intercity bus”. Their criteria included:
Connects distinct metropolitan areas (excludes suburban/urban commuter services).
Tickets can be purchased independently (excludes Amtrak Thruway services that connect between rail trips).
Uses over-the-road buses (excludes many rural and tribal services operated with vans or transit buses).
Operates regularly most of the year (excludes seasonal/charter services).
Previously we talked about the pilot route of Sound Transit’s overnight bus service which launched last weekend from SeaTac to downtown Seattle. This article will go over Sound Transit’s full overnight bus service proposal extended south through Tacoma to Lakewood, north to Everett, and east through Bellevue to Redmond.
Overview
Sound Transit plans to run new overnight bus service when Link is not running between about 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., which is slightly shifted from the pilot service which currently runs from midnight to 4 a.m. There will be 3 lines heading north, south, and east of Seattle. All three routes will run about every 30 minutes.
The exact service name, as well as specific routing, stops and schedules are still under consideration, but we’ll go over the existing proposal. For discussion purposes, much of the routing will be assumed based on the high-level map and existing ST Express routes. Sound Transit has been informally calling the routes “Night Bus” which we use. (King County Metro calls their overnight service “Night Owl”).
South Express Night Bus: Seattle via SeaTac to Tacoma (and Lakewood)
Will replace the initial pilot service
North Express Night Bus: Seattle via Lynnwood to Everett
East Express Night Bus: Seattle via Bellevue to Redmond
The Link T Line in Tacoma will be closed and replaced by free shuttle buses between 6pm on Monday (April 6) until the start of service on Friday (April 10). The T Line will be closed for rail maintenance. The free shuttle will stop at the following locations.
Tacoma Dome: -to Tacoma Dome: E 25th St & E D St -to St Joseph: E 25th St & E D St
S 25th St: -to Tacoma Dome: S 25th St & A St -to St Joseph: S 25th St & A St
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.
