Tag Archives: transit

‘Better-than-baseline’ — Seattle sales tax would reach 10.7% under Wilson Seattle Transit Measure proposal

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A slide from SDOT’s presentation on the mayor’s proposal planned for Thursday’s council session

With roots as an advocate for investment in the city’s system of buses, trolleys, and trains, Mayor Katie Wilson is pushing for Seattle residents to support a doubling of the current 0.15% sales tax in her proposed renewal of the city’s transit measure and “better-than-baseline” service.

“The Seattle Transit Measure is one of the reasons why the bus is an irresistibly good way to get around Seattle” Wilson said in a statement on her administration’s proposal. “Transportation is one of the biggest costs for most families, so these investments are essential to make our city more affordable so Seattleites can get to jobs, opportunities, and each other without a car.”

In 2020 despite the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis, Seattle voters approved boosting the Seattle Transportation Benefit District sales tax to 0.15% in a six-year package to fund service for the city’s most important transit routes from services operated by King County and Sound Transit. The package also included increased spending over the first four years on increased transit service to West Seattle as the city sorted out how best to deal with the failing West Seattle Bridge.

80% of Seattle voters approved the increase and the six-year package. Continue reading →

A decade later, First Hill Streetcar tracks still dangerous for bicyclists

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(Image: CHS)

By Matt Dowell

For its 10th birthday, the First Hill Streetcar will get a suite of minor safety upgrades from the Seattle Department of Transportation. But a decade after a bicyclist died following a crash near the streetcar tracks, cyclists want more.

As part of this year’s portion of the eight-year $1.55 billion Transportation Levy that Seattle voters approved in 2024, SDOT has promised a number of spot improvements for the First Hill Streetcar:

  • New red paint on 14th Ave S just north of Rainier Ave S to make it clearer to people that they are not allowed to drive in the streetcar-only lane
  • Lighting added to eight streetcar shelters (to be completed before the FIFA World Cup)
  • New pavement markings at three private driveways that cross the streetcar tracks to improve visibility

In addition to those changes, as part of the Safe Routes to School Program, SDOT will make bike lane and crossing enhancements around E Yesler Way and Boren Ave to improve safety for families traveling to Bailey Gatzert Elementary. They will upgrade the eastbound bike lane on E Yesler Way between 10th Ave S and Boren Ave by: Continue reading →

Officials float proposals for cutting Sound Transit costs including canceled stations, parking cuts, and debt

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Officials are floating proposals to cut or defer planned stations, eliminate costly planned parking facilities, and enabling Sound Transit to take on more debt to overcome a projected $34.5 billion funding gap for light rail and expansion plans over the next 20 years.

Seattle officials are hoping the city’s political and financial power will be enough to complete planned expansions to Ballard and West Seattle on schedule even as Sound Transit faces “historic inflation, tariffs, labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and other factors.”

The Sound Transit board and its makeup of regional leaders including Mayor Katie Wilson is scheduled to finalize a list of projects the municipal corporation can afford to take on later this month. Continue reading →

Here is the $4M plan to fix the 8 — including nine new blocks of a bus lane on Denny Way to the base of Capitol Hill

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“I’m so incredibly happy we are finally getting bus lanes on Denny. The 8 is one of the most important routes in the system, it is time to treat it that way. Now lets continue making it better” — @harlander.bsky.social

The mayor’s plan to reconfigure Denny Way to speed the L8 will include nine blocks of a new eastbound Business Access and Transit lane joining an existing short stretch already in place toward Capitol Hill, new turn restrictions including changes for drivers headed to I-5, and safety improvements at key intersections to protect pedestrians.

The work is expected to be completed by August.

Mayor Katie Wilson unveiled the highly anticipated plan to speed up King County Metro’s Route 8 at a Wednesday event in front of the Westlake Whole Foods.

“I promised we would move quickly to make transit move more quickly, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Wilson said in a statement. “I’ve been one of the Route 8’s 8,000 daily riders and I know how frustrating it can be when buses are stuck in traffic – and you’re stuck wondering if you’re ever going to get to your destination. That’s why I’m so excited to be rolling out nine blocks of red carpet for transit riders on Denny Way.”


Continue reading →

F.U. #8 — Wilson set to ‘roll out the red carpet’ with plan to finally speed up the L8

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F.U. #8 lyrics — Tacocat

Wilson’s plan will include some of the red paint SDOT has been pretty busy adding across the city (Image: SDOT)

Last week, Mayor Katie Wilson was playing DJ in a visit to Seattle public radio superstation KEXP. Her selection? F.U. #8 by Tacocat —

How many times can this happen to me? When I’ve got places to go And I’ve got people to see

Wednesday, her administration will announce details of the plan to address that complaint of the 2010s — and 2020s — by adding Seattle’s notorious red paint bus lanes to Denny Way.

“We’re rolling out the red carpet for a more reliable Route 8,” the press release reads.

CHS reported last summer as advocates said they were renewing their push to fix the route — Can they ever really fix the 8?, we asked. The Transit Riders Union Wilson founded and Central Seattle Greenways said yes despite King County Metro and SDOT’s failure across decades to arrive at solutions.

Details of the implementation of the new red lanes on Denny and how far they’ll stretch along the 8’s connection of the Seattle Center, Lower Queen Anne, South Lake Union, the Central District, and beyond via Capitol Hill will be announced Wednesday but the announcement will be another important milestone for the young administration as Wilson attempts to make good on a campaign promise and illustrate how her social approach to government will tackle infrastructure challenges — and opportunities. Continue reading →

Light rail arrives in the Central District at Judkins Park Station

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Starting Saturday, there will be light rail service in the Central District.

Riding the train across the Seattle area including Capitol Hill Station will also take on a whole new dimension.

The milestone marks what will be a full transformation of the network into a two-line system — the original 1 Line serving the city and its north-south neighbors, and now the added 2 Line connecting Seattle to Bellevue and Redmond. It will also start service on the world’s first light rail on a floating bridge.

Saturday, Sound Transit will finally debut cross-lake trains on its new line connecting Seattle to the Eastside via Judkins Park Station. The roughly $3.8 billion “East Link Extension” arrives years late, delayed by construction screw-ups and logistical complications. Buried somewhere in those billions are the millions it cost to complete the stop at Judkins Park, hoped to soon be a launch point for 3,000 riders a day — and a destination for more. Continue reading →

Sound Transit ‘cost-cutting approaches’ would ‘defer’ light rail to Ballard and West Seattle

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It’s the kind of news that could ruin a 10th birthday party.

As CHS is reporting on the predictable but still satisfying transit success of Capitol Hill Station’s first decade of service, officials are sounding an even louder alarm about the financial plight of Sound Transit in trying to delivery the plans for the ST3 package including light rail expansions to West Seattle and Ballard. Continue reading →

Happy 10th birthday, Capitol Hill Station

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Gov. Inslee on an early VIP ride (Image: Alex Garland for CHS)

Close to 10,000 riders a day now board Sound Transit light rail trains at Capitol Hill Station. That’s not too far off predictions from when the city subway station deep below the corner of Broadway and John carried its first riders ten years ago Thursday on March 19th, 2016.

Will the next four years bring the growth of another 4,000 riders a day needed to hit forecasts? Who knows — but Capitol Hill Station has grown into much of what the neighborhood, city, state, regional, and federal leaders hoped when the ribbon was cut and the confetti fell on that March Saturday as officials and transit lovers celebrated the opening of the colossal $1.9 billion expansion of light rail to Capitol Hill and the University District.

(Image: Sound Transit)

Ten years later as Seattle’s light rail prepares for, perhaps, its greatest expansion with the 2 Line connecting the city to the Eastside across the I-90 bridge through the Central District’s Judkins Park Station, the Capitol Hill subway station is a center of transit activity below hundreds of new apartments, a grocery store, cafes and diners, and a plaza and festival street that makes a weekly home for the neighborhood’s farmers market.

Happy 10th birthday, Capitol Hill Station. Continue reading →

Metro rolling out all-door boarding for all routes, making changes including new Route 8 path for opening of Judkins Park Station and 2 Line light rail

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King County Metro is expanding all-door boarding — and paying — across every route.

Starting March 28th, riders will be able to enter every Metro bus via any door to reduce delays at busy stops and improve overall travel times. Continue reading →

‘Finishing touches’ — Work to begin on permanent fix for RapidRide G’s big orange panels on Madison

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Goodbye, big orange panels

Work on what the city is calling the “finishing touches” on the year and a half old RapidRide G line will include the elimination of those big orange panels installed to compensate for construction errors that left the route’s loading platforms an inch too high for bus wheelchair ramps.

The Seattle Department of Transportation says work is scheduled to begin later this month at the Terry Ave platform with work at the line’s other “center-running stations” to follow.

“This work will continue to make it easier for riders using mobility devices to board the bus,” SDOT and Metro said in the announcement of the construction project. Continue reading →