Major Transit Expansions Coming To Seattle

[@TransitTangents]

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[@Achilles2619]

Thanks for showing Seattle transit some love. It’s been a long road for Seattle and a lot of NIMBY battles.

[@TransitTangents]

We're very familiar with those battles here in Austin! Although the YIMBY sentiment here is now pretty strong. We're now less so fighting NIMBYs, and more so fighting the state legislature.... Thanks for watching! -Louis

[@sdrx902]

6:03 we're actually building the most TOD of any city in the country! the lynnwood and federal way extension stations look kinda bleak, but there are MAJOR (thousands of units) TOD projects underway at all of the stations, and a whole new multi-block downtown is almost done at shoreline south station! other notable TOD sites are tukwila int'l blvd, spring district, overlake village, and wilburton!

[@TransitTangents]

Last week's episode was a great conversation on housing if you're into that sort of thing too! Thanks for watching.

[@realquadmoo]

I believe you mean to say Mountlake Terrace. Shoreline South has the ones that are across the freeway with the future pedestrian overpass coming soon

[@TurtleManstor]

As a Seattlite, great video! You got all the major stuff that I'm excited for, although as a resident of Downtown Redmond I'll have you know our station is VERY exciting! We're building the station literally directly above a trunk of the city's bike network, and increasing density and building TOD is written into the 25 year plan!

[@ch4dderbox]

Redmond has already been increasing density for years in anticipation of the line reaching the area. It'll be really cool once it's all connected

[@keyesrm]

11:47 there is a connection between the 1 line and the monorail at Westlake Station. There’s an elevator that takes you from the rail station mezzanine to the 3rd floor of westlake center where you can board the monorail

[@realquadmoo]

The thing with Lynnwood Link Extension is that Snohomish County used to run tens of bus routes from places way out and then all combined onto I-5 into Seattle and only ran at rush hour. After the Link extension, not only does every single station have massive TOD projects underway that haven’t quite made it onto Satellite view yet AND two of the stations even have additional TOD plots right next to the stations, but every single one of those bus routes have now been shortened to the terminal of Link and a couple of those far away places now for the very first time have reliable all day bus access with double deckers as the cherry on top. Community Transit (Snohomish County Agency) was able to take all of these new service hours and not only provide better service to these places but also increase coverage within the main metro area. With Federal Way Link Extension, you have what sounds like a really similar project except south of Seattle, but they’ve taken a different approach because of the different travel patterns. 2/3 of the stations on FWLE deviate from the freeway in order to have bigger catchment areas that can be filled with TOD. At Federal Way they knocked down an old strip mall and they’ve been showcasing concepts for a neighborhood that just honestly takes my breath away I can’t even describe it.

[@bahnspotterEU]

That does seem like it could overwhelm the light rail though. What are the predictions for demand increase once these TODs are built?

[@realquadmoo]

@ There are no additional predictions. The extension was supposed to add around 50,000 more riders. With trains that can carry 1100 people running every four minutes, I think we’re able to handle it. However, due to the delays on I-90, we are currently running a duplicative express route to provide relief until we can interline trains.

[@cadkoger]

@@bahnspotterEU The 2 Line will run from Redmond to Lynnwood. It was supposed to open last year but was delayed due to issues on the bridge. But once it does upon later this year, frequency of trains from Lynnwood to Seattle will double.

[@ctrlthealt]

The lines used to have no colored or numbered names at all - a while ago it was just “Central Link” and “Tacoma Link.” People would just say “take the Link” or just “take the train”. ST planned to change to colored names, and since the Central Link was red on the map, they called it the Red Line. However they quickly backtracked on this when the community told them it had connotations of the history of redlining in the region. After rethinking their naming conventions, the current lines are now called the 1 Line, the 2 Line, and so on. Not the “1 train” like in New York, and not “line 1” like in Toronto, it's the “1 Line”.

[@TransitTangents]

This explains why it was hard to find the correct names/what people actually call them haha.... Thanks for watching! -Louis

[@TeslaNewsAndh22Vlog]

@@ctrlthealt 1 Line, 2 Line, T Line And the future 3 Line and 4 Line

[@Opboto]

@@TransitTangents sorry but this info isn’t hard to find at all- literally all over the ST website, Google trip planning, etc. This is a transit nerd show, and you couldn’t even look on the ST website and see that it’s called the “1 Line.” This makes me question any content I hear on your show discussing areas I’m not familiar with.

[@douggoodman8114]

The Seattle Monorail connects with Link Rail at Westlake Station.

[@mastertrumpet101]

Yes this. I was about to comment this but I figured someone was going to say it.

[@rwgrab]

Seattleite here - thanks so much for covering our expanding light rail network! I hear what you're saying about the density around the new Lynnwood extension stations. Adding the park and ride lots around these was a compromise to get the funding to build the train at all. I did a relay a few months ago running from station to station, and I was encouraged to see some density starting to crop up around those stations already. Hopefully that trend continues!

[@TransitTangents]

Agree! Would love to see that continue. Thanks for watching.

[@carriganway5868]

I ride the 1 line from Lynnwood into Seattle often. It's always been busy when I have rode it .

[@jetfan925]

Line 1 used to be called the Red Line for the first 10 years until it renamed due to the redlining of the Rainier Valley area.

[@WBTravels]

@jetfan925 no it didn't have a name, only a planned name, and its line color was always green. It's officially new name for ST3 and the 2024 naming convention, was the red line, why sound transit changed it to numbers instead of just choosing a different color I will never know

[@peacenik2K7]

It's just the 1 or colloquially the "main" line. It's not connected yet so folx don't differentiate it if they're in Seattle. If you're in Tacoma or on the Eastside you call the lines the "Tacoma streetcar" or "Eastlink". I worked on the campaign to expand the system and the main and Eastlink line will be linked by the end of the year. :)

[@realquadmoo]

16:20 You should note that City Beautiful was so full of shit for that video, and that includes this ridiculous claim that the Federal Way Link Extension ends in a Target parking lot and there’s absolutely no TOD which is just fucking ludicrous. The tail tracks end over a Target parking lot, but the terminal station resides above a massive regional transit hub and adjacent to a strip mall that has been demolished to make way for a giant TOD neighborhood that’s just breathtaking. He straight up claims there is no urban village plan for Federal Way Link Extension when in fact that is exactly what will be going in right next to the terminal station. I’m sorry I had to make this comment, City Beautiful needs to do better.

[@walawala-fo7ds]

Yeah. Sometimes I wonder if the point of the video isn't to make drama

[@WBTravels]

btw @6:00 2 of the 3 of the 4 stations on the Lynwood extension are major park & Ride stations, Shoreline North, a major transit center serving aurora avenue, and has the SWIFT blue Line BRT, mountlake terrace, a major park & Ride with express busses to edmonds and Lake Forest Park, and Lynnwood, connecting the Swift Orange line to the Light Rail system, and has more than 20 bus routes serving the station frequently. Also Lynnwood is now being massively upgraded with TOD, to the point where they have re-named the station entirely to Lynnwood City Center station, the area will soon be directly connected to many new apartments and stores, and when the next extension opens, it will be directly linked via a 6 minute ight rail ride to the massive Alderwood Mall.

[@IndustrialParrot2816]

ive been using the new Shoreline South Station a ton because a bunch of the North County Buses connect to it like the Routes 65, 333, 345, 346, and 365 which make it much easier to navigate around North Seattle and Shoreline and have a fast rapid transit connect to point both North and South oh also there are tons of Apartment Buildings going up along the Route 65 which is the most important of these Routes as it connects to Lake City and Wedgewood which already have some density and all the Apartments in Lake City and Jackson Park, lots of Apartments going up in Shoreline too, they already have a bunch along the major E line BRT on Aurora Avenue (which also has a Cycling Trail) but some at Shoreline North 185th Street Station where the Swift Blue Line BRT and the 1 Line Connect together

[@mrxman581]

It's great to see the rail transit infrastructure being built in Seattle, especially on the West Coast. Thanks.

[@craigjorgensen5055]

Other cities in the US could stand to learn lessons from Seattle which it in turn learned from its nearby Western Canadian cities who all have rail systems that absolutely demolish most American systems in terms of ridership. Outside of major business districts on of the most important drivers of rail ridership is high quality feeder bus connections

[@johnhill8887]

And in the case of Vancouver, massive highrise TOD at virtually every suburban transit (Skytrain) station. There are at least 10 of these area that have skylines (up to 65 storeys) that would rival the downtowns of most US metros. Needless to say, the ridership is one of the largest in North America

[@craigjorgensen5055]

​@johnhill8887 in terms of non-downtown stations with high ridership. They did that first through high connectivity then TOD followed as icing on the cake.

[@sdrx902]

you're right, its the 1 Line! kinda weird syntax, with the number/letter coming before the term "Line", which is consistent in seattle between sound transit services and king county metro rapidride services. when the system opened, it was "Tacoma Link" and "Central Link", but as sound transit grew, they realised they needed more accessibility. so they pivoted to colours - red and blue. but since the "red line" (central link, now the 1 line) ran through historically redlined neighbourhoods, sound transit understandably got some backlash. for a very short time internally, central link was the "orange line", but in 2021 they made the right move and became the second north american urban rail system to use numbered lines! the T, N, and S lines changed too, but not to numbers since theyre different types of serices

[@TransitTangents]

Very confusing when trying to look it up haha! Thanks for the clarifications haha...

[@realquadmoo]

Central Link was the Red Line, it faced backlash due to the practice of redlining. Tacoma Link (T Line) was the Orange Line.

[@MilliBlom]

Not the second to have numbered lines! The NYC subway is famous for it, but most canadian urban rail systems use numbers already, including Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa.

[@IndustrialParrot2816]

it is the only system in the English speaking world to have that Syntax for its system

[@harlander-harpy]

​@@TransitTangents the reason they are the 1 Line, 2 Line, 3 Line, and 4 Line is because it is consistent with King County Metro's RapidRide BRT (A Line, E Line, G Line, etc) and Community Transit's Swift BRT (Blue Line, Orange Line, Gold Line, etc)

[@vasquen]

In such a stretchy metro area wouldn't a regional commuter network be more efficient?

[@walawala-fo7ds]

This is the start of that. There are heavy commuter trains from Everett to Tacoma but they share tracks with BNSF. This network is mostly grade separated but for about 5 miles and it should be about 120 miles total. Some of the converging lines will have 2-4 minute headways. In the suburbs it can operate at 55 mph with basically all of the remaining system being tunnels, elevated, or trenches. So while it isn't quite as good as a heavy metro, it certainly isn't as bad as purely at grade light rail.

[@williewillus]

The commuter lines run on freight-owned tracks and they are really stingy with giving up time blocks for more commuter runs. Having the S line run on weekends would be amazing for visiting Tacoma, the state fair in Puyallup, etc.

[@brownthunder999]

The price tag of a commuter rail system never would've passed at the ballot box.

[@absea7918]

Great video. While we fret over how slow/inept our transit improvements are here, we are getting a lot done. A few clarifying points. The "2" line was not intended to be separate, but was split during construction, since the section across the lake (on I-90) had issues that required re-work. Instead of delaying the whole line, they opened the eastern segment first. The 2 line links to Microsoft in Redmond, Lines from the SW and NW (West Seattle and Ballard), are in design, and have funding, but wont be open for another 7-10 years.

[@chanchan523]

A few things the tunnel for the link light rail from the original part was there in downtown Seattle since the 1990 it was converted from a bus tunnel it operated as a bus only tunnel from 1990 till September 24 2005 when it was converted into a bus/ light rail tunnel in September 24 2007 it was a bus/ light rail tunnel until march 23 2019 when it became only a light rail tunnel The link line’s are as follows 1 the North/ south line, 2 the north/southeast/north line and the t line also known as tacoma link

[@TransitTangents]

Thanks for the history on the tunnel, as well as the line naming conventions! With the lines all broken up at this point it is honestly very confusing as to what is what when looking at the full buildout map, vs what is already built, etc... Looking forward to seeing the progress in Seattle! Thanks for watching.

[@TheTikeySauce]

10:48 Interestingly enough, most of Sound Transit's funding doesn't come from the state. State law gives transit agencies additional tax privileges which is where a majority of the funding comes from. This is why, as a transit agency, they have one of the highest revenues in the country. They also have a close relationship with WSDOT, so many of our major road projects are built with future high capacity transit in mind (ie the rebuilt SR-520 floating bridge).

[@bobnas]

The transit in Seattle is pretty sound

[@jasonhowell7763]

There's also a new train depot on the east side (where the 2 line is) which will help with capacity on the 1 line. The 2 line will run from Redmond, north through downtown, then all the way up to Lynnwood, the north terminus. So effectively double the frequency for trains north of the city!

[@stuhennessey9013]

When I board the train to Lynnwood in the north the automated voice greeting says "you are on the one". I hear ST1 and ST2 as well as the future ST3 being used to ID the routes. The Lynnwood transit station is very active and serves ST1 a butt load of bus routes and some surprisingly good bicycle infrastructure.

[@TransitTangents]

Would love to look more into bike infrastructure in the area! Haven't done a bike focused episode in a while...

[@willy.william4582]

On the older trains, the newer Siemens trains say "1 Line to...."

[@greasher926]

ST1,2,3 are the names of the voter initiatives to build the light rail as well as fund other public transit projects such as BRT on I-405.

[@ch4dderbox]

In a couple years the strip mall next to the Lynnwood station will be torn out and replaced with several thousand apartments w/ ground floor retail and park space. It's not really impressive now but it will get there

[@SavageScientist]

I would love to see an extension into the south to Olympia

[@walawala-fo7ds]

Good overview. On the additional info side, Washington does support this project but the bulk of money comes from voter approved taxes imposed on a tax district known as the RTA area. People out of that area don't pay directly into this project. There is also a BRT bus line getting build as part of Sound Transit's plan that follows the 405 freeway parallel to I5 but on the Bellevue side. Lynnwood and Shoreline have a lot of TOD in the planning or construction phases near the stations as part of various TOD bills that requires cities to rezone around stations. Once line two opens, trains will be as frequent as 4 minutes as two lines will interweave trains into the tunnel. This is the other reason for those tunnels: trains can operate much faster than traditional light rail.

[@cobaltblue42]

Thank you for doing this!!! As a local, absolutely loved it and you gave a fantastic overview, so I think I can forgive you for your New Years Top 10 transgression. 😉 A few things to note! - the One (Green) line's extension north (which Lynnwood is part of) will eventually reach Everett, a large city area comparable to Bellevue and Tacoma. - while the Lynnwood extension is more suburban and follows I-5, the stations are all situated along the sides of the Freeway often with pedestrian bridges linking to the other side. Also, many of the compact parking garages built for those stations are often at- or over-capacity during peak travel times... and those parking garages greatly increase the catchment area of each station since so many of the surrounding suburban neighborhoods have extremely poor transit options. And as others mentioned, there is lots of TOD planned or being constructed around those stations as well (the reason parking garages were chosen instead of surface lots was to minimize station footprints to maximize TOD opportunities). - unlike many other LRT systems, Seattle's is almost exclusively grade-separated from crossroads and traffic, allowing light rail train speeds of 55 to 60 MPH on many sections. As you noted, the geographic area of the system is very very large, and that's because the LRT system is essentially being built as a regional rail service, which is why it's feasible for it to reach as far south as Tacoma or as far north as Everett and still be competitive with I-5 travel times. - the Rainier Valley is the only at-grade section of the One line (Green line) and it has a lot of issues. It was one of the first sections built and was kept at-grade to reduce initial costs and appease NIMBY's (Sound Transit's future at the time was not certain so they were desperate to get something built). But this section has become a major capacity and safety bottleneck. The hope is a future ST4 ballot initiative could provide the funds needed to make this section fully grade separated (which theoretically would allow for full automation of the entire One line similar to what Vancouver BC's Skytrains has done). Unfortunately, Sound Transit has been very quiet on any ST4 projects and it's likely they're focused on trying to finish delivering ST2 & ST3 projects first. Anywho, thank you again for doing this, you guys are awesome and look forward to the next Transit Tangents for the "other" Washington, D.C.!

[@TeslaNewsAndh22Vlog]

@@cobaltblue42 1 Line will be rerouted to Ballard, 2 Line and 3 Line will go to Everett.

[@cobaltblue42]

​@@TeslaNewsAndh22Vlog I know but your right, for simplicity's sake and in keeping with how they laid out their video I didn't want to delve into that change. I also don't necessarily agree with the change since a lot of folks who need to travel north/south thru Seattle will now be forced to transfer when they otherwise could have stayed on the same train. It's very frustrating and forces Seattle to be a central HUB for the system when it doesn't need to be.

[@realquadmoo]

Yesss you should come here! Would love to attend a meetup!!

[@Kameroncrazie23]

The monorail connects to westlake station!

[@kmlynden1]

you mention the monorail. it is a vital aspect of transportation to and from Climate Pledge Arena. It connects to Link at the Westlake Station. The Seattle Center station of the monorail is being redeveloped, its first major redevelopment since 1962 when it was built.

[@zork999]

One nice thing is that when you attend games at Climate Pledge Arena (I am not sure about shows, but probably them too), you can get a free Transit Pass in both directions by going to their app. I have done it for both Kraken and Storm games. It includes Light Rail, Monorail, buses, ferries, etc. If you use multiple forms of transit, then it will give you multiple passes. The monorail has a separate ticketing system, so it needs an individual pass. Hopefully, one day it will be fully integrated, and we will really have One Ticket To Rule Them All.

[@realquadmoo]

11:45 What does a monorail interconnect mean?

[@mscheinine]

Thank you! Our system is great. Come visit. I’ll give you a tour. It is already running above expectations in ridership. Large plans for high density apt near each of the new stations north of Northgate.

[@TeslaNewsAndh22Vlog]

Green 1 Line Blue 2 Line Orange T Line

[@Made.For.a.While24]

Seattle is going into a new problem without even realizing it adding this new link to line one would just congested even more due to the plans originally calling for monorail and subways, which can handle three or four times to capacity in quicker time in the hilly terrain of Seattle that would’ve been the better choice, but they picked the light rail because it’s in the middle with light rail it mixes with traffic and then on top of that if you build it, it’s cost considerably to alter it now Seattle’s talking about altering its line one to handle bigger light rail vehicles, and they did a study on it. They found out due to it being light rail specifications, and the rock type it will be, a tiny percentage to be able to update so that means that line 1 is stuck at its current capacity which mean adding on another set or adding on high floor vehicles or making the station different it wouldn’t make a difference because of plans originally called for a rapid transit route, which would serve the tunnel I could say the only thing that Seattle can do is extend the monorail in the downtown area from Pioneer Street to see would it relieve pressure then, adding the link would ease the congestion in the center but just adding this link from the west to assist that’s not having any relief on congestion and capacity is only going to add more congestion and issues to that line

[@durangomac]

We are excited for the 2 line to be open across Lake Washington and the extensions to Federal Way to the south. I use the Link Light Rail often and am ready for a lot of the disruptions from the lines being integrated to come to an end.

[@kipdoull68]

Okay so it's called the number one line in Seattle the number to line in Bellevue that's why they call it

[@colincuratolo1645]

9:50 Philly please!!!

[@TransitTangents]

We may try to make Philly happen this summer! Thanks for watching.

[@IndustrialParrot2816]

the Monorail does have a Connection at Westlake however the monorail like the South Lake Union Streetcar will probably be removed eventually

[@ericbruun9020]

Better to connect the Lake Union line with the First Hill line. Boy, what a cheapskate the city of Seattle is.

[@willy.william4582]

@@ericbruun9020 The Lake Union Line has multiple problems, a bus line that follows the route with better frequency, getting stuck in rush hour traffic (a lot due to mixed running). Seattle thinks "if it's broke, let's not fix it, let's get rid of it"

[@TeslaNewsAndh22Vlog]

@@IndustrialParrot2816 The monorail 🚝 is profitable and is a tourist attraction, it’s not going away

[@greasher926]

The monorail is way too popular to be taken down, it serves the space needle and the climate pledge arena, the home arena of the NHL Krakens. In 2022 it had a daily ridership of 5,315 (it’s probably even higher now). In comparison the Seattle street car with 2 lines and 17 stations only saw about 4,000 daily riders this year.

[@somerandomdude1179]

The monorail is a historical landmark

[@mastertrumpet101]

The green line will be taking you from Tacoma all the way up to Ballard. I think that’s about 40+ miles of tracks in just one line. I believe that’s would the longest light rail line in Seattle metro area. Unfortunately it’s going to be completely mid 2030s most likely. Maybe later with delays.

[@ccooperev]

Art one point the starter line was dubbed the Red Line but that was nixed for the perception of the effect of impacts on minority communities that name engenders. So the 1 line it is.

[@ericbruun9020]

Highway 99 would have made a lot more sense. It could have been in cut and cover and had huge apartments. It is also better for earthquakes. Now if I5 or Sound Transit LRRT goes down, it will block access to the other service.

[@javirodriguez7759]

undeground? better elevated!

[@walawala-fo7ds]

Underground tends to draw less opposition as it is less of an eyesore and destroys less buildings while avoiding traffic disruptions. That's why Seattle tunnels transit. In fact the first tunnel was actually a bus tunnel

[@ryanwalker9599]

Did you guys a like ahh um ever think about ah a umm these images and plans are readily available on um ah line. Pictures and ah maps um of actual blueprints um ahh. Ah it's all out there um exactly.

[@suncheeserailway]

Buddy, sounds like you've had one too many drinks

[@TohaBgood2]

So much hoopla about what is essentially a 0.5 new light rail line expansion over 15 years in Seattle.