Category: Metro-Sound Transit Integration

Riders will be the beneficiaries of a steady and reliable stream of revenue to Metro Transit – an aggregated $275 million over 32 years — as a result of the stance taken by King County Executive Dow Constantine in negotiating the sale of Convention Place Station for expansion of the Convention Center. The Executive insisted that revenue from the sale support service and reliability improvements for Metro that begin to address the need for sustainable growth in bus service throughout the region.

Construction for Convention Center expansion will require closure of the site. The station was always slated for permanent closure – light rail already bypasses it by going straight from Westlake to Capitol Hill, and up until now Metro was planning for removal of all buses from the downtown transit tunnel as early as September 2018. Continue reading What the new timeline for Convention Place Station means for riders

By 2024, commuters on the Eastside will enjoy a new era of fast, reliable transportation on light rail, bus rapid transit, and many local street improvements. But first comes what one leader called an inevitable “five or six years of pain” from construction of those projects. More than 90 regional leaders met May 5 in Bellevue to share their concerns and address the challenge of mitigating the impacts on their shared constituencies.

Continue reading New projects will improve transportation on the Eastside, after construction impacts

For Eastside bus riders commuting into downtown Seattle, potential new connections between Metro Transit and Link light rail offer an appealing option for beating the congestion of traffic on Interstate-5.

Eastside residents have a chance to weigh in on these potential new connections through Link Connections: SR-520, a partnership between Metro and Sound Transit to explore several of these potential options, which include stopping cross-lake buses at the University of Washington light rail station so riders can transfer onto trains headed to downtown, and providing Eastside communities with new transit connections to destinations such as South Lake Union. Routes potentially affected include the 252, 255, 257, 268, 277, 311, 540, 541, 542, 545, 555 and 556. Continue reading Connecting Eastside bus riders with congestion-free light rail

As growth continues throughout the region, a number of major transportation projects will converge in downtown Seattle in a roughly three-year window, from late 2018 to the end of 2021:

• Demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and construction of a new Seattle waterfront,
• Construction of a new downtown streetcar which will connect the First Hill and South Lake Union streetcar lines via 1^st Avenue and Stewart Street,
• Continuing public and private construction, including expansion of the Washington State Convention Center set to begin in late 2018, and
• The long-planned conversion of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel to a rail-only facility. Relocating buses that now use the tunnel to surface streets will enable the extension of light rail to Northgate in 2021 and the Eastside and Lynnwood in 2023 – at which time light rail can operate every four minutes in each direction through the Center City, with four-car trains that can move up to 800 riders each.

Continue reading Keeping the region moving through Seattle construction

Four advances in regional mobility this year earned mention in Executive Constantine’s Top 16 in 2016 year-in-review list. King County DOT is proud to support progress on what the Executive called “the most important issues of our generation.”

Voters approve region’s biggest expansion of mass transit

Transit expansions approved by voters in November include light rail to Everett, Tacoma, Redmond, Kirkland, Issaquah, Ballard and West Seattle; bus rapid transit along I-405; and Sounder train expansions in the South Puget Sound region. Through the vision of our METRO CONNECTS long-range plan, Metro will integrate with Sound Transit to deliver a seamless, integrated, high-capacity transportation system that meets the needs of the future. Continue reading Transportation accomplishments nab 4 spots in County Executive’s Top 16 for 2016

Putting homes next to transit only makes sense, so King County Metro is partnering with Sound Transit and the City of Seattle to transform the Northgate Transit Center into an urban center with a vibrant mix of affordable and market-rate housing.

Continue reading Transforming Northgate into a vibrant urban center

An estimated $30 million investment in Metro Transit to reduce overcrowding and improve reliability is part of the County Executive’s budget proposal he will unveil Sept. 26, adding 300,000 hours of bus service over the next two years as well as providing additional funding for safety enhancements, operator training, and systems investments that support the long-range vision of METRO CONNECTS, See more in the Executive’s remarks at the Impact HUB in Seattle’s Pioneer Square on Sept. 7: Continue reading New investments in service, safety, and reliability proposed for Metro