Transit

You don’t have to detest all advertising or be a wild-eyed radical to agree that windows are for seeing through. Metro should discontinue bus wraps that obscure windows.

When Shoreline's south light rail station opens on August 30, two major projects intended to connect riders to the station will still be under construction. They will boost station connectivity once open.

Ahead of the full opening of East Link light rail, King County Metro and Sound Transit have queued up a bus restructure for the Eastside, but they have planned insufficient cross-lake service to replace the deleted Route 271. Frequencies crater in the evening, which will leave riders in the lurch.

The Low Income Housing Institute won the bid to develop Sound Transit's surplus site near U District Station. The project will bring 160 affordable homes in a 12-story tower that is slated to be the state's tallest mass timber building.

King County Metro unveiled plans to test out hydrogen-powered buses by 2026. The news comes on the heels of a King County Auditor report casting doubt on Metro's plans to rely heavily on battery buses to meets its goal of a fully electric fleet by 2035.

South Sounder riders could see more midday and weekday trips under a program reset. Sound Transit staff are recommending postponing pre-pandemic priorities for longer platforms and trains and accelerating investments in more trips and extended span of service.

Bus priority on Downtown Seattle's Third Ave transit mall doesn't currently extend north of Stewart Street though most of its bus routes do. A project to add more transit priority is at risk of being delayed again.

Ten years in the making, Seattle's most robust bus rapid transit line ever will start running this fall between Downtown Seattle and Madison Valley.