How 10 minutes may broaden your journey choices – Seattle Transit Weblog

• 510: Everett – Downtown Seattle
• 512: Everett – Lynnwood City Center
• 532: Everett – Bellevue
• 542: Redmond – University District
• 545: Redmond – Downtown Seattle
• 560: Westwood Village/SeaTac Airport – Bellevue
• 566: Auburn – Overlake
• 577: Federal Way – Downtown Seattle
• 578: Puyallup/Federal Way – Downtown Seattle
• 590: Tacoma – Downtown Seattle
• 592: Lakewood/Du Pont – Downtown Seattle
• 594: Lakewood/Tacoma – Downtown Seattle
• 595: Gig Harbor/Tacoma – Downtown Seattle
• 596: Bonney Lake – Sumner Sounder Station

While a aid to present riders, the shortage of a major restructure leaves a miss alternative for vital enlargement of service aside from the proposed night-owl service. In reality, the service protection of Sound Transit Express is ready to shrink, with the discontinuation of route 580. Worse but, the long run prospects of service enlargement are dimmer than ever. With Sound Transit sending nearly as many buses on I-5 via Federal Way as trains, these buses aren’t accessible to take commuters to different regional locations, like Tacoma, or Bellevue. And persevering with frequent bus service immediately from Redmond to downtown Seattle on the 545 means no bus service to South Lake Union or South Kirkland P&R, and no frequent service on 542.

An various proposal: slight inconvenience for lots of recent bus service

While Sound Transit has proposed solely a gentle restructure of service (significantly within the south), ST’s Director of Systems and Service Planning, Emily Yasukochi, has opened up a bit about how they resolve whether or not to shorten a bus that parallels Link (quote from our mates at The Urbanist):

When evaluating the scheduled journey instances and the precise journey instances for the routes that we’ve proposed to vary, shorten, [or] eradicate, we’re discovering as much as 25 minutes of financial savings on the worst instances to about, I’d say, 10 minutes of extra journey time for a number of the journeys at a number of the instances,” Yasukochi mentioned. “When it sort of went above that about 10 minute mark is once we have been considering […] these routes ought to stay absolutely bus routes, persevering with all the best way into the place they’re at the moment serving.

This normal – not more than 10 minutes of extra journey time – is obvious through which routes they determined to chop or shorten to attach with Link. Trips on routes like 515, 554, and 574 aren’t considerably slowed by switching to Link, so these routes are being shortened or deleted to enhance close by service. Routes like 545*, 578, and 594, however, would incur a bigger time penalty if diminished or eradicated, so aren’t simply not in the reduction of to Link, however are preserved of their entirety beneath this proposal. This means no service hours from these specific routes will probably be freed up for enlargement (significantly in Pierce County).

*Even thought taking the two Line as an alternative of route 545 would handily exceed the ten minute delay, there’s one other various that may hold the delay beneath 10 minutes. More on that later.

Getting extra service, whereas retaining the 10-minute normal

Since we’ve a normal for the utmost we wish to delay riders (10 minutes), it’s pure to ask, is that this one of the best we will do? Turns out, there’s key modification we will make to routes 590, 594, and 595 (Pierce County to Seattle) that matches throughout the 10 minute normal: add a cease at Federal Way Downtown Station, then proceed to Seattle.

While not at the moment proposed on any routes, this concept is nothing new. Back in 2021, Sound Transit added a Federal Way cease to route 586 (presumably to supply various service to suspended Metro route 197). By evaluating previous schedules, I’ve discovered that the cease added 8 minutes of journey time, squarely throughout the 10 minute normal. The transfer from the previous transit middle to Federal Way Downtown Station didn’t add any time to the schedule, so this calculation nonetheless applies to the brand new station.

To see what this is able to seem like, listed here are maps of routes 590, 594, and 595 (which run continuous from Tacoma to Seattle), in addition to routes 577 and 578 (which run continuous from Federal Way to Seattle):

Adding cease at Federal Way Downtown Station to Pierce County routes would enable Sound Transit to delete route 577 and shorten route 578 (journeys on route 578 from Puyallup might be timed to facilitate transfers to route 594, retaining the delay beneath 10 minutes). This would seem like this:

This is frees up about 25 miles value of two-way, all day, half-hourly service (precise service hours rely upon site visitors ranges and pace, however a preliminary evaluation, I’m going to make use of this as an approximation). It would additionally enable Sound Transit to delete route 574, because the Federal Way cease would make the 574 redundant with each buses and Link, and shortening it’s already decided to be acceptable. This would release practically 30 miles of two-way, all day, half-hourly service.

While not as transformative as turning all Seattle bus service round at Federal Way can be, this would go away a considerable amount of service hours accessible for brand spanking new service. One such service that would in all probability be funded with this can be a new route from Lakewood to Bellevue, which might comply with route 594 to Federal Way. After Federal Way, it could transfer over to Auburn, after which comply with route 566 as much as Bellevue (it could not proceed to Overlake, favoring a switch to the two Line). Such a line may run each half-hour, and timed with route 594 to supply frequent service from Federal Way to Pierce County, and each northbound bus from Tacoma or Lakewood heading both to Seattle or Bellevue. This may additionally release much more service hours by deleting route 566 (whereas on the identical time greater than restoring the service ranges of route 566 that are at the moment suspended). This would additionally fulfill the longtime aim of getting service from Tacoma to Bellevue, and eventually give weekend service to the SR 167 and I-405 corridors from Auburn to Bellevue. At round 50 miles of 30-minute frequency service, this route could be inexpensive after the modifications I recommend (Sound Transit must examine this concept additional to see if so).

Another change that might be completed is surprisingly one which Sound Transit has already determined in opposition to within the proposal: deleting route 545, and changing it with frequent service on route 542. Why did Sound Transit not suggest this? Presumably as a result of the choice being in contrast is to take the two Line the entire approach. Because the two Line will undergo Bellevue and run on I-90, there’s a vital geographical benefit for journeys from Seattle to Redmond, and the pace enhancements of Link don’t hold the extra journey time beneath 10 minutes.

The different choice? Take route 542 to UW, and switch to the Link 1 or 2 Line at UW. Here are how the journey instances change:

545, Evergreen Pt to fifth & Pine: 13 to 23 minutes

542, Evergreen Pt to UW Station: 6 to 11 minutes

Link, UW Station to Westlake: 7 minutes

As a end result, earlier than bearing in mind ready for transfers, complete journey time truly goes down from between 0 and 5 minutes! With the 1 and a couple of Lines offering 4-5 minute frequency on the Seattle leg, wait instances will probably be between 0 and 5 minutes. Assuming a strolling time of 4 minutes at UW Station, common general delay in comparison with the 545 would vary from 2 to 7 minutes. Similar figures maintain for the eastbound route, besides the switch time of even an improved route 542 will probably be larger since 542 received’t have 4 minute frequency in any occasion. But this may be mitigated by timing outbound journeys of route 542 to align with Link journeys (one thing that isn’t as possible within the reverse route), easing the switch penalty.

Considering that route 545 is a frequent route from Seattle to Redmond, it could release a whole lot of service hours if it have been to be deleted. This would very simply present sufficient service hours to spice up route 542 to frequent service, even very frequent on the busiest instances, and would nonetheless go away a major quantity of service hours leftover. These extra service hours might be used to revive route 544 (or a route prefer it) from Overlake to South Lake Union. This was a route that was set to be restored in East Link Connections based mostly on public suggestions to Metro, however with Sound Transit proposing to proceed to withhold in its draft 2026 service plan.

Conclusion

Transit within the area is altering, however with the proposed 2026 service plan, we threat letting outdated service patterns proceed, reasonably than adapting to Link Light Rail corridors to fulfill new regional wants. There are tradeoffs for everybody, and never each present rider could have an improved expertise. But for the area as an entire, a brand new 2026 service plan may dramatically enhance mobility in underserved corridors whereas retaining impacts to a minimal. Sound Transit’s 2026 service plan phase 3 survey is open via November 7.