Sound Transit

Sound Transit (ST), officially the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, is a public transit agency serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It manages the Link light rail system in Seattle and Tacoma, regional Sounder commuter rail, and Sound Transit Express bus service. The agency also coordinates with the regional ORCA fare card system used by transit operators across the metropolitan area. In 2024, Sound Transit services carried a total of 41.7million passengers and averaged over 134,000 riders on weekdays.

Sound Transit was created in 1993 by King, Pierce and Snohomish counties to build a regional rapid transit system. After an unsuccessful proposal in 1995, the agency's " Sound Move" plan for regional light rail, commuter rail, and express bus service was approved by voters in November 1996. ST began operating its express bus service in September 1999, taking over existing routes from local transit agencies. The region's first commuter rail line, between Tacoma and Seattle, started in December 2000; the agency's first light rail line, Tacoma Link (now the TLine), began service in August 2003. Light rail service in Seattle on Central Link (now the 1Line) began in 2009, and is the largest part of the Sound Transit system in terms of ridership. Union Station in Seattle has served as the agency's headquarters since its renovation in 1999.

Sound Transit is independent of local transit agencies and is governed by an eighteen-member board of directors, which consists of elected officials from member jurisdictions and the Secretary of Transportation. It is funded by local sales taxes, property taxes, and motor vehicle excise taxes levied within its taxing district in portions of King, Pierce and Snohomish counties. The agency has passed three major ballot measures to fund system expansion: Sound Move (1996), Sound Transit 2 (2008) and Sound Transit 3 (2016). Planning and construction of transit projects is scheduled to continue until 2041 under the Sound Transit 3 plan, which would expand the light rail network to and 83 stations.

Services

Sound Transit operates three main transit services across the Seattle metropolitan area: the Link light rail system, which serves as the rapid transit system for the region; the Sounder commuter rail system from Everett to Lakewood, via Seattle; and the Sound Transit Express bus system across the three counties. In 2024, these systems carried more than 41.7million total passengers, averaging 134,200 riders per day on weekdays. A fourth service, Stride bus rapid transit, is planned to be introduced in the late 2020s. Sound Transit's services use a unified livery and paint scheme that consists of blue, teal, and green waves against a white background. Link, Sounder, and Stride all use the same naming scheme for lines and services, which switched from colors to numbers and letters in 2021.

All of Sound Transit's services accept cash payment and mobile tickets as well as the regional ORCA card, a contactless proximity card with stored fares and passes. , fares on Link and Sound Transit Express use a flat rate while most Sounder passengers pay based on the traveled distance. Discounts are offered for eligible low-income households, senior citizens, and people with disabilities; passengers under the age of 19 are not charged a fare as part of a statewide program. Sound Transit's light rail and commuter rail stations do not have faregates or turnstiles, instead relying on proof of payment that is enforced by fare ambassadors.

, Sound Transit has a fleet of 538 vehicles for use on its services. The fleet is composed of 175 low-floor light rail vehicles for the 1 and 2 Lines; 8 streetcars for the TLine; 78 bilevel cars and 14 locomotives for Sounder; and 319 buses for Sound Transit Express. The entire Link and Sound Transit Express fleet is considered accessible, with level boarding or ramps and lifts. Sounder trains have a high platform with a designated level boarding area for ramps. All vehicles are also equipped to carry bicycles in racks; Sound Transit also provides bicycle cages at some stations. By 2027, the agency plans to deploy an additional 49 light rail vehicles for Link and 44 buses for the Stride bus rapid transit system, including double-decker buses.

Link light rail

The Link light rail system encompasses three lines with of track and 43 stations. The three lines, which have no direct connection between each other, are the 1Line between Seattle, Tukwila, and SeaTac; the 2Line between Bellevue and Redmond; and the TLine in central Tacoma. Link trains carried 30.5million passengers in 2024 and averaged 98,300 passengers on weekdays across the 1Line and TLine. It is the fourth-busiest light rail system in the United States by ridership, behind Los Angeles, San Diego, and Boston.

Link trains generally run seven days a week at frequencies of 6 to 24 minutes, with stops spaced closely together. All stations are accessible and most offer connections to nearby buses or a park and ride facility. The system is planned to expand to 83 stations and by 2041, with five lines serving all three counties. 1Line and 2Line trains are operated and maintained under contract with King County Metro and use longer, four-car trainsets that have a typical capacity of 150 passengers in each car. The TLine uses low-floor streetcars, unable to be coupled into pairs, and are the only Sound Transit service to be directly operated and maintained by the agency rather than a contractor.

Sounder commuter rail

Sounder is the regional commuter rail service managed by Sound Transit and has two lines that intersect at King Street Station in Downtown Seattle. Trains generally run during rush hours with limited service at other times, including weekend trains for special events. The NLine connects Seattle to Everett, stopping at two intermediate stations in Snohomish County. The SLine connects Seattle to Tacoma and Lakewood, stopping at six other stations in Pierce County and southern King County. Trains are operated under contract by BNSF Railway crews on the company's leased tracks, while the vehicles are maintained by Amtrak. Sounder uses a fleet of Bombardier BiLevel Coach passenger cars that each have a seating capacity of 130 to 146 passengers depending on their configuration. They have restrooms, space for bicycles and wheelchairs, tables, cupholders, power outlets, and Wi-Fi. The SLine typically uses an eight-car configuration that carries 950 seated passengers, while the NLine uses two to three cars in normal service that can carry 300 to 450 passengers. In 2024, Sounder trains carried 1.88million total passengers and averaged 6,900weekday boardings.

Sound Transit Express

Sound Transit Express is a network of 28 limited-stop express bus routes providing regional service to cities in all three counties, primarily using a network of high-occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV lanes) on state-maintained freeways. Some routes operate seven days a week, while others are limited to rush hours only. These routes normally have wide distances between stops, which are primarily hubs and transfer points in cities and suburban areas where local routes operated by other agencies connect; many stops also have park and ride lots. Sound Transit funded the construction of new transit hubs, park and ride lots, and direct access ramps to the HOV lanes as part of the rollout and expansion of express buses. In 2024, the express buses carried 9.3million total passengers and had a weekday average of 28,700riders. The busiest route in 2023 was Route 550, which connects Seattle to Bellevue and carried 1.17million riders.

The fleet of 319 buses is owned by Sound Transit and includes double-decker buses with up to 81 seats, articulated buses, high-floor motorcoaches, and standard buses with a minimum of 42 seats. These buses include upholstered and cushioned seats that are able to recline, footrests, overhead luggage racks, air conditioning, reading lights, and bicycle racks. Sound Transit Express buses use diesel or compressed natural gas for fuel, along with several hybrid electric buses. They are operated and maintained under contracts with local transit authorities (Community Transit, King County Metro, and Pierce Transit) who also deploy shuttle buses during disruptions to rail services.

Stride

A bus rapid transit system, named Stride, was funded by the Sound Transit 3 ballot measure and is scheduled to open in the late 2020s. Stride is planned to have three lines: the S1 Line on Interstate 405 between Burien and Bellevue, scheduled to open in late 2028; the S2 Line on Interstate 405 between Bellevue and Lynnwood, scheduled to open in 2029; and the S3 Line on State Route 522 between Shoreline South/148th station and Bothell, scheduled to open in 2028.

Paratransit

Sound Transit contracts with Community Transit, King County Metro, and Pierce Transit to provide paratransit service along the Link light rail network in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Costs are split equally between Sound Transit and the contracted provider within the Link corridor. The agency is not required to operate paratransit service along Sounder and Sound Transit Express routes.

History

Background and early studies

The waters of Puget Sound and the surrounding region's navigable rivers were the primary transportation corridors for the indigenous Coast Salish peoples as well as later settlers who arrived in the 19th century. A series of scheduled steamboat trips in the 1880s grew into the " mosquito fleet", the main mode of passenger and freight transportation for the growing region through the turn of the 20th century. It waned in importance as railroads and streetcar systems were constructed around Puget Sound; these services, later supplemented by interurban trains, grew in the early 20th century to serve a growing number of passenger commuters. The Seattle Municipal Street Railway had a streetcar and cable railway system by 1935, while private companies ran interurban services north to Everett and south to Tacoma. These rail services were all abandoned or converted into bus routes by 1941 as automobile adoption in the Seattle area contributed to a need for more developed highways and later freeways.

The first major proposal for a rapid transit system to serve Seattle and the surrounding region was drafted by urban planner and civil engineer Virgil Bogue in 1911 as part of a comprehensive plan. Bogue's plan was rejected by a wide margin in the March 1912 municipal election; the city's three major newspapers had all opposed it. The Forward Thrust program, formed in the 1960s by civic activists, proposed the development of a subway system that covered Seattle, Renton, and Bellevue by 1985. Two-thirds of the $770million (equivalent to $ in dollars) construction cost would be funded by the federal government, contingent on the approval of local funding. The first referendum in February 1968 failed to reach the 60percent supermajority needed to pass; a second attempt was made in May 1970, but failed amid a spree of layoffs by Boeing that severely affected the local economy. The federal earmark was instead used to build the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority's subway system in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Seattle Transit System, the successor to the municipal streetcars, struggled to secure funding to modernize its fleet in the 1960s but launched the region's first express bus system, named Blue Streak, in 1970 between Downtown Seattle and a park and ride lot in Northgate. The successful route led to plans to develop a network of express buses across the region by using the then-new freeway system and express lanes. The regional water quality agency, Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle (Metro), led planning of the network; Metro later took over operations of the Seattle Transit System and a suburban company in January 1973 following the approval of King County voters in a September 1972 special election. Metro Transit's ridership reached 66 million passengers in 1980—exceeding its original projections—and an increase in bus trips led to congestion on downtown streets. A tunnel for buses began construction in 1987 and was opened in 1990 for a fleet of dual-mode electric and diesel buses; the tunnel was also designed for eventual conversion to accommodate a rail system.

Metro and the Puget Sound Council of Governments, the inter-county metropolitan planning organization for the Seattle area, completed a study in 1986 to identify potential corridors for a modern light rail system. King County voters approved an advisory measure in November 1988 to endorse accelerated planning of a light rail system as well as a commuter rail line by 2000. The Washington State Legislature also convened a rail development commission to study a regional transit system that later incorporated Metro's unfinished plans. The commission endorsed the creation of a regional transit board composed of politicians from King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, which was authorized by the state legislature in 1990. The Joint Regional Policy Committee was formed in 1991 and approved its final long-range plan for regional transit two years later. The $12billion (equivalent to $ in dollars) plan comprised a light rail system from Everett to Tacoma and Redmond; commuter rail from Everett and Tacoma to Seattle; and improvements to local and express buses. It would be funded by sales tax and motor vehicle excise tax revenue within a district that covered the urbanized areas east of Puget Sound between Marysville to the north and Parkland to the south. From 1960 to 1990, the region's population had increased by 82 percent and was outpaced by the growth in the number of registered vehicles, which collectively logged 55.2million miles () traveled in 1991.

Establishment and Sound Move

The formation of a regional transit authority (RTA) to create a ballot measure to implement and fund the regional transit plan required the approval of the King, Pierce, and Snohomish county councils. By July 1993, all three county councils had voted to join the RTA; the Pierce and Snohomish county councils voted unanimously in favor of joining, while the vote for Metropolitan King County Council passed by a narrow 5–4 margin. The board of directors for the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, the official name of the RTA, held its first meeting on September 17, 1993, at a former Washington State Department of Transportation office in Bellevue. The new agency was provided space on the 15th floor of the Exchange Building in Downtown Seattle by King County Metro (the successor to Metro) and began preparation of its first ballot measure.

In October 1994, the RTA Board adopted its master plan for regional transit that would be sent to county councils for ratification and placement as a ballot measure. The plan, with a construction cost of approximately $6.77billion (equivalent to $ in dollars), was described as the largest public works project in Seattle's history. It included of light rail service that would be completed within 16 years with lines that would connect Downtown Seattle to Lynnwood in the north, Bellevue and Redmond to the east, and Tacoma to the south. The plan also called for a shorter timeline to launch a commuter rail system, which would use an existing of freight tracks from Lakewood to Everett, and an express bus network with eight routes. It was approved by the three county councils by December, with the divided Snohomish County Council narrowly voting 3–2 in favor due to the lack of light rail service to Everett in the first phase of the plan. A $2.5million (equivalent to $ in dollars) demonstration of commuter rail service on the Tacoma–Seattle–Everett corridor during peak hours and for Tacoma Dome events was operated by the RTA in early 1995 as part of preparations for the ballot measure.

The RTA ballot measure would only require a simple majority to pass and was part of a special election on March 14, 1995. The proposal was supported by prominent elected officials, including incumbent governor Mike Lowry, and the "pro" campaign received funding from Boeing, Weyerhaeuser, local retailers The Bon Marché and Nordstrom, and engineering firms. The "no" campaign primarily comprised businessmen from the Eastside region led by mall developer Kemper Freeman; it argued that the plan was too expensive to construct and would not address traffic congestion. The ballot measure was rejected by 53.5percent of voters across the district, with only King County having a majority in favor of the plan due to strong support within the city of Seattle. In Everett, 83percent of voters rejected the ballot measure, attributed to the opposition of local elected officials due to the lack of light rail service for the city in the first phase. The defeat was also attributed to low turnout, especially among younger voters, due to the timing of the election in a non-presidential year.

The regional transit plan had cost $50million (equivalent to $ in dollars) to develop under the RTA and its predecessors; calls to run a second ballot measure with a modified version of the plan found support from the county councils and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. The RTA was reorganized to reduce its spending by 60percent and its 150-person staff was cut to 23 members; a new CEO was hired and Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel was elected as board chair to represent a "clean break" from earlier transit planning. A modified plan with a reduced cost of $3.9billion (equivalent to $ in dollars) and a 10-year timeline was presented in November 1995 by a panel of local elected officials to prepare for legislative approval for a second ballot measure. The new plan, named "Sound Move", was adopted by the RTA board in May 1996 and was placed on the November 1996 ballot; its development included over 400 public meetings to receive community input. Sound Move only included of light rail within Downtown Tacoma and from Downtown Seattle to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, but retained the commuter rail element of the previous plan and expanded its use of express buses.

On November 5, 1996, the Sound Move plan and its funding package was approved by 56.5percent of voters within the RTA district. It won a majority in all three counties and was approved by 70percent of Seattle voters. The "yes" campaign, largely supported by the same donors as well as smaller contributors, used wider advertisements and grassroots teams; the "no" campaign repeated their criticisms of the plan on fiscal grounds and raised its funds from real estate interests and lobbying groups representing the trucking, homebuilding, and road construction industries. The local funding for the plan would be raised through a 0.4percent sales tax and 0.3percent annual motor vehicle excise tax that took effect on April 1, 1997. The RTA began expanding its staff and moved out of its shared space with Metro in July 1997; its new headquarters occupied several floors at 1100 Second Avenue, a former bank building in Downtown Seattle. The agency moved its offices to Seattle's historic Union Station in November 1999 after a renovation and restoration project that cost $23.5million (equivalent to $ in dollars).

Launch of first services

Sound Transit was adopted as the brand name for the RTA on August 15, 1997, along with the names "Link" for the light rail system, "Sounder" for the commuter rail system, and "Regional Express" for the bus network. The "Sound Transit" name was chosen due to its use as a double entendre, referring to the Puget Sound region as well as appearing "trustworthy" and "solid". Over 100 names were suggested by consultants and members of the public to the RTA board; the other finalist for the agency's name was "Regional Transit", which went through several rounds of voting. The agency's logo, created by a local firm and described as a "heavyset T with an S winding through it", was approved in September by the board. Sound Transit approved funding for its first projects the following month by partnering with local transit agencies; Pierce Transit received funding for 15 additional daily trips on its Seattle–Tacoma express buses, while construction of Community Transit's park and ride at Ash Way in Lynnwood would be accelerated with new regional funds.

The first component of the Sound Move plan to be fully implemented was the regional express bus system, which was later renamed to Sound Transit Express and approved in late 1998. The first set of nine express bus routes launched on September 19, 1999, and served regional destinations and 33 park and ride lots in the three counties; an existing King County Metro express route from Seattle to Bellevue and Pierce Transit's Seattle–Tacoma express were also transferred to Sound Transit. The initial fleet of 117 buses were painted in the agency's new livery and included low-floor articulated buses, high-floor coaches, and 20 dual-mode Breda buses leased from King County Metro for use in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel. The express buses accepted the PugetPass, a new inter-agency fare system that replaced commuter passes and was accepted by five regional transit agencies when it launched on September 1, 1999.

The Sounder commuter rail system was originally scheduled to debut with nine daily round trips between Seattle and Tacoma in December 1999, but state funding for track improvements had been jeopardized by the Tim Eyman-led Initiative 695, which capped the state's portion of the motor vehicle excise tax at $30. The initiative was passed in November 1999 and later ruled unconstitutional by the Washington Supreme Court, but the cap was passed by the state legislature; the state's withdrawn funding was filled by an allocation of federal transportation funds allocated by the Puget Sound Regional Council. Sound Transit had reached an agreement with the Port of Seattle, Port of Tacoma, and railroad owners BNSF and Union Pacific in April 1999 for use of their tracks, contingent on funding the majority of a $319million improvement project for the Seattle–Tacoma corridor. A new, 40-year agreement was signed with BNSF in April 2000 for the railroad to operate the commuter rail system with its crews for an annual cost of $4million in 2000 dollars (equivalent to $ in dollars).

Sounder trains on the South Line (now the S Line) began service on September 18, 2000, with two round trips from Tacoma to Seattle with intermediate stops at Sumner and Auburn stations. An estimated 657 people rode the morning trains, while 451 rode in the evening. The service used a temporary platform due to a dispute with Tacoma Rail, which owned the tracks leading to the intermodal Tacoma Dome Station hub; the dispute also limited the number of daily trips for trains until an agreement was signed in November 2000. Additional stations were completed and opened by March 2001 to bring the line to seven stations as originally approved in Sound Move; the platform at Tacoma Dome Station opened on September 15, 2003. The initial rollout of the 19 planned Sound Transit Express routes was completed in September 2002 with the launch of the Seattle– Woodinville and Tacoma–University District routes. The bus fleet had grown to 194 vehicles and the service had carried 15million passengers in its first three years of operation. By 2005, Sound Transit had constructed several direct access ramps between bus hubs and HOV lanes on freeways, along with a total of 10,000 stalls at park and ride lots.

Light rail planning and financial issues

In November 1999, Sound Transit selected its preferred route for the Central Link corridor between Northgate Transit Center in Seattle and Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, which included a surface section in the Rainier Valley area. The section from the University District to the airport, which had been identified as the initial segment in Sound Move, was estimated to cost $1.85billion (equivalent to $ in dollars). The figure exceeded the original budget for the project in Sound Move because of overruns attributed to new elements as well as increased land prices. Construction of the section between Northgate and the University District was contingent on receiving additional funding from the federal government, which had appropriated large grants in the 1990s but was beginning to reduce its funding for new transit projects. Earlier meetings had criticized the use of surface sections through Tukwila and the Rainier Valley, where a more expensive tunnel was rejected, due to their potential effects on displacement and travel time.

The Central Link route included a tunnel between Downtown Seattle and the University District with intermediate stations on First Hill and Capitol Hill that crossed under Portage Bay. The original budget for the tunnel was $557million (equivalent to $ in dollars), but Sound Transit's selected contractor produced a low bid that was $171million higher (equivalent to $ in dollars) than expected. The area's poor soils and other changes to the design led to a $680million increase (equivalent to $ in dollars) in the estimated cost of the project, which drew criticism from local media and elected officials. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) had previously agreed to a $500million grant (equivalent to $ in dollars) for the tunnel section based on the previous cost figures, but informed Sound Transit that major design changes would require a new agreement. The full agreement was signed by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation shortly before he left office with the rest of the Clinton administration, but it did not guarantee appropriations for the project would continue.

In January 2001, the new chair of the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation called for an audit of Sound Transit's finances to be conducted by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation before allowing for further federal grants on the light rail project. A private audit commissioned by Sound Transit determined that the agency's financial estimates had been "overly optimistic", lacked adequate contingencies, and were drawn from insufficient data. Eight different citizens' groups called for various solutions to replace or dissolve the agency; among them were a new referendum, replacement of light rail with the planned city monorail network, or a fare-free bus system endorsed by two former Washington governors. CEO Bob White resigned and was replaced by Joni Earl, previously chief operating officer; she is credited with salvaging the light rail project and restoring public trust in Sound Transit. Earl, an accountant who had little transit experience but was a city manager and deputy county executive under Drewel, sought to make the agency more transparent and produce a more realistic budget for its projects.

The inspector general's interim report, released in April 2001, criticized the FTA and Sound Transit for advancing in the grant review process without having a firm cost estimate, which had changed several times due to modifications to the preferred project. It recommended that federal funding for the project be withheld; new Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta then announced a hold on releasing funds from the federal earmark, which would not be redistributed while Sound Transit resubmitted its plans. The editorial board of ''The Seattle Times'' published a call to pull the plug on the Link light rail project, while the cost overruns drew negative comparisons to the Big Dig project in Boston. The city's other daily newspaper, the '' Post-Intelligencer'', alleged that the Sound Move budget had concealed $350million in contingency funds (equivalent to $ in dollars) to reduce the estimated cost of light rail, similar to a criminal case of securities fraud

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