University of Washington approves plan for light-rail link SmartBrief, DC - Nov 26, 2008 The underground station, dubbed University Link, is expected to be completed by 2016 and add more than 70000 riders to Sound Transit's system each day. ...

“When the facts change,” John Maynard Keynes once said, “I change my mind. What do you do?” If you are a government agency like Denver’s Regional Transit District (RTD), you simply ignore the new facts. That’s because your plans are based on a delicate political compromise, not on a realistic assessment of those facts. The [...]

The carbon cost of building and operating light rail

Rail mass transit is supposed to be good for the environment. But a leading critic of Sound Transit's Link light rail project offers metrics that suggest the environmental costs are much higher than those of more vanpools, more carpools, more buses, and, particularly, more bicycling.
By Emory Bundy

Excavating a six-mile, twin-bore tunnel and hauling away the rocks and muck is like digging a huge hole and pouring money in it. The lesson has been confirmed by the Beacon Hill tunnel, an experience so sobering that it prompted Sound Transit, which is ...

Toll-booth-free tolling on SR 520 and I-90

As early as 2010, the east-west transportation corridor could see a return to the pay-as-you-go model, done without the slowdown of a toll booth.

By Matt Rosenberg
November 18, 2008.

The State Route 520 Tolling Implementation Committee's "November Scenario Evaluation" document (pdf) released last week shows that the most robust regional financing for replacing the dangerously sub-par 520 bridge comes from time-variable tolling starting in 2010 and tolling the parallel I-90 span across Lake Washington, starting in 2010 or 2016. Tolling in this key east-west corridor would be done on the fly, electronically, with vehicle ...

Off-peak fares for adults will rise to $1.75 in a couple months, then to $2 in 2010.

Here's the news release from the King County Council

Council finds savings in Metro budget
that enable delay of half of bus fare increase

$43.7 million in savings help push back second half of Executive-proposed 50-cent fare increase by one year while maintaining current levels of bus service

With record numbers of new bus riders coinciding with plunging revenues to support public transit, the Metropolitan King County Council today unanimously adopted a two-step fare increase that protects current levels of ...

New Vancouver mayor, Eh? Seattle Post Intelligencer - 15 hours ago (A warning to future Sound Transit riders: Impossible-to-understand fare boxes are a feature of rail systems from Denver to San Diego to Vancouver. ...

Sound Transit sale-leaseback could suffer in credit crunch Bizjournals.com, NC - Nov 14, 2008 Almost half of the vehicles in the Sounder commuter rail fleet of locomotives and rail cars aren’t owned by Sound Transit. And that could end up costing the ...

The state Department of Transportation is reminding folks who live along state highways that they have until Saturday to remove campaign signs.

"Under the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 468-66, temporary
political signs are allowed on private property; and no fee or permit is required," said the statement from DOT. "The signs must meet the following requirements: Temporary political campaign signs are limited to a maximum size of 32 square feet in area; Temporary political campaign signs must be removed within 10 days following the election."

No signs are allowed on freeway and highway right of way.

Most local ordinances ...