Slight correction: Seattle had the highest ridership per mile in Q1 2024. In Q4 2024, that honor went to the MBTA Green Line. But Seattle still regularly brings in high ridership on the 1 Line!

I visited Seattle on business, and my employer told me, in essence, "watch out, don't use public transit". But on my way out of town, I did anyways, and found it to be exactly what I needed to get to the airport, and $3 instead of around $50.

Atlanta thanks Seattle for MARTA. A HRT system in a Sunbelt city would never get built today.

here's food for thought...in the early 2000s, Seattle voted for a full blown monorail system THAT PASSED. But the organization that ran it was mismanaged and corrupt, and the public voted to disband it. We all paid tons of license tabs taxes just for the city to disband it.

It’s worth noting that Link is one of the few US urban rail systems to surpass its pre-pandemic ridership. Probably has to do with multiple new extensions opening in recent years

Seattle accidentally created a solid metro system because the city council wanted people to easily go from the airport to downtown and back. However, locals just used it to not walk as much, so plans shifted into the current system.

FUN FACT: Seattle's monorail is what inspired Conan O'Brien to write the "Simpsons" episode 'Marge vs the Monorail.'

“Hey Seattle, want a metro?”
“No”
“…You sure?”
“Yep”
“…what are you doing?”
“Regional rail with trams”

It's crazy how much Seattle has changed and evolved in just 10 years. I remember being a kid and teenager and always dreading driving in or through Seattle (even as a passenger) and having to walk around in it at times. Now I'm 26 and it barely resembles what it was back then
The Light Rail is a blessing with much more to come, the city's renovation (specifically around the pier) and tunnels makes it so much better to drive around in, and even the city itself is so much more walkable now compared to 10 years ago.
Of course the city still has its problems, like the bad drug and homeless people problem that they're dropping the ball on, but work in progress

I am a chief in the Link control center. Thanks for showing our rail system. (I have not been north of Northgate yet, but i run it.) I trust you will be getting the downtown Redmond segment next week.
Both the Federal Way and connection to the 2 line should be running in May of next year, just in time for the FIFA matches.
If you have any questions, let me know.

seeing the stations i use regularly use is so cool :3

One unique thing about Seattle's S700s is that they have a distinct propulsion sound.

I still call this tunnel the “Bus Tunnel” and I know some people do as well. I really hope this name sticks around. It is much more fun than the generic “downtown transit tunnel”, especially since another tunnel is planned which will never have busses.

For the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, they got dual-mode Breda buses. So they'd operate as trolleybuses in the tunnel, but as diesel buses on the surface. Until June 2004, service in the tunnel was provided exclusively by these dual-mode buses. New hybrid electric buses were moved into the tunnel to replace the Breda fleet, as the overhead wire was replaced for light-rail. The Breda dual-mode trolleybuses were removed from the tunnel in January 2005 and would later be refurbished into electric-only trolleybuses for use on the city's trolleybus network. On its final day of trolleybus operation in the tunnel, there was a single Breda dual-mode bus. As part of accommodating Link, a stub tunnel, branching from the main tunnel, was constructed under Pine Street to allow light rail trains to stop and reverse direction (this was later used as the first segment of a Link extension to Capitol Hill and the University of Washington that opened in 2016), as well as lowering the roadway by 8 inches (or 20 cm) to allow for level boarding. Metro added strobe lights to bus mirrors, which were lowered to head height, and added warning signs. New electrical, mechanical, and emergency systems were installed, along with a new communications system connecting to a joint-operations center.

As mentioned, bus service ended in the tunnel in 2019, when Convention Place station was sold to the Washington State Convention Center for redevelopment. Closing the tunnel to buses two years earlier than the scheduled closure of 2021 (which was meant to coincide with the Northgate Link expansion).

I live in seattle and I can heavily agree with the fact that the public transit system is amazing I take it almost every day because I am a minor without a car

Wanted to mention, while Link had the highest average weekday ridership per mile in Q1 2024, in Q4 2024, it was MBTA! I think the reason MBTA didn't make the top three in Q1 2024 was because stuff was closed. MBTA had 3,904 weekday riders per mile. Link had 2,180. Muni had 2,661. KC Streetcar had 2,281. Their livery is chef's kiss! Besides the poorly insulated tracks, there was a scandal during the tunnel's construction when it was discovered in 1989 that the granite was quarried in South Africa despite a Metro Council boycott of South African goods at the time. The Verde Fontaine granite was quarried in South Africa but was cut and finished in Italy. Also, at Lynnwood City Center, worth mentioning it is a major hub for buses in Snohomish County operated by Community Transit. In 2016, prior to the completion of light-rail, more than 40 percent of Community Transit's bus routes served the transit center, with 500 total buses passing through each day. Buses arrived at Lynnwood Transit Center at an average frequency of every three minutes during peak periods. Community Transit's Swift Orange Line BRT connects the station to Edmonds College, Alderwood Mall, and Mill Creek. The network was restructured in September 2024 following the opening of the light rail station to replace express routes that had continued south to Northgate station and Downtown Seattle. They launched a ride-hailing service too, called Zip, in 2022 to serve Lynnwood with a focus on connections between the transit center and local destinations. Also as a result of Lynnwood City Center's opening, the regional Sound Transit Express system truncated its routes at Lynnwood City Center station.

The art in the Beacon Hill Tunnel is called Light Sticks by Bill Bell. As shown, it is a series of LED displays, typically showing images of playing cards, that flash for 1/30th of a second through the train windows. It's meant to be an extension of Bill Bell's The Northern Lights at Symphony station, on the station's north mezzanine, that similarly depends on persistence of vision to project subliminal images. The Northern Lights is a series of 24 embedded lights that form patterns when the eyes of viewers move rapidly from side to side. The patterns include images related to transportation and finance, including trolleys, airplanes, coins and the dollar sign. Similarly, another cool art installation that's meant to be seen from a moving train is Masstransiscope on the NYC Subway, which was installed in an abandoned station called Myrtle Ave on the Manhattan Bridge subway tracks on the BMT Fourth Avenue Line. The artwork consists of 228 hand-painted panels that are behind a long-slit light box. The idea was that from the trains passing, the paintings would look like they're moving! It was inspired by a zoetrope!

The Capitol Hill neighborhood is named such because of James A. Moore. And no, it has no connection to the one in DC. James A. Moore was a real estate developer who platted much of the area, and he wanted the Washington state government to move the capital from Olympia to Seattle, so he named it Capitol Hill in 1901 after the neighborhood of his wife's hometown Denver. Before this, it was called Broadway Hill. The art above the platform at Capitol Hill station is called Jet Kiss by Mike Ross and was installed in 2015 before the station opened in 2016. The piece consists of two actual decommissioned US Navy A-4 Skyhawk fighter jets, which were disassembled and painted magenta and yellow. The two fighter jets were acquired from a scrapyard in Arizona, and were sent to Ross's studio in Oakland, California for disassembly and reconfiguration. The choice of magenta and yellow paint for the jets was a move to offset the city's stereotypical overcast skies. The choice of jets is a reference to the city's aviation history. Originally the concept was a dogfight, but this received backlash in the late 2000s when they were selecting artists and was changed to a non-aggressive and bird-like arrangement, in reference to the official City Bird, the Great blue heron. The A-4 Skyhawk was developed in the 1950s and were the principal light aircraft used during the Vietnam War.

I think I am suffering from 1 line north of Seattle addiction syndrome. Also, I can confirm that the 2 line trains say "This is the 2 line, to, Redmond Technology". Lol, the "Other line".

In the times I've visited Seattle so far, I love taking their light rail system all over and walking around. I've used the monorail once and the great aspect is being able to use your orca card to pay for it all, and ferries.

6:42 Felt almost like a Miles in Transit video where random people just pop out and talk.

This really is the best way to get downtown, parking downtown is incredibly expensive and frustrating.   We usually stay in SeaTac and just ride in when we go watch Mariners games.