Seattle's Light Rail & Commuter Rail Network Evolution
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- čas přidán 2. 10. 2021
- From its beginning in 1962, Seattle's light rail and commuter rail network has grown to 39 stations, spanning 110 miles (177 kilometers). This animated video takes you through the timeline of when new stations were opened, forming the Sound Transit network that we know today.
🐦 Ask us questions on Twitter: / vanishingunder
☑️ Video Criteria:
- Population given is the sum of all counties and independent cities with stations in them.
- Future extensions are shown only if a construction tender has been awarded for their completion, at the time of video publication. If a construction tender has been issued for a project not included in the video, feel free to leave a comment, and we'll add it to our list to update.
- If you find an error, feel free to let us know in the comments. Please include links to any sources that will help us correct the error. Note: comments with links might take up to 24 hours to appear due to CZcams anti-spam policies.
📸 Image Credits:
- Sound Transit Special Selection - WE5_Link_2people_0609, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Atomic Taco - Own work, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Oranviri (talk) - I, the uploader, took this photo myself., Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Rebelcommander at en.wikipedia, CC BY 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Seattledude at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Jay8g using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- SounderBruce - Own work, CC BY 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Sound Transit Special Selection - SNDR_plat2_TDS0404, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Brett VA - Othello-New Holly Station SEA LinkUploaded by AlbertHerring, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
🖼 Thumbnail image: www.flickr.com/photos/davidwi...
🚋 #SoundTransit
Seattle Red Line 1 Central Link light rail
Seattle Orange Line T Tacoma Link light rail
Seattle Line N Sounder North commuter rail
Seattle Line S Sounder South commuter rail
Seattle Downtown Transit Tunnel (DSTT)
Seattle SODO Busway
Seattle Center Monorail
Hate to be a stickler but on your light rail map at minute 3:30 you have a station labeled Baker Hill when it should be Beacon Hill. Great video otherwise!
Thanks for catching that! I always appreciate corrections - there’s a lot of information to digest in the research, so I do miss things sometimes. I’ll fix it when I next update this video.
@@VanishingUnderground so in may of next year I guess. Also, for LA you never showed the Gold line split into two in late 2020/early 2021 in preparation for the regional connector. And for DC when it gets updated show boundaries between DC, MD, and VA.
Just rode the Northgate extension this morning! It’s incredible. European/Asian standard modern stations, in a dedicated subway tunnel all the way to just before Northgate. With new Siemens trains too. Seattle has got it figured it out.
Is there platform barriers?
@@mr.alexiegaming9548 from what I see online, no, but neither do most U Bahn lines in Germany.
@@alexhaowenwong6122 oh thats unfortunate. Yeah I rode on a lot of subway lines in germany before and they dont have it.
but basically all subway in asia (china, south korea, japan, etc.) have platform barriers.
@@mr.alexiegaming9548 I prefer without platform barriers so you can see/feel the train coming. Better experience for me.
@@guinessbeer true, you dont really need barriers unless if the station is really crowded
It is such a shame that we rejected the 1970 subway plan.
oh well that light rail sounder and buses have served me well whenever i need to go downtown or get to school
At least we got MARTA out of it
@@portcybertryx222 that's Georgia
@@IndustrialParrot2816 Seattle metro is subpar, it may have served YOU but that doesn’t mean it served as many people as it could’ve. 🤷🏻♂️
@@MarkRoss3rd
The money for Seattle’s subway was instead used for MARTA
the Northgate expansion literally opened yesterday. I went to all of the new stations and U District is by far the best station. it has windows and those windows play videos of people doing work, its pretty awesome. hopefully I can actually commute by light rail now.
I am so sad I wasn't there for the opening but I am very excited to see them
I’m going to be commuting to north gate soon, looking forward to using the light rail!
🚈🚆🚝
Nice video! You briefly mentioned the Rapid Ride extension at the end. Some more on that: services like the "Rapid Ride" lines through King County and "Swift" lines in Snohomish County play huge parts in covering long distance commutes where rail does not yet exist.
It's so exciting seeing Seattle's transit network expanding. While it's not much now, give it some time and it has the potential to be one of the best in North America.
It’s a wonderful system as is and is only going to get better. Whenever I go to Seattle I never rent a car! I just use buses and light rail everywhere!
yeah the line to mercer island and bellvue should be opening in either 2023 or 2024 depending on what goes on with that lawsuit
Great video! The expansion plans Sound Transit has are both exciting and ambitious, connecting Everett to Tacoma with the Link by ~2040, along with several other expansions (including to West Seattle and Issaquah). The rapid growth will certainly be exciting to see take place!
Should've also included the South Lake Union Streetcar (Trolley) to the map, which is built very similar to the Tacoma Link. Possibly even the former Waterfront Trolley line, though that was more tourist oriented.
It runs in mixed traffic, which he usually doesn’t show
You’re back! Hope you enjoyed your break, and I hope we will all enjoy your next videos to come
THIS IS GONNA BE SO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD IM SO EXCITED TWEE GWEE
Congrats on 10k subscribers Zach!
If only Seattle voters hadn't voted against a subway back in the 60's. Granted, light rail is still good and the funds for the canceled Seattle subway did help create the MARTA heavy rail in Atlanta, but I feel Seattle could benefit from a subway. They could do a mix of light and heavy rail just like what Los Angeles is currently doing.
Personally I prefer Light Rail
@@realquadmoo Heavy rail is better for denser areas, doesn't interfere with traffic, has a higher capacity via larger cars, and the fact that it is underground helps it when crossing, for example, a body of water (ex. NYC Subway).
@@gevans446 In theory yes, in practice not really. Light rail is typically much slower than heavy rail especially when built like a tram, which benefits close quarters travel. Typically those who live in suburbs have to travel much longer distance and in most instances Light Rail isn't up to the task. There are exceptions of course, Light Rail works fairly well if its done as a feeder service to a heavy rail line, and the average expected travel time is really short. In general though, Light Rail works best in dense urban environments where people travel short distances, and by not having to go down into a large station where instead you can just get on a train on the street can be a huge time saver.
@@Absolute_Zero7 You are correct about time-saving, but at the same time, light-rail still has to deal with traffic that ultimately slows them down, thus costing them time. The issue is that LA was made for traffic, and thus they have to run their light-rail on them unless they get grade separations put in.
@@gevans446 Yes but traffic isn't as much of a concern when travelling shorter distances. If anything its worse for less dense areas sonce you have to stop at way more crossing and red lights over the trip. When you have to travel 5 blocks through a downtown core, 1 or 2 red lights aren't a big deal, and will still save you time over going into a subway station.
I have some corrections and updates. I will list our rail and Stride BRT expansion plans in totality:
* 2022 - Theater District is closed and demolished and a new station is built slightly north of it that will be called Old City Hall, but remains out of service until the extension Hilltop opens
* 2023 - Commerce Street is renamed to Theater District (yea it's pretty confusing but we eventually get used to it) and T Line extended to Hilltop stopping at Old City Hall, South 4th, Stadium District, Tacoma General, 6th Avenue, Hilltop District, and St Joseph
* 2024 - 2 Line opens East Link Starter Line stopping at South Bellevue, East Main, Bellevue Downtown, Wilburton, Spring District, Belred, Overlake Village, and Redmond Technology
* 2024 - 1 Line extended to Lynnwood stopping at Shoreline South/148th, Shoreline North/185th, Mountlake Terrace, and Lynnwood City Center
* 2025 - 2 Line extended to Redmond stopping at Marymoor Village and Downtown Redmond
* 2025 - 2 Line extended across I-90 to Lynnwood stopping at Mercer Island, Judkins Park, and International District/Chinatown through Lynnwood City Center along with the 1 Line
* 2026 - 1 Line extended to Federal Way stopping at Kent/Des Moines, Star Lake, and Federal Way
* 2026 - New infill station on 1 & 2 Lines between Northgate and Shoreline South/148th called NE 130th St
* 2028 - Stride BRT launches on I-405 and SR 522
* 2031 - New infill station on 1 Line between Columbia City and Othello called Graham Street
* 2032 - 3 Line opens and stops at Alaska Junction, Avalon, Delridge, and SODO, the SODO busway is closed to buses, and they are relocated onto 4th
* 2035 - 1 Line extended to Tacoma stopping at South Federal Way, Fife, Portland Avenue, and Tacoma Dome
* 2038 - 1 Line service cut back to SODO, 3 Line extended to Everett stopping at Stadium through Lynnwood City Center, Ash Way, Mariner, SR 99/Airport Road, Southwest Everett Industrial Center, SR 526/Evergreen, and Everett Station, 2 Line extended to Mariner
* 2039 - 1 Line extended to Ballard stopping at International District/Chinatown (it skips Stadium), Midtown, Westlake, Denny, South Lake Union, Seattle Center, Smith Cove, Interbay, and Ballard
* 2040 - T Line extended to TCC stopping at Ainsworth, Sprague, Union, Stevens, Pearl, and Tacoma Community College
* 2044 - 4 Line opens stopping at South Kirkland, Wilburton, Bellevue Downtown, East Main, Richards Rd, Eastgate, Lakemont, and Issaquah
* 2045 - S Line extended south stopping at Tillicum and DuPont
And here are some corrections:
* Baker Hill isn't a station, it is Beacon Hill (I know you already know this, but I didn't want to feel like I forgot something)
* The monorail and buses called it Westlake Center until Link began operating, then the buses called it Westlake Station, and now Link just says Westlake, however to this day the monorail continues to say Westlake Center
* The legend says "Line 1, Line 2, Line T, Line N, Line S, Line G" when it should be "1 Line, 2 Line, T Line, N Line, S Line, G Line"
* It's a little odd that the only piece of our expansive RapidRide network you included was an unopened bit of the G Line in Madison Valley when we also have entire A, B, C, D, E, F, and H Lines that are open right now as well as plans for G, I, J, K, and R Lines AND 2 different streetcars in downtown Seattle. I do not have the opening dates or extra details or history of RapidRide offhand. I also wanted to mention that when the downtown tunnel was closed to buses we made 3rd Avenue bus only (downtown) and relocated the routes there. The busway is going to close when 3 Line gets there, and buses will be put onto 4th
Thanks, and I hope this helps with your update video!
you will need to update this in 6 years cause sound transit has 3 lines in construction right now
Great to see you back!!!👍🏽
I first went to the USA in Seattle from Vancouver for 3 days from melbourne in SEP 2019. So weird to see a public transport system called Sound Transit. Also funny to see so many trams connected to make one long tram and crossing a level crossings
well thats just the way transit is done here
Nice summary of our modern rail system. All I can say, and I don't think it is mentioned enough: "Thank God" that King County Metro built the Downtown Transit Tunnel (formerly known as the Metro Bus Tunnel) when it did. If the tunnel hadn't been built in the late 1980's (at under a half billion dollars), there would be no light rail system today. When Link was being built, even a mere few years later, it would have been prohibitively expensive to dig that tunnel. I have no proof of such, only a gut feeling. A surface line (impossible in any event in the very narrow and crowded downtown corridor), or even one on pilings (too disruptive) would have "killed" the project. No proof of any of this, only my perceptions. Which makes the system we now have all the more miraculous. Fun fact: the original tunnel included rail tracks in anticipation of any future line, but it was determined that those tracks would be inadequate for the light rail system-to-be, and had to be torn out and replaced with stronger, better placed trackage.
I read that they had to replace the original tracks in the bus tunnel because they were incorrectly grounded and the current flow would have damaged the infrastructure if they hadn't.
You are correct. And I remember it that the bus tunnel was controversial, the troglodytes were up in arms against it. smh
Yes finally! thank you so much, I live in the Puget sound so thanks for doing this.
I decided against venturing out for opening day. I'll ride from end to end this week. If you haven ridden to the last stop at Angle Lake. Add it as a to do. The view on a clear day is amazing. I got to know a lot of the security when I went to take am and pm pictures during the pandemic.
... ps.. love your channel. I always check before traveling for info.
Thank you for the video! I’ve been hoping to see your Seattle Transit video since last year. The Sounder Train Service is incredibly inconvenient, partly due to the tracks it’s been using belongs to BNSF and is partly used by Amtrak as well. This caused low speed, infrequent service and only operate before and after the rush hour with very limited single-direction options
Yeah the Sounder is kinda lame.
yeah shame to see whats become of the once mighty Great Northern railroad
(the great northern railroad merged with the Northern pacific and some other companies in the 1970s 80s and 90s to become BNSF)
In the later 2020s there will be two more BRTs coming to the Sea-Tac area Sound Transit's Stride and Pierce Transit's Stream. Already existing BRTs are King County Metro's Rapid Ride and Community Transit's Swift.
I really hope that you do the New York LIRR or MNR , Chicago Metro , or BART really soon! Ive been always hoping for those videos. Including this one! So 1/4 so far!
Vanishing Underground is back after a month of hiatus!
Sound Transit 2 System - 62 Miles by 2024/2025
Amazing video! Do you think you could do the philadelphia area transit sometime soon? I'd love to see that!
I’m hoping to publish it in November - I started researching it last month
SEPTA?
I see you re did your thumbnails, They look nice.
That was Super Awesome 😎
great video
Hey Vanishing Underground I was wondering if you can cover Phoenix’s light rail system
Interesting choice to not include the streetcar lines!
We have two in Tacoma and south lake, imo that's not enough but it's a work in progress
There is going to be even more EEEE I am SO excited (though its gonna take a very long time, with extensions even to issaquah)
What program do you use to make these maps Zach?
I use PowerPoint and iMovie! I’m hoping to release a tutorial on how I make my videos next week with more details
@@VanishingUnderground Please do make that video! I’ve been trying to figure out how to make those sorts of maps
@@notapplicableproductions6504 As have I, I want to make some about Australia
Don’t forget to do London and Paris.
I love sound transit
Yo, you should do Chicago. Both Metra and CTA
Bit surprised you left off the Seattle Streetcar system
I usually only include streetcar systems if they have a dedicated right-of-way or they’re included on the transit agency’s rail system map
There's a bunch of lines coming in the feature & I'm moving up there next Fall
nice new intro!
Guess who’s back..back again :)
What is the status of your BART video now?
I realized I missed a station just as I was doing the final view though, so I had to redesign the entire map to include it - which took quite a while. Aiming to publish it on October 17 if all goes well
@@VanishingUnderground What station is it?
What’s taking BART and Muni so long? Tempe streetcar has been delayed to next year so now you could do Phoenix.
I realized I missed a station just as I was doing the final view though, so I had to redesign the entire map to include it - which took quite a while. Aiming to publish it on October 17 if all goes well
@@VanishingUnderground what station was it? And also for Muni, will any street stops be shown? I doubt the streetcar and cable cars will. As far as I know there are no BRTs. And for BART is AirBART included? The next cities that can’t easily be divided up I see happening are DFW, MSP, and Portland.
When i was in seattle in 2013 i went on a tram line, is it still there?
Yes it is. There is also an additional one.
Found it.
exciting!
Are there more bus and tram routes not mentioned in the video? If not that is a very small and very new transport system for a city of 4 million people.
Yep. There are about half a dozen agencies in the region that provide heavily used bus service to different parts of the region. The largest of these, King County Metro, not far short of half a million riders per day.
As far as a rail network though, I think it’s fair to say Seattle is underdeveloped, especially with Portlands more sprawling network for comparison. I think this is partly due to geography and partly due to a lack of political will in the past, from leaders and voters alike.
Try Doing Dallas And Minneapolis Next!
You forgot the 2 streetcar lines. First Hill and South Lake Union.
Could you do a video for Connecticut?
Instead of putting all the pictures at the start and end, I think it would help to give context to the changes in the network by inserting relevant photos. Having nothing but the map for an extended period of time can get a bit monotonous. Keep up the good work though!
Love what seattle is doing its booming putting other cities on notice
hey, can you please do the evolution of the bay area rapid transit? thanks
HE LIVES!!!!!!!
I'm disappointed that you do not include streetcar lines. I consider the First Hill and South Lake Union lines to be an integral part of the system. There is a former line that ran along the waterfront that also may be revived. And I believe there are long term plans to extend the Line 1 light rail all the way to Tacoma, where it will connect with Line T.
Wow
The fact that Seattle doesn’t have a subway system is so depressing.
Maybe but a subway isn’t entirely necessary with what has been built. Link has already adopted almost all rapid transit characteristics and features similar capacities to what a similar city would desire. Not to mention the Local transit which plays its cards better than almost any other city on earth
Can you do Phoenix next? Since they’re finally adding more trains!!
I’m waiting on the Tempe streetcar to open before I publish it, but the video’s basically finished (minus the Tempe streetcar opening date)
@@VanishingUnderground It’s been delayed, not opening until an unspecified date in spring 2022.
New Intro :)
i wish houston tx have more light rail. traffic is so bad
Hey can you do Minneapolis please I want to have the history on this system while metro transit was founded in 1967 what’s my real wasn’t made until 2004 and are used to be an old streetcar line until 1954 I am so smart on history
This city's transit infrastructure historically has been a huge embarassment, especially considering the commuter rail runs only a few times a day.
Could you do DFW?
Will New York be done?
Please do Philadelphia!!
Most likely in November
@@VanishingUnderground Okay, and please don't forget PATCO, the RiverLINE, the Atlantic City Line, the NHSL, & the 101/102 trolleys which run on a lot of dedicated ROW as well as the subway surface ones. The 15 probably doesn't count as it is basically a bus on rails, and the subway surface lines are basically buses on rails once they get out of the tunnels.
4 million people? So you’re saying that Seattle is 50% bigger than Toronto?
The metro area…
@@guinessbeer Well then Toronto’s metro area is 6 million, not the 2.5 million in the video.
I usually align the population to the transit service area. For the US, I sum up the counties with stations shown on my map, and for Canada I do the same with municipalities.
@@VanishingUnderground Got it. Surprised that Seattle’s system serves the entire metro population. But if it does, good on them. Looking forward to your video on Minneapolis. With Green, Blue and Red lines, A and C lines and Northstar commuter rail, those lines serve 3 million of the 3.7M metro population. Oh and upcoming Orange Line.
This guy is very adhoc in how he calculates population. Even if a system doesn’t serve an area it doesn’t make it not part of the urban population of that city.
What was objectionable about the name Red Line?
Redlining, it's stupid I know.
But in my opinion the green/blue color scheme fits Seattle better then the red/blue color scheme anyways.
@@analienmango8756 Had to Google redlining. We don't have it in the UK!
Unfortunately, a lot of the city had and still dose in some form struggle from the effects that Seattle’s redlining caused, many of which are covered by the 1 line(former red line), so they decided it would be best to switch to Green and Blue(which fit the system branding much better) and switch to numbering the lines
Nothing is wrong with the red line name per say. This is just an example of whacky ultra-liberals doing what they do best, getting offended by anything and everything.
The problem with the name is the line extended through neighborhoods we could not buy property in, even though we lived in these neighborhoods. There were also a few gated communities within those neighborhoods. While some may feel some kind of way about the reason for the name change, just remember it is our (my) lived experience. As a child we weren't aware of the struggles of our elders that Jews, blacks, Asians and others could not buy property in Seattle Central District which is where most lived. Let alone buy a house in mostly white north Seattle. Just something to keep in mind. It's actually the history for those of us that still live in the community and never left.
As As a Seattle native I've never driven or owned a car. Public transportation has been my go to. I love that progress is finally being made. I remember as a kid the no vote and thinking how short sighted it was.
RapidRide bus routes are colored red.
True. Although they are labeled by letters instead (A, B, C, D, E and F lines).
I am from Seattle.
Where is BART/MUNI Episode?
I realized I missed a station just as I was doing the final view though, so I had to redesign the entire map to include it - which took quite a while. Aiming to publish it on October 17 if all goes well
@@VanishingUnderground Thanks for letting me know
Where's the Philadelphia one at
Hopefully in November
What's next?
WATERFRONT STREETCAR
Would love to go to Seattle as long as Antifa isn't doing crazy shit there
link is too long and getting longer. need skip stop express service with same or better frequency per stop. this would dramatically cut north-south travel times from more distant stops. PLEASE!
I don’t think the line has rails for passing, or enough train sets for that, plus which stations would you skip? They all seem equally busy, at least north of downtown.
@@Awestom 1.) buy right of way and build passing lanes. Or get creative and build on top for the already elevated sections 2.) skips would depend on ridership and time of day. But the way the ST board seems to be working lately these are pipe dreams.
Tacoma low-key got it better than Seattle
I'm not surprised that people in Seattle were upset with colors.
IKR, they violently occupy a big chunk of their city to saying they value people of color, yet they get their panties in a wad because red hurts their feelings.🙄
@@parkersackewitz6266 Do some fucking research on some “Redlining” real quick.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining
And that’s why we don’t use Red.
Green does fit much better than red would have though
I would have preferred letters
I’m sure this is a good system, but it just looks disorderly. And they don’t have a subway. How does Vancouver have a subway but Seattle doesn’t that’s weird.
I mean what is a subway. Link is "light rail" but has substantial amounts of tunnelling and grade seperation.
Vancouver Skytrain is substantially elevated.
I'm splitting hairs, Link has some grade crossings (especially in Rainier Valley) and I am pretty sure Vancouver's system has no at grade crossings, which I would argue makes it more of what people consider to be a subway, but I think you could call Seattle's system a subway and not be too crazy.
Honorable mention: Skytrain is an automated system, which is a big plus for Vancouver over Seattle for sure, allows for higher frequencies and lower operating costs.
yesbut northgate has opened now add that please
He did…
I live in Seattle and I am not a big fan of light rail. It is 20th century technology being built in the 21st century. Also it is a $54 billion dollar project. It is probably way over budget and many years behind schedule. Oh and light rail also makes our Car Tabs incredibly expensive. Mine where over $400 dollars this year. By the time this whole project is complete it will become a useless piece of junk because we will have flying cars and other better modes of transportation.
Dude. Cars are 20th century technology.
What would you prefer instead of light rail? Monorail? Because flying cars will never happen.
@@darthmaul216 Not OP, want trains, not expecting flying cars, but I do kinda wish Link was automated and fully grade separated. Of course that would mean it would have been more expensive and probably would not have been built in the first place.