page_title: Transportation in Seattle
section_title: Mass transit
hierarchical_section_title: Transportation in Seattle / Mass transit
caption_attribution_description: ST Express and King County Metro
context_page_description: Transportation in Seattle is largely focused on the automobile like many other cities in western North America; however the city is just old enough for its layout to reflect the age when railways and trolleys predominated. These older modes of transportation were made for a relatively well-defined downtown area and strong neighborhoods at the end of several former streetcar lines, now mostly bus lines.
  Due to Seattle's isthmus-like geography and the concentration of jobs within the city, much of the flow of transportation in the metropolitan area is through the city proper. North-south transportation is highly dependent on the Interstate 5 corridor, which connects the Puget Sound area with southwest Washington cities and the Portland metropolitan area, as well as cities to the north such as Bellingham and Vancouver, Canada. I-5 continues as British Columbia Highway 99 at the U.S.-Canada border's Peace Arch crossing, between Blaine and Surrey. State Route 99 is also a major arterial in the western half of the city; it included the now defunct Alaskan Way Viaduct along the Seattle waterfront.
context_section_description: Two public transportation agencies serve the city of Seattle: King County Metro Transit and Sound Transit.  Snohomish County's Community Transit also runs bus routes to Downtown Seattle and the University of Washington.  Sound Transit is the regional transit authority, commissioned by voters in 1996 to build a system of light rail, express buses, and commuter rail within the Central Puget Sound area. The agency provides a number of regional express bus routes connecting Seattle with neighboring suburbs and cities.  Its Sounder commuter rail system consists of two lines, linking Seattle with Tacoma along its Southern run and Seattle with Everett along its Northern run.  Several stations in intermediate cities along the lines are also served. The light rail system, called Link Light Rail, includes the initial 15.7-mile (25.3 km) Central Link from downtown Seattle to Sea-Tac Airport, which began service in 2009. A 3.15-mile (5.07 km) extension to the University of Washington called University Link began service in 2016.  Future extensions approved by voters in 2008 are planned to connect the University of Washington to Northgate, Lynnwood and other areas to the north; east across Lake Washington to Bellevue and Redmond; and south to Federal Way. The Sound Transit 3 ballot measure, passed in 2016, will further expand the system both regionally and within the city, with service to Tacoma, Everett, Issaquah, south Kirkland, and to the neighborhoods Ballard and West Seattle.
  The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel is a 1.3-mile tunnel under downtown built in 1987 to relieve bus congestion along surface streets. The tunnel was retrofitted from 2005 to 2007 to accommodate light rail, and in 2009, Link light rail trains began serving tunnel stations as part of the initial Central Link segment. All tunnel bus routes were rerouted to surface streets in 2019 to make way for the demolition of Convention Place Station, making the tunnel an exclusive subway for Link trains within the city core. Above the tunnel, 3rd Avenue through downtown serves as a major bus arterial, with access restricted to buses only during peak commuting hours.
  The city is currently in the process of expanding a modern streetcar network. In December 2007, the city inaugurated its South Lake Union Streetcar line between Westlake Center and stops in the South Lake Union neighborhood.  In 2009, the Seattle city council approved a second line, the First Hill Streetcar, to connect First Hill to Link light rail at Capitol Hill and International District/Chinatown stations. The line began service in 2016 after two years of delays.  Metro Transit also operated a historic Waterfront Streetcar line that ran along Alaskan Way, but the streetcar's maintenance barn was demolished to make room for the Olympic Sculpture Park, resulting in the subsequent closure of the line. King County Metro now operates a replacement bus line that mirrors the route. The proposed City Center Connector project would connect the South Lake Union and First Hill streetcars into a single line with a routing along 1st Avenue in Downtown Seattle.
  In 2009, the ORCA Card was introduced as a new way for fare payment between the seven transit agencies in the Puget Sound region.  The card uses RFID technology to handle payment from either passes, vouchers, or the E-purse, a stored value debit account. ORCA's precursor, PugetPass, will be retained as one of the several passes that can be loaded automatically onto the card.  The system also calculates transfers for a two-hour window for those paying with the E-purse.
  The Seattle Center Monorail, constructed for the Century 21 Exposition, runs approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) between Seattle Center in Lower Queen Anne and Westlake Center in Downtown.
  Metro Transit offers a trip planner on its web site that provides information for public transit in Seattle and surrounding areas (King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties), including Sound Transit's Regional Express bus routes, Sounder commuter rail, Washington State Ferries, and the Seattle Center Monorail.  Riders enter
caption: Seattle public buses at a base. Buses with the green-and-yellow livery and blue-and-yellow livery are King County Metro buses; the bus with the white-and-blue livery is a Sound Transit bus.
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