page_title: Trolleybuses in Seattle
section_title: Garages
hierarchical_section_title: Trolleybuses in Seattle / Operations / Garages
caption_attribution_description: The former Jefferson Base (garage) of Seattle's Metro Transit (part of the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle at the time, not of King County) viewed from across the intersection of 14th Avenue and Jefferson Street on June 3, 1982, its next-to-last day of operation for scheduled service. The operating fleet was moved to Atlantic Base at the end of the day on June 4, 1982, and all vehicle runs that had been based at Jefferson began operating out of Atlantic starting on June 5. In this photo, the vehicles parked in front of the elderly building were mostly AM General trolleybuses. Metro's 109 trolleybuses of that make entered service in stages between September 1979 and May 1981, so they operated out of Jefferson Base for less than three years. The site is now occupied by Championship Field, of Seattle University.
context_page_description: The Seattle trolleybus system forms part of the public transportation network in the city of Seattle, Washington, operated by King County Metro. Originally opened on April 28, 1940, the network consists of 15 routes, with 174 trolleybuses operating on 68 miles of two-way overhead wires. As of spring 2016, the system carries riders on an average of 73,200 trips per weekday, comprising about 18 percent of King County Metro’s total daily ridership. At present in Seattle, a very common alternative term for trolleybus is trolley.
  Of the five trolleybus systems currently operating in the U.S., the Seattle system is the second largest, after the San Francisco system.
context_section_description: Seattle's trolleybus fleet is operated out of Atlantic Base in SoDo, one of seven bus garages (known locally as bases) owned by the agency. Atlantic Base was completed in early 1941 and was built specifically to house and maintain trolleybuses.
  The system originally had two garages, called "stations" by Seattle Transit. Jefferson Station, a former streetcar barn built in 1910 or 1907 and located in Seattle's Central District, opened for trolleybuses in 1940.  Atlantic Station, at the same location as today's Atlantic Base, opened in 1941. Following service reductions in 1963 and 1970, Jefferson garage was closed in July 1970, except for use by overhead line maintenance crews and for vehicle storage.  All trolleybuses were then operated out of Atlantic garage until 1974, when they moved to Jefferson Base.
  When the system reopened in 1979 after its almost-two-years shutdown for rebuilding, Jefferson Base remained Metro's sole trolleybus garage, but a move back to Atlantic was planned.  In 1981–1982, the old maintenance building and wash building at Atlantic Base, which by this time had been renamed Central Base, were replaced by new buildings, and the entire facility was reequipped with overhead trolley wires, in preparation for its reactivation for trolleybuses. On June 5, 1982, it replaced Jefferson Base as the sole trolleybus garage. Jefferson Base was then decommissioned, and eventually it was razed to make way for athletic fields for nearby Seattle University. Central Base's name was later changed back to Atlantic.
caption: The former Jefferson Base two days before its closure, in 1982
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