Transit

Focused on transit and street upgrades, budget amendments this week will be the subject of behind-the-scenes wrangling as Budget Committee Chair Dan Strauss assembles an initial balancing package for the council to debate next week.

Before moving ahead with building a second Downtown Seattle light rail tunnel as planned, Sound Transit is taking a second look at putting a third line in the existing tunnel instead. Doing so would entail some major tradeoffs, which the agency intends to fully lay out in its study.

The new transit pathway along Harrison and Mercer Streets is intended to provide another option for buses to serve South Lake Union, in line with plans for a Ballard Link light rail station in the neighborhood. But with transit advocates and officials focused on Denny Way, it's not clear when the upgrades would actually be put to use.

Seoul consists of a very densely populated region in South Korea with more than 26 million people -- about half the country's total population....

Flanked by a crowd of transit advocates, Seattle Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck announced a "Better Bus Lanes" campaign on Wednesday, demanding expanded and improved bus lanes on the city's busiest routes. The press event took place at the site of a recent victory by bus advocates: a new bus lane for Route 2 on Union Street.

King County Metro has slashed the budgets for the K and R Lines by 20% to 25%, which could scale back planned reliability improvements and rider amenities. The move raises serious questions about the future of the overall RapidRide program.

The idea of a fare-free pilot on several Metro routes, to be implemented in 2027, came about as fares have shrunk as a percentage of Metro's overall sources of revenue. But the data suggests that dropping fares wouldn't be as big of a boon as continuing to focus on expanding transit service.

After pivoting away from an aggressive schedule for battery-bus adoption, King County Metro plans to focus attention on the tried-and-true trolley network. But limited staff, delays obtaining materials and permit timelines mean that trolley expansions will be some time coming.