Since Friday morning, Link light rail has been shut down between Capitol Hill and SoDo for maintenance work, and the replacement shuttle service hasn’t always been running smoothly. Riders have reported crowding and confusion, and Sound Transit has pledged to step up rider alerts and communication efforts.
Sound Transit is using a mix of King County Metro buses and privately contracted Bellair buses, and since the latter aren’t well marked, some riders haven’t realized they were available and intended as replacement buses. Sound Transit CEO Julie Timm took a shuttle test ride on Friday evening from International District/Chinatown (CID) Station and admitted that the private shuttles could be overlooked.
“Was at CID Station to catch the Northgate Shuttle and to check out [operations] in real time and on site,” Timm said in a tweet. “Bus was too packed to get on. Had to wait for a couple. The supporting Bel Air charter buses are hard to identify as Link. If you need to ride, consider @KingCountyMetro this weekend!”
Sound Transit spokesperson Rachelle Cunningham said better signage on buses is on the way, but she pointed to the regionwide (and nationwide) bus driver shortage as limiting what the agency could do to ramp up replacement shuttle frequency.
“We are increasing communications, and monitoring for adjustments we can make, including improving signs on buses and adding announcements,” Cunningham said in an email. “But due to the operator shortage, we are not able to add any more buses.”
As The Urbanist covered Thursday, the disruption has been caused by Sound Transit’s need to conduct maintenance work in the tunnel downtown to replace overhead catenary wire system and continue work to prepare for the opening of East Link, which is expected in 2024 following construction delays. At that point, both the 1 Line and 2 Line (East Link) will operate in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel.
While most local media outlets mentioned the the closure, as did the agency on its social media and in emails to those signed up for rider alerts, not all riders had caught the news or considered switching their transit routine to Metro bus service instead, which contributed to the crowding. Sound Transit does maintain a page showing transit detour options for each station. The agency’s press release on the Friday-to-Monday closure went out midday Wednesday, which meant riders mostly had a day and a half to see an alert about it. A Sound Transit Platform blogpost did go out on November 1, noting the November 11 to 13 closure, but didn’t include many details.
