Seattle's Light Rail & Commuter Rail Network Evolution 

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!

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.

It is such a shame that we rejected the 1970 subway plan.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

you will need to update this in 6 years cause sound transit has 3 lines in construction right now

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.

You’re back! Hope you enjoyed your break, and I hope we will all enjoy your next videos to come

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!

Great to see you back!!!👍🏽

Congrats on 10k subscribers Zach!

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.

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 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

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

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!

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.

That was Super Awesome 😎

nice new intro!

Sound Transit 2 System - 62 Miles by 2024/2025

I see you re did your thumbnails, They look nice.

great video

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)

Interesting choice to not include the streetcar lines!

Hey Vanishing Underground I was wondering if you can cover Phoenix’s light rail system

Amazing video! Do you think you could do the philadelphia area transit sometime soon? I'd love to see that!

Yo, you should do Chicago. Both Metra and CTA

There's a bunch of lines coming in the feature & I'm moving up there next Fall

Guess who’s back..back again :)

What program do you use to make these maps Zach?

exciting!

I love sound transit

You forgot the 2 streetcar lines. First Hill and South Lake Union.

Try Doing Dallas And Minneapolis Next!

Love what seattle is doing its booming putting other cities on notice

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!

Bit surprised you left off the Seattle Streetcar system

What’s taking BART and Muni so long? Tempe streetcar has been delayed to next year so now you could do Phoenix.

Could you do a video for Connecticut?

hey, can you please do the evolution of the bay area rapid transit? thanks

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.

HE LIVES!!!!!!!

What is the status of your BART video now?

When i was in seattle in 2013 i went on a tram line, is it still there?

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.

The fact that Seattle doesn’t have a subway system is so depressing.

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.

i wish houston tx have more light rail. traffic is so bad

Can you do Phoenix next? Since they’re finally adding more trains!!

Wow

New Intro :)

Will New York be done?

4 million people? So you’re saying that Seattle is 50% bigger than Toronto?

What was objectionable about the name Red Line?

Could you do DFW?

What's next?

Where is BART/MUNI Episode?

I am from Seattle.

Where's the Philadelphia one at

Please do Philadelphia!!

RapidRide bus routes are colored red.

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!

WATERFRONT STREETCAR

Seattle doesn't have 4 Million people. 4 Million people is the size of LA. the Seattle metropolitan area has 4 million but Seattle alone has 800K

Would love to go to Seattle as long as Antifa isn't doing crazy shit there

Tacoma low-key got it better than Seattle

yesbut northgate has opened now add that please

I'm not surprised that people in Seattle were upset with colors.

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 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.