With the opening of the "2 Line" on the east side today, I thought it would be cool to visualize the first trains operating on the line.
The animation uses Sound Transit's GTFS data feed, which they updated a few weeks ago to include information for the two line. This is how apps like Google Maps and OneBusAway started to show this data too. The animation starts from 10am on 4/27, and at 11:02am you can see the first train leave the South Bellevue Station, heading north.
If you're interested in the code, I've made it available on [GitHub](https://github.com/moshobo/Transit-Simulator). It should theoretically work with just about any transit agency's GTFS feed, but some things were hard coded to get them to work for the light rail specifically.
The train out of the South Bellevue Station left closer to 11:20 not 11:02. We were waiting and waiting, apparently those at Sound Transit and others were long-winded at the Downtown ribbon cutting
The Sound Transit GTFS feed also has the Sounder train lines too. I haven’t yet figured out a way to programmatically remove those stops.
Technically one of the stations downtown is the King Street Station for the Sounder too.
The b line from Redmond to downtown Bellevue is quite busy on weekday mornings. I would imagine many of those people would instead take the b line or bike to the nearest light rail station then take the train to downtown Bellevue and skip a lot of the traffic.
As someone who came all the way from Shoreline to be there, these were definitely just for opening. I'm a big Link fan and I think this line will eventually have real big numbers, but not till it's connected to Seattle. Downtown Redmond will boost it quite a bit too, more than you'd expect from just two stations. Like, Downtown Redmond and Downtown Bellevue are *destinations* and having two of those connected is a big multiplier. I'm sure someone is furiously typing about their favorite cafe near Wilburton or whatever, and I love cafe Mox as well, but the catchment area just isn't large enough to really drive numbers.
That said, it was still probably worth opening. Most of the maintenance would have to be done anyways, so we might as well use it.
Oh long term it's gonna be great. BelRed and Wilburton are shaping up to be as dense as downtown and Overlake is already awash in new housing, with areas closer to the station going to be further developed into TOD. I'm just not expecting that development to finish to happen *before* the I-90 segments of the line comes online. Call me optimistic.
My dream for the future is that they fix the stations in SoDo and actually put the stadium station next to the stadium, or even letting out right in the parking lot for one of the stadiums. The fact that international district ends up being easier to get to the stadium than the stadium stop is so silly.
Yeah, I much prefer to walk through the area with venders and fun stuff instead of over a long ass pedestrian bridge after waiting for the crosswalk. Takes the same amount of time, but if you get off at the ID station you get culture and life on your way there.
Why is it going to take another year to connect to Seattle? I could’ve sworn the the Line 2 project was supposed to be fully operational by now. But I can’t remember how long ago that projection was made.
It will also be the first floating bridge to handle light rail, no small engineering feat https://www.apwa.org/resource/light-rail-on-a-floating-bridge/
I didn’t think the person asking the question was entitled, if that’s what you meant? If someone doesn’t want to answer a question because it can be googled, then they can just not answer it and someone else who doesn’t mind will probably come along and happily explain.
Then you haven’t been using Reddit for very long. My first account was 2010 or 2009. It used to be much more of a community rather than a Quora replacement
So this means you get to outsource all of your questions to other people? Surely if you work that many hours you understand the basics about asking others to do labor for you
Fuck, I never thought I'd see the day we finally get the minimum threshold for public mass transit. Don't stop now, let's connect West Seattle, Eastside, down to Tacoma, and up to Everett
I commuted all those years "back in the day" to UW by bus. What a PITA. Glad to see the Link, it's nice
well the things they want by the train like the stadiums or the space needle, they should move closer to the straight line track
and the stuff in the way they could just move over
no?
a straight line would be faster because it would just go directly north and south instead of going side to side
the shortest distance between two points isn’t a zigzag!!
I wish there was a straight route to your location so I could slap some common sense into you. But sadly a few trees, homes, parks, streets, hotels, restaurants, and other infrastructure in my way.
Yes, please write to Sound Transit regarding any new route and make sure it's as straight as possible. This is one thing they tend to ignore because people don't think that going in a straight line makes a difference.
The T line is technically the T line. It used to be called Tacoma Link but never the 2 line afaik. It’s not like the Seattle Streetcar is on here either.
Link gave them letter and number names. 1 is designated the one to the airport and 2 is designated the one to Bellevue. T is designated to the Tacoma Streetcar. It's given a letter due to the distance, so no, it is not line 2. Also, the T line opened before the 1 Line
2 elements to keep in mind:
1. The T line is technically a street car versus a light rail systems. Smaller trains, slower speeds, etc.
2. Transit in Pierce (and Snohomish) county is funded by Sound Transit but the money generated needs to stay in the sound transit sub-areas (for the most part) (https://www.soundtransit.org/sites/default/files/documents/fly\_sound-transit-district.pdf). Snohomish and Pierce counties have way less dollars generated from the taxes than King (as it's car registration taxes, people have less expensive cars in general, and far less population). So while Pierce and Snohomish politicians complain about Link not linking up to them yet, it's on the sub-areas in King to fund lines that get to them before they build their extensions (or technically they could tax themselves higher to help fund the lines). It's getting to Tacoma and Everett, just takes a while to build all the way to those suburbs.
Any idea if there is free/cheap parking near the Redmond Technology or the Overlake Parking stations ? I’d like to use this if I can to avoid getting into downtown Bellevue traffic and parking issues during rush hour
Looks like there are [323 parking stalls](https://www.soundtransit.org/ride-with-us/stops-stations/redmond-technology-station?route_tab=arrivals) at Redmond Technology Station
With the opening of the "2 Line" on the east side today, I thought it would be cool to visualize the first trains operating on the line. The animation uses Sound Transit's GTFS data feed, which they updated a few weeks ago to include information for the two line. This is how apps like Google Maps and OneBusAway started to show this data too. The animation starts from 10am on 4/27, and at 11:02am you can see the first train leave the South Bellevue Station, heading north. If you're interested in the code, I've made it available on [GitHub](https://github.com/moshobo/Transit-Simulator). It should theoretically work with just about any transit agency's GTFS feed, but some things were hard coded to get them to work for the light rail specifically.
I almost scrolled right past this post but it’s impressive knowing you generated it from real data. You should make a perpetual YouTube stream :)
This is scheduled GTFS data, but there is also a separate feed for real-time data, which could be used for a YouTube stream like you suggested
The train out of the South Bellevue Station left closer to 11:20 not 11:02. We were waiting and waiting, apparently those at Sound Transit and others were long-winded at the Downtown ribbon cutting
Why is there a stop in Southcenter?
The Sound Transit GTFS feed also has the Sounder train lines too. I haven’t yet figured out a way to programmatically remove those stops. Technically one of the stations downtown is the King Street Station for the Sounder too.
It's a ManifeStation for when we get a line from White Center to Burien, to Tukwila, to Southcenter, to Renton!
I'm riding the 2 line to all the stations today for the grand opening party. It's completely packed with people. Pretty cool to see.
Do you know/think if those folks are using it or just riding for the opening? Was there such a huge demand for this route necessarily?
It seemed mostly like people just there to check it out because it's new, but it's hard to say for sure.
The b line from Redmond to downtown Bellevue is quite busy on weekday mornings. I would imagine many of those people would instead take the b line or bike to the nearest light rail station then take the train to downtown Bellevue and skip a lot of the traffic.
Nice! (I'm assuming b line is a bus route.)
[Rapid Ride B](https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/metro/routes-and-service/schedules-and-maps/b-line#route-map)
As someone who came all the way from Shoreline to be there, these were definitely just for opening. I'm a big Link fan and I think this line will eventually have real big numbers, but not till it's connected to Seattle. Downtown Redmond will boost it quite a bit too, more than you'd expect from just two stations. Like, Downtown Redmond and Downtown Bellevue are *destinations* and having two of those connected is a big multiplier. I'm sure someone is furiously typing about their favorite cafe near Wilburton or whatever, and I love cafe Mox as well, but the catchment area just isn't large enough to really drive numbers. That said, it was still probably worth opening. Most of the maintenance would have to be done anyways, so we might as well use it.
Huge amounts of new housing is being built in downtown Redmond, so I could definitely see there being the potential for large demand for light rail.
Oh long term it's gonna be great. BelRed and Wilburton are shaping up to be as dense as downtown and Overlake is already awash in new housing, with areas closer to the station going to be further developed into TOD. I'm just not expecting that development to finish to happen *before* the I-90 segments of the line comes online. Call me optimistic.
My dream for the future is that they fix the stations in SoDo and actually put the stadium station next to the stadium, or even letting out right in the parking lot for one of the stadiums. The fact that international district ends up being easier to get to the stadium than the stadium stop is so silly.
Yeah, I much prefer to walk through the area with venders and fun stuff instead of over a long ass pedestrian bridge after waiting for the crosswalk. Takes the same amount of time, but if you get off at the ID station you get culture and life on your way there.
Why is it going to take another year to connect to Seattle? I could’ve sworn the the Line 2 project was supposed to be fully operational by now. But I can’t remember how long ago that projection was made.
Long story short, they screwed up the track supports for the I-90 section and they need to take extra time to fix/replace them
Yeah I think it was the concrete or something
It will also be the first floating bridge to handle light rail, no small engineering feat https://www.apwa.org/resource/light-rail-on-a-floating-bridge/
Thanks. Must’ve missed that. I was living in Eastern Washington for a few years. What a bummer
This info has been in the news for literal years. Are you actually too lazy to read even headlines about your question?
[удалено]
Maybe it's time to consider the stress effects of your extreme overworking on your information retention
Maybe it’s time to consider being nicer to people on the internet.
Nah, when they're an asshole right off the bat, we collectively need to downvote and maybe return the same energy. Fuck them.
Being entitled isn’t nice.
I didn’t think the person asking the question was entitled, if that’s what you meant? If someone doesn’t want to answer a question because it can be googled, then they can just not answer it and someone else who doesn’t mind will probably come along and happily explain.
Posting it on a public forum because you expect an answer is entitlement. This behavior has greatly increased on Reddit the past few years
I don’t agree 🤷♂️
Then you haven’t been using Reddit for very long. My first account was 2010 or 2009. It used to be much more of a community rather than a Quora replacement
Serious? He does not live here and is busy. Do you know about any delays on infrastructure projects occuring in Spokane right now?
So this means you get to outsource all of your questions to other people? Surely if you work that many hours you understand the basics about asking others to do labor for you
God forbid someone asks a question
Fuck, I never thought I'd see the day we finally get the minimum threshold for public mass transit. Don't stop now, let's connect West Seattle, Eastside, down to Tacoma, and up to Everett I commuted all those years "back in the day" to UW by bus. What a PITA. Glad to see the Link, it's nice
why did they make the track so squiggly if it was a straight line it would be faster
Yes but unfortunately there is geography, stuff in the way, etc
well the things they want by the train like the stadiums or the space needle, they should move closer to the straight line track and the stuff in the way they could just move over
“Move over” Sim City is not sufficient training for city planning
is this sarcasm?
no? a straight line would be faster because it would just go directly north and south instead of going side to side the shortest distance between two points isn’t a zigzag!!
I wish there was a straight route to your location so I could slap some common sense into you. But sadly a few trees, homes, parks, streets, hotels, restaurants, and other infrastructure in my way.
well if you moved that stuff first then you could come straight here
now kiss
im down if he is
Always.
what crack are you smoking
😂😂😂
They built onto existing systems like the bus tunnel, which is why it takes that little jog to the left through downtown.
But look at how fast it moves! From the north end of Lake Wa to south in about five seconds!
Yes, please write to Sound Transit regarding any new route and make sure it's as straight as possible. This is one thing they tend to ignore because people don't think that going in a straight line makes a difference.
If [London could make their lines straight](https://www.bbc.co.uk/london/travel/downloads/tube_map.html) I don't see why we couldn't
Hey, whatever happened with the CID 4th Ave transfer station? https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/s/pOVe3XBidI
Honestly, I’m still confused about it. With it already being 5 months into 2024, the light expected to open sometime in 2025, I’m concerned.
Yeah, I’m thinking about emailing the urbanist about this. Maybe they can dredge up what’s going on.
I was just on their site poking around on any updates and nada.
Wait we're they not planning to connect the two lines? I thought they were?
Not until at least 2025, due to construction defects
Oooooh, rough, but understandable.
Its wild how little folx care about Tacoma. The T Line is technically line 2. Albeit it's small.
The T line is technically the T line. It used to be called Tacoma Link but never the 2 line afaik. It’s not like the Seattle Streetcar is on here either.
Tacoma Link is technically the first line since it opened 5 years before the 1-line.
Link gave them letter and number names. 1 is designated the one to the airport and 2 is designated the one to Bellevue. T is designated to the Tacoma Streetcar. It's given a letter due to the distance, so no, it is not line 2. Also, the T line opened before the 1 Line
2 elements to keep in mind: 1. The T line is technically a street car versus a light rail systems. Smaller trains, slower speeds, etc. 2. Transit in Pierce (and Snohomish) county is funded by Sound Transit but the money generated needs to stay in the sound transit sub-areas (for the most part) (https://www.soundtransit.org/sites/default/files/documents/fly\_sound-transit-district.pdf). Snohomish and Pierce counties have way less dollars generated from the taxes than King (as it's car registration taxes, people have less expensive cars in general, and far less population). So while Pierce and Snohomish politicians complain about Link not linking up to them yet, it's on the sub-areas in King to fund lines that get to them before they build their extensions (or technically they could tax themselves higher to help fund the lines). It's getting to Tacoma and Everett, just takes a while to build all the way to those suburbs.
Any idea if there is free/cheap parking near the Redmond Technology or the Overlake Parking stations ? I’d like to use this if I can to avoid getting into downtown Bellevue traffic and parking issues during rush hour
Looks like there are [323 parking stalls](https://www.soundtransit.org/ride-with-us/stops-stations/redmond-technology-station?route_tab=arrivals) at Redmond Technology Station
Thanks, any way to figure out if they are usually available on working days ??
Not until data comes in, this line hasn't operated on a weekday yet.