• In 2008, King County Metro Transit provided 117 routes serving Downtown Seattle Monday through Friday. Weekday services averaged 129,000 riders each way. On weekends, King County Metro had 58 routes serving Downtown, averaging 73,000 riders each way on Saturday and 51,000 on Sunday. Metro also operates a “Ride Free” zone in Downtown from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week.
  
  
• In 2008, Sound Transit ST Express buses operated 12 routes Monday through Friday serving Downtown Seattle, averaging 884 bus trips each weekday. Seven routes operate on the weekends with 452 bus trips on Saturday and 419 bus trips on Sundays and holidays. For 2008, the average ridership on the routes servicing Downtown Seattle was 29,908 on weekdays, 12,425 on Saturdays and 9,277 Sundays.
  
  
• In 2008, Community Transit (Snohomish County) operated 20 routes into Downtown Seattle with annual ridership of 2,359,600, which is almost a nine percent increase from the 2007 ridership numbers.
  

• The Monorail links Seattle Center/Uptown to Westlake Center and Downtown. It carried 1,566,762 riders in 2008.
  
  
• Amtrak operates eight daily trains through King Street Station. The Cascades route services Vancouver B.C. (2 train daily), Portland (4 trains daily) and Eugene, OR (1 train daily). The Empire Builder runs east to Chicago (1 train daily) and the Coast Starlight south to Los Angeles (1 train daily). Total ridership for fiscal year 2008 on these trains was 695,066 for the Cascades route, 317,879 for the Coast Starlight and 503,088 for the Empire Builder for a total of 1,516,033.
  
  

Sound Transit and Link Light Rail
• Sound Transit operates two Sounder commuter rail lines (Seattle-Everett with three roundtrips in the peak direction and Seattle-Tacoma with five roundtrips in the peak direction and one roundtrip in the reverse peak direction) Monday through Friday serving Downtown Seattle, for a total of 24 train trips (130 rail car trips) each weekday. Service is operated to select events on weekends. For 2008, the average ridership on Sounder commuter rail was 9,914 on commute weekdays, Saturday event service was 3,102 and Sunday event service was 4,949. The total ridership for 2008 was 2,668,623.
  


• Sound Transit’s Link light rail began operations between Downtown Seattle and SeaTac Airport in 2009. In 2010, after a full year of operation, the average weekday ridership from Downtown Seattle to Sea-Tac Airport is expected to total 26,600 riders.
  
  
• In 2009, construction began on the two stations and tunnel track that will be a part of University Link, the next phase of the light rail system. This section of the light rail system will run through 3.15 mile bored tunnels between Downtown, through Capital Hill to the University of Washington. Construction will continue over the next seven years until University Link opens for service in 2016.
  
  
• Future expansions will see light rail service to Northgate, as well as across Lake Washington to Overlake.

The accumulative result of nearly eight years of advocacy at the local and state level was realized in 2009 with the decision by the state legislature to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a deep-bored tunnel. The tunnel was selected as the preferred replacement option rather than other possible options including a new elevated structure and a surface street solution.

The bored tunnel project also includes improvements to surface streets on the waterfront, as well as north and south of Downtown, and new transit service/bus lanes that will improve access to Downtown.

Construction related to the bored-tunnel is expected to begin in 2010 and run through 2016, when the Alaskan Way Viaduct is officially slated for demolition.

• King County Water Taxi West Seattle route summer season (May – September) ridership: 203,229
  
  
• During 2008, the average daily number of ferry passengers at Seattle’s Coleman Dock was 17,041.
  
  
• During 2008, the average daily number of vehicles at Seattle’s Coleman Dock was 7,167.