Transit Master Plan

March 2013

What is the Transit Master Plan?

The Seattle Department of Transportation has developed the city’s next generation Transit Master Plan (TMP). The TMP is a comprehensive and 20-year look ahead to the type of transit system that will be required to meet Seattle’s transit needs through 2030. Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, nationally acclaimed experts in transit planning, assisted SDOT in developing the TMP.

The Transit Master Plan is an extensive update to the 2005 Seattle Transit Plan, which identified key corridors linking urban villages and established performance standards for transit service. The TMP  expanded on that work and included evaluation of rail modes, rapid bus services, station design, and capital infrastructure.

The Transit Master Plan addressed many critical issues:

• Identification of  the city’s most important transit corridors that carry high ridership today, as well as potential new ridership markets that will emerge as Seattle grows in jobs and new residents
• Selection of  transit modes —such as bus rapid transit, light rail, or street car—that would work best on those corridors
• Integration of  transit capital facilities and services with walking and biking infrastructure, and using transit to make great places
• Enhancement of bus transit performance through roadway investments such as bus bulbs and traffic signal priority
• Coordination with Metro and Sound Transit to create a seamless, fully integrated, and user friendly network of transit services

TMP planning process

The first phase of the Transit Master Plan was completed in February 2011. As part of this work, the Briefing Book: State of Transit in Seattle, was published in December of 2010. This phase also identified a framework for identifying and prioritizing corridors for future investment. This second phase of work, encompassed in the TMP Final Summary Report, was adopted by the City Council with the Mayor’s concurrence on April 16, 2012.

Please use the menu to the left to explore the site. You may find the Priority Strategies and Benefits of Transit sections helpful summary documents. Feel free to contact us with any questions or comments.