Sound Transit, King County Metro brace for flood of fans as All-Star week approaches
Jul 5, 2023, 6:34 AM
(Photo from KIRO 7)
(Photo from KIRO 7)
Some of the best baseball players in the world will be in Seattle this weekend ahead of the mid-summer classic and with them thousands of baseballs superfans. The fun kicks off this weekend, culminating with the MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday. This weekend is also the beginning of a busy summer for Seattle public transit. MLB All-Star Week starts the season, and then in a few weeks, Swifties will swarm trains and buses on their way to see Taylor Swift at Lumen Field.
Visit Seattle projects over 100,000 fans will attend All-Star events across the city with Monday and Tuesday seeing sold-out crowds at T-Mobile Park. A few people we talked with, who use public transit to get around the city, said they expect to feel more like a sardine than a passenger.
“Girl, I have to have it. I have my Orca card,” said Alicia Jackson.
We caught Alicia in between a bus and a link ride at the Northgate station, something she does almost daily.
“Mainly just downtown for the city, then I come back here to go back to Lake City,” Jackson said.
Her regular ride felt a lot more cramped when she got on the train on a day the Mariners played at T-Mobile, she said.
“The door smashed my coat, the door closed on my coat. I said my coat is stuck and this lady hurried up and helped me,” Jackson said. “It’s more concerning for me when it’s just that many people.”
This weekend into next, train platforms and bus stops will be filled with baseball fans coming to Seattle for the MLB All-Star game.
“We run light rail trains at eight minutes during peak hours and 10 minutes during other times. We’re going to be running trains on the 8th, 10th, and 11th, light rail trains eight minutes all day long,” said Sound Transit Spokesperson, John Gallagher.
That’ll add one more train an hour with each car able to hold up to 200 people. That’s another trainload of around 800 people moving through the city.
Many of those people, like one woman we talked to, will be from out of town. She told us why she chose public transit over rideshares on her visit to Seattle.
“The benefit is two things. One is it’s much cheaper and secondly, it could be faster than Uber depending on what time it is,” she said.
Sound Transit encourages riders to get to the train early and pack some patience.
“Don’t stand at the center of the platform be at either end of the platform, the first and last cars tend to be less crowded,” Gallagher said.
Sounders Service trains will also run to help people get to the games from Everett and Tacoma.
Busses are running short though. King County Metro says 893 of their 1,479 bus fleet are operational. The other 586 not in use need parts or to be repaired. That shortage has led King County Metro Transit to suspend six routes and operate only 95% of scheduled services.
“Here’s my 40 right now,” said John Roos. “I’ve been waiting about 15 minutes so not too bad.”
While Sound Transit will add more trains Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday, the service hours will stay the same. That’s from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m.
