Transit: The Story of Public Transportation in the Puget Sound Region

by Jim Kershner

Ever since the first streetcars rumbled through the streets of Seattle in 1884, public transportation in the Puget Sound region has been a wild roller-coaster ride, replete with scandals, triumphs, and momentous turning points. A complete rail transit system crisscrossed the region during the trolley days, only to be dismantled by 1941. After seventy years of turmoil―and traffic congestion―a new system, Sound Transit, arose in its place. The story is not just about trolleys, trains, and buses―it is also about the making and breaking of mayors and the way that Seattle, Tacoma, and Everett developed from the 1880s to today.

Genres: History, Urban Planning, Nonfiction, Cities

144 pages, Paperback

Published December 13, 2019

About the author

I am an author, historian and journalist in Spokane, Wash. My biography of civil rights attorney Carl Maxey, "Carl Maxey: A Fighting Life" was published in August 2008 by the University of Washington Press. I have been a journalist with the Spokesman-Review in Spokane since 1989. I am also a staff historian for HistoryLink.org, the Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History."

Reviews

[Jeremy Inducil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sooo cool to see a comprehensive history of the current system (and everything that came before!) that I so often take for granted. I remain a car hater

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

IF you want to know how public transit came to be in the Central Puget Sound (Everett to Seattle to Bellevue to Tacoma), this is the book for you. Kershner illustrates the efforts, the politics, the struggles and the victories to provide public transportation to the Central Puget Sound's residents from the age of streetcar and municipal transits to the tumultuous birth of King County Metro to the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel to the rise of Sound Transit thru the passage of ST3. You will definitely get an education.

[Darth JarJar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice optimistic book that has a lot of cool tidbits

Streetcar lines were built by private companies to spur development and sell houses on the end. A lot of them were poorly designed.

A company eventually became a monopoly. But with regulations.

They neglected maintenance on many lines with low profits, and had many labor disputes, so were eventually super unfavorably received by the public.

City eventually bought it after incurring debt, but overpaid (as they didn't realize how bad maintenance situation was)

People were glad to replace old unsafe trolleys with buses, and get rid of debt.

travel corridors change a lot but many are similar now vs 60s.


Back then light rail had a lot of detractors, so they were fighting tooth and nail to save what they can. Maybe that created a more urgent spirit that eventually saved soundtransit.

Vs now, everyone is a fan of light rail, so when there are cost overruns the stakes are not that high (vs in the 90s/2000s where the future of the organization was at stake).

And people don't care now that there are cost overruns (maybe bc they are used to do it) so the "cost" of preventing cost overruns is now lower. - bloated stations etc.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED THIS BOOK!

Ok, I am probably biased because I am a bus fan from way back. Basically my love of buses started when I was a small kid and my parents would take me down town on the express bus to go christmas shopping or to the space needle. I loved the transit tunnel and to this day enjoy large vehicles and find route maps interesting... how they change to meet demands, how they are planned and connect ect.

This book really helped me understand how Transit in the greater Seattle area got started and evolved (sometimes devolved) over time. I loved all the pictures, stories and maps! As a visual person I love when books show us things to help us better understand and picture things as we read.

There is a lot in this book about not only the routes themselves, but urban planning and how voting effects community spending on transit projects. It really makes you think about how far we have come and what is possible in the future. I read this book in less than a week because I could not put it down!

[Nikky Southerland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Come along and experience the highs and (many many) lows of Puget Sound transit history. You'll learn about the beginning of transit in the area (although I would have always wanted more details!), and the long, slow march towards Sound Transit.

[Meepspeeps · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated history: this focuses primarily on the political history, but included enough engineering details to hold my interest. I recommend it to local public transit geeks.